Ukraine Digest: May 27

What we’re watching

• Thursday, May 27 at 5 p.m. Kyiv time: U.S.-Ukraine Business Council webinar with Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova. Register here.
• Thursday, May 27 at 8 p.m. Kyiv time: U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs. Understanding Authoritarianism and Kleptocracy in Russia. Watch here.
• Wednesday, June 2 at 3 a.m. Kyiv time: Ties that bind — Canada, US, and Ukraine More information here.
• Wednesday, June 16: Biden meets Putin in Geneva, will discuss Ukraine

Top news

• Biden calls sanctions against Nord Stream 2 counterproductive
• Ukrainian Eurovision act Go_A tops Spotify’s global Viral 50 chart
• Prosecutors send case against Constitutional Court head to trial 
• Dragon Capital buys Ukrainska Pravda
• US taxi service Lyft to open R&D center in Kyiv, hire techies
• The Jerusalem Post: Jewish history and Holocaust studies scholar murdered in Ukraine
• New York Post: Hunter Biden’s Ukraine salary was cut two months after Joe Biden left office
• Reuters: Ukraine decries lack of progress in joining NATO, wants to be at summit
• EU Observer: Macron says EU sanctions on Russia do not work
• Washington Post: Facebook says Russia is still the biggest player in disinformation 

Belarusian seizure of Roman Protasevich

• Bloomberg: EU may sanction Belarus’s potash industry by this summer
  Reuters: Belarus leader says detained journalist was plotting ‘bloody rebellion’
  BBC: Belarus journalist Roman Protasevich’s colleagues fear for their lives
  
  Coronavirus
• COVID-19 vaccine tracker – Financial Times and Bloomberg
• Sign-up for vaccinations in Ukraine
• Red & green zone countries
• COVID-19 in Ukraine: 3,395 new cases, 208 new deaths, 16,387 new vaccinations
• Number of coronavirus-related deaths in Ukraine exceeds 50,000

Inspecting wreckage of MH17

Presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis views the reconstructed wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, at the Gilze-Rijen military airbase, southern Netherlands, on May 26, 2021. Judges inspect the wreckage of flight MH17 as part of the criminal trial of four suspects accused in the shoot-down with a Russian missile of the commercial plane. All 298 people aboard were killed on July 17, 2014. (AFP)

Read the Kyiv Post’s coverage.

Business

27.5 = -$1

UNIAN: Ukraine’s economic recovery to begin in Q2 this year – Shmyhal

Naftogaz strengthens management team to achieve qualitative changes in interaction with stakeholders

Expert says Ukrainian real estate market on upward trend

Kyiv airport hopes to more than double passenger traffic in 2021

Ukrzaliznytsia identifies 182 non-core assets, putting 11 of them up for sale

Business Wire

In a global race for investments, Ukraine is asleep at the wheel

5 reasons to invest in apartments for business tourism in Kyiv

Host your event in the Kyiv Post studio!

Open Letter to Prime Minister from Ambassador of Canada to Ukraine

Time to liquidate Cyprus or other offshore companies?

Bankruptcy in Ukraine: key features

Opinions

Timothy Ash: Tightening the screws on Lukashenko — and Putin too

Mikheil Saakashvili: Sailors’ case proves that Zelensky was right to liquidate Vovk’s notorious court

Brian Whitmore: Did Russia assist in Belarus dictator’s act of air piracy?

Anders Åslund: Will corruption sink EU convergence?Anna Nemtsova: Putin invites Belarus plane hijacker for tea

Leonid Bershidsky: Lukashenko’s air piracy has no Western precedent

Yasmeen Serhan: The West is failing Belarus

Andrei Pertsev: Russia has crossed a new rubicon

Mathieu Boulegue: 5 key points for Biden’s Russia summit

Maryia Sadouskaya-Komlach: Time to open doors for Belarus

Halya Coynash: Donbas propaganda film goes hilariously wrong in Crimea

Halya Coynash: Odesa student imprisoned in Crimea for pro-Ukraine leaflets

Philip Stephens: Angela Merkel has dealt Europe’s authoritarian leaders a trump card