Ukraine and the world
- Russia-Germany gas pipeline to boost Kremlin’s grip on Ukraine, Europe. “Through Nord Stream 2, Russia seeks to increase its leverage of the West while severing Ukraine from Europe,” Francis Fannon, theU.S. assistant secretary for energy resources at the State Department, told reporters in a teleconference after a trip to Eastern Europe. Fannon said Russia’s aggression in the Sea of Azov was likely to result in new sanctions against Moscow.
National News
- Tymoshenko still tops presidential ratings, with Poroshenko third. Yuliya Tymoshenko, leader of the Batkivschyna (Fatherland) party, has maintained her lead in the latest presidential ratings, with showman Volodymyr Zelensky coming second and the incumbent president Petro Poroshenko coming third. According to a new poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 27.6 percent of those polled were still undecided, 9.3 percent would not take part in the vote, and 4.7 percent would strike off all the candidates or destroy their ballot.
- Latest polls indicate Poroshenko set to lose presidential election. President Poroshenko will not be re-elected if he fails to win in the first round of the vote scheduled for March 31, 2019, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology says. According to results presented on Dec. 11, Poroshenko would lose to most of the other actual or potential front runners, including Tymoshenko, Vakarchuk, Zelensky and even former Regions Party Yuriy Boyko.
- A meeting of around 250 people from Ukrainian politics, state agencies, and civil society in Kyiv on Dec. 7 has generated interest that it marked the launch of a new civic movementand — in the long run — potentially a new political party. Preliminary reports suggested that the goal was to launch a new movement that would eventually turn into a liberal political party ready to work with whoever wins Ukraine’s March 2019 presidential election. Among the organizers were Maksym Nefyodov, Ukraine’s deputy economy minister and Kyiv City Council member Sergiy Gusovsky.
- How can the development of the regions be boosted in a country as large and as centralized as Ukraine? The answer could lie in the development of smart cities, the IT sector, and the renewable energy sector, according to the panelists of the “How to Power Regional Development” panel of the Tiger Conference, an annual event organized by the Kyiv Post that took place on Dec. 11 at InterContinental Kyiv.
Business
- Ukraine’s record grain harvest. The country harvested a record 70 million tonnes of grain in 2018, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said at a business forum on 11 Dec.
- Hr 1 trillion needed to renew Ukrzaliznytsia. Acting Board Chairman of Ukraine’s state railways operator JSC Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov told a business forum on 11 Dec. said that UAH 1 trillion is needed for its update. “Ukrzaliznytsia is the largest potential recipient of investments into the development of infrastructure and fixed assets.,” he said.
