At Kyiv Security Forum, organized by Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s Open Ukraine Foundation on Wednesday, some 12 points were presented to strengthen the strategic partnership between the United States and Ukraine.
According to the document, titled “12 Points of Strategic Partnership Between the United States and Ukraine,” the arrival of President of the United States Joseph Biden and the new U.S. Administration offers an opportunity to deepen the strategic partnership and commitment between the United States and Ukraine, as well as advance the interests of both states.
“We, American and Ukrainian politicians and diplomats, former officials, experts and public figures, urge the governments of both countries to develop an ambitious and comprehensive agenda that will deepen our strategic relationship. This agenda should promote mutual interests, contribute to strengthening security and stability in Central and Eastern Europe, promote Ukraine’s further integration into the EU and NATO membership, and outline and prioritize transformative democratic reforms necessary for the full development of Ukraine’s economy and its transatlantic movement progress,” according to a statement.
The officials said in the document that mutual dedication to strengthening democratic values must always remain at the core of the U.S. and Ukrainian relations.
“This implies strengthening democracy and the rule of law, individual freedom, freedom of speech, full independence of the judiciary and anti-corruption institutions, greater transparency and accountability of government actions and open governance, independence of the media and an active civil society. Solidarity and concrete actions to promote these values are needed to strengthening mutual trust, understanding the democratic aspirations of Ukrainians and providing a common basis for cooperation between both countries,” the experts said.
They said the United States and Ukraine must act together to restore Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and contain further Russian aggression.
“This implies expanding our strategic partnership and defense cooperation and the United States seeking new opportunities to increase defense assistance in order to strengthen Ukraine’s ability to deter Russia’s offensive. This means continuing to provide lethal defense assistance and strengthening the Navy. Other areas of possible military cooperation include the development of special operations forces, anti-aircraft and coastal defense,” the officials said in the document.
Its signatories believe that the United States and Ukraine must maintain close dialogue in order to increase the Kremlin’s cost of continued Russian aggression against Ukraine. The United States should also consult closely with Europe on this issue, in particular on strengthening sanctions.
They believe that such negotiations, as well as negotiations with Russia on Ukraine, should be based on the principle “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”
“In consultations with Ukraine and its European partners, the Joseph Biden Administration should explore the possibilities of more active involvement at the highest level by the United States in the negotiation process, which is now being conducted by the German Chancellor and the French President, in order to break the situation and contribute to a real end to the conflict in Donbas , the withdrawal of all Russian and Russian-controlled forces and the restoration of Ukraine’s full sovereignty over Donbas,” the experts said in the document.
The experts also said the United States and Ukraine should also consult on the political, diplomatic and economic steps necessary to bring Crimea back to Ukraine.
“They must work together to ensure international compliance with the principle ‘Crimea is Ukraine’ and maintain the sanctions adopted against Russia for the illegal seizure of the peninsula. We welcome the efforts of the Ukrainian government to create the Crimean Platform as an initiative that will keep the issue of occupied Crimea on the international agenda of the day and remind people, including Russia, that Crimea remains Ukrainian in the eyes of the international community,” according to the document.
In addition, the signatories to the document believe that the United States and Ukraine should consult on steps to strengthen security and stability in the Black Sea region, in particular with the support of NATO and European partners.
“The United States, together with NATO allies, should continue to regularly deploy air, land and sea forces in the region where Russia, Europe, the Middle East, the Balkans and the Caucasus converge,” the experts said.
It also noted that in recent years, the United States and Ukraine have become targets of Russian political intervention, disinformation campaigns and cyber attacks.
“They should exchange their experience and share best practices in combating these and other forms of Russian hybrid warfare,” according to the recommendations.
It is stressed that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, if completed, would threaten Euro-Atlantic unity and deprive Ukraine of significant transit revenues.
“The United States and Ukraine should consult on how to build and maintain a transatlantic position against the completion of the pipeline, as well as actions that Russia can take against Ukraine to lift the Nord Stream 2 sanctions. At the same time, Ukraine should undertake major reforms to improve energy efficiency and root out corruption in this and other sectors,” the experts said in the statement.
The experts said the United States and Ukraine must work together to advance Ukraine’s NATO integration and Kyiv’s ultimate goal of NATO membership.
“The United States must firmly adhere to NATO’s open door policy and advise Kyiv on how best to prepare for membership, as NATO leaders pledged at the Bucharest summit in 2008. Ukraine must commit to the necessary reforms and practical steps that will lead to its military and other security and defense structures are in line with NATO standards and norms,” according to the document.
It is noted that Ukraine’s membership in NATO will strengthen the North Atlantic Alliance, contribute to the historical unification of Europe and create the preconditions for the transformation of relations with Russia.
Moreover, the renewed U.S.-Ukrainian partnership is associated with the willingness of the Ukrainian authorities to quickly implement transformational democratic reforms and actively act to protect and strengthen the independence of such key institutions as the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and others.
“For a strong anti-corruption work, effective reforms of the prosecutor’s office and the judicial system are necessary. Ukraine must also make irreversible the significant reforms already achieved, in particular in the areas of the land market, privatization of state-owned enterprises, the independence of the National Bank of Ukraine, decentralization, transparency of fiscal and budgetary policies in addition to reforms in the gas sector, reforms in the public procurement system and on the transparency of assets and incomes of civil servants and parliamentarians,” the experts said in the document.
In addition, important are steps to remove the excessive influence of oligarchs, establish the rule of law with fair economic norms and practices for large, medium, small and foreign businesses, as well as to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Ukrainian state – all this is crucial for improving the lives of Ukrainian citizens, the experts said.
They said Ukraine should ensure the protection of property rights for all Ukrainian and foreign investors.
“While the Ukrainian authorities should urgently focus on reform, seeing them as urgent tasks, the United States, in coordination with international financial institutions, the European Union and partners from the Group of Seven (G7), should continue to provide support helping Ukraine build a modern democratic an economy fully compatible with the standards and norms of the European Union. In this sense, Copenhagen criteria of the EU form a clear roadmap. Such assistance should directly depend on the implementation of effective reforms,” according to the document.
Among the American signers are Francis Fukuyama; former Deputy Secretary General of NATO Alexander Vershbow; former Ambassadors of the United States to Ukraine John Herbst, Marie Yovanovitch, Steven Pifer, Roman Popadiuk, William Taylor, as well as members of the United States Congress, high-ranked diplomats and well-known experts.
Among the Ukrainian signers are Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum and Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2014-2016 Arseniy Yatsenyuk; Deputy Chairwoman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Olena Kondratiuk; Co-chair of Lviv Security Forum and former Deputy Chairwoman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in 2014-2019 Oksana Syroid; former Secretaries of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Volodymyr Horbulin, Oleksandr Turchunov and Andriy Parubiy; Chairwoman of the Parliamentary Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the European Union Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze; public figures Josef Zissels and Myroslav Marynovych; diplomats Volodymyr Ohryzko, Danylo Lubkivsky, Valeriy Chaly, Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, Volodymyr Vasylenko, Yuri Scherbak, Oleh Shamshur, Oleksandr Motsyk, Volodymyr Handogiy, Roman Bezsmertnyi, as well as members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from the Servants of the People, European Solidarity, Holos and Batkivschyna factions.
ARSENIY YATSENYUK, KYIV SECURITY FORUM, PARTNERSHIP, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES
Ukrainian industrial company Interpipe signed a long-term contract for supplying of freight wheelsets to INVEHO UFO, one of the largest railcar building and carriage repair companies in France.
According to a company press release, the contract includes the delivery of 1,530 ULT-25 wheelsets to the French customer until September 2022.
INVEHO UFO is going to use them for manufacturing of new freight railcars. ULT-25 wheelsets were designed by Interpipe’s engineers for the European gauge, they are in great demand by clients both in France and Germany as well as in other European countries.
Interpipe Railway Products Division Director Oleksandr Garkavyi said that French INVEHO UFO is its regular customer. Interpipe has already shipped them twice large orders.
“ULT-25 wheelset is one of the most popular designs at the European market of freight trains with speeds up to 120 km/h. The low-stress design of the wheel disc enables to enhance its durability and life cycle. We expect not only to maintain, but also to expand our cooperation with INVEHO UFO with other types of products,” he said.
Philip Morris Ukraine this year predicts a decline in the legal market of heated tobacco products by 3.1 times compared to last year, to 1.5 billion pieces, due to an increase in the excise tax on these products from January 2021 by 320%, Financial Director of Philip Morris Ukraine Maksym Barabash said at a press conference in Interfax-Ukraine.
“A one-time increase in excise taxes by 320% from January 1 requires a price increase of approximately UAH 29 (for a pack of heated tobacco products), not including the price increase due to inflation and the devaluation of the hryvnia. If we transfer this price increase to consumers, the price will increase to 80-90,” he explained.
CEO of the company Kostas Salvaras said that Philip Morris Ukraine supports amendments to law No. 4278, proposing an increase in the excise tax on heated tobacco products by 200% with its further growth by 30% in 2022-2025 instead of a one-time increase by 320%. These changes in the form of amendment No. 55 were adopted in February by the parliamentary committee on finance, taxation and customs policy.
According to the calculations of Philip Morris Ukraine, a smoother increase in the excise tax will help protect the legal market, the capacity of which, if this amendment is adopted, will grow this year by 6.3% compared to 2020, to 5 billion units.
The company also expects that in the event of a gradual increase in tax, the growth of revenues to the state budget in 2021 will not be lower than UAH 4.8 billion planned by the Ministry of Finance, and UAH 6.5-7.5 billion in 2022.
Barabash clarified that a one-time increase in excise tax by 320% will lead to a 1.5-fold increase in prices for the products, and will make illegal import of heated tobacco products four times more profitable than smuggling regular cigarettes. The company’s financial director estimated the profit from the illegal import of one heated tobacco product box at $ 500-800.
In addition, according to him, the equalization of the excise tax rate for heated tobacco products and ordinary cigarettes to 320% will entail a return of users of devices for heating tobacco to cheaper and more harmful nicotine-containing products – cigarettes. He noted that this decision contradicts European practice, since on average in the EU countries the excise tax on heated tobacco products is 72% lower than the excise tax on cigarettes, while in Ukraine this figure is 28%.
Barabash clarified that a sharp increase in the excise tax on this product would jeopardize UAH 4.2 billion already invested in the development of the Ukrainian infrastructure of the IQOS brand, which employs more than 2,000 people. It will also make it impossible to localize the production of heated tobacco products in Ukraine, which could reduce the price of this product.
As reported, Philip Morris International is one of the world’s largest tobacco manufacturers. It produces cigarettes in more than 50 factories and sells them in 180 countries.
The company has been operating in Ukraine for over 20 years. In Ukraine, Philip Morris owns a factory in Kharkiv region, the company employs over 1,300 people.
In 2020, the company reduced the shipment of cigarettes in Ukraine by 4.3% compared to 2019 due to a general market decline, which was partially offset by an increase in the market share of heated tobacco products.
Head of the specialized scientific restoration design institute “Ukrproektrestavratsiya” Vasyl Tymkovych expects to start the selection of projects under the Big Restoration Program from next week.
“Yesterday, for the first time, the future commissions for the selection of the Big Restoration program met. It was announced that next week, apparently, regular meetings will start, where the head of the expert commission, a secretary, will be elected, after which they will be able to start considering the projects if they are prepared by the working group,” he said at the All-Ukrainian forum “Ukraine 30. Culture and Media. Tourism” on Wednesday in Kyiv.
According to the decree, so far only objects in state ownership will be selected, but there is an understanding of the need to include municipal property objects in the list, he said.
Also, the program will include first of all the objects with ready-made documentation and accessible infrastructure.
Over the past two years, the prosecutor’s office has initiated 560 criminal cases on the fact of unlawful acts committed by law enforcement officers. And only six of them were brought an accusation.
Former Interior Minister of Ukraine Anatoliy Mohyliov said this at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Tuesday, noting that no one in the Interior Ministry today is watching the punishment of persons who have committed violation of the law.
“The complete absence of departmental control over violators within the system gives rise to permissiveness and undermines the foundations of the entire state. Remember the murder at the post of a policeman in 2015 – the suspects were detained, they were charged, after which … everyone was released! When persons involved in such a grave crime calmly walk down the street and work, including in government agencies, this is nonsense!” the ex-minister noted.
The ex-head of the Kyiv district police department, Denys Yaroslavsky, in turn, recalled the case with the service center of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine in Kharkiv region. According to him, in November 2020, as part of an ongoing investigation, journalists were able to obtain fake license plates of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, medical certificates of suitability for driving in the name of the head of the Kharkiv region police, Police General Valeriy Sokurenko, a certificate with a photo of SBU Chairman Ivan Bakanov and ex-Deputy Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine Serhiy Trofimov. Moreover, without the presence of the officials themselves. All this was made in the premises of the regional service center of the Interior Ministry in Kharkiv region. After reviewing the materials, Denys Yaroslavsky on the air in November 2020 transferred the relevant documents, testifying to numerous corruption actions in the system of service centers, to Deputy Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko. The latter promised to study and go into the matter.
According to journalist Ihor Lesev, after the broadcast of the materials of the journalistic investigation, a group of companies led by Serhiy Vakulenko (as a part of Vip-Expert LLC, Region-Expert LLC, Transkom-plus LLC) moved from the building of the service center of the Interior Ministry to another office. None of the responsible persons of the service centers or the main department of the National Police in Kharkiv region incurred any responsibility for the production of false medical certificates, fake registration numbers of vehicles and illegal transactions of its purchase and sale. At the same time, only the non-payment of the lease by Vakulenko’s group caused damage exceeding UAH 200,000 to the service centers in Kharkiv.
According to another participant in the press conference, ex-military prosecutor of Ukraine Ihor Serkov, while the suspects in the journalistic investigation have not been announced they are suspected of committing a crime with the election of an appropriate preventive measure, the violations mentioned in the film are abstract.
“If the employees of the service centers and the officials of the main department of the National Police in Kharkiv region associated with them, suspected of corruption and illegal actions, are not punished, there is no guarantee that this scheme will not find its continuation in the very near future. The main principle is lost – the inevitability of punishment of suspects,” Serkov said.
https://uprava.com.ua/
The National Museum of Folk Architecture and Ukraine’s Daily Life plans to create a museum of Crimean Tatar culture, said director of the Crimean House Akhtem Seitablayev.
“I am very grateful that another future step in order for us to know as much as possible about each other, to be able to adequately present the culture of the Crimean Tatars (because culture is perhaps one of the most durable tools for identifying ourselves) will be a museum of Crimean Tatar culture, which we, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ukrainian Institute, the Ministry of Culture, dream of building on the territory of the Pyrohove ethnography museum,” said Seitablayev at the opening of the exhibition “Loyalty to oneself is not a crime” at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.
