Diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Russia are limited only to consular services, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Turkey Vasyl Bodnar said on the air of the Dom television channel. “Relations between the countries [Ukraine and Russia] are coming to naught, and are limited only to meeting these consular needs,” he said.
However, Ukraine did not break off diplomatic relations with Russia, because no country agreed to represent Kyiv’s interests in Moscow, although “this decision should have been made back in 2014, when the active phase of hostilities started.”
“But at the same time, millions of Ukrainians are in Russia. Then they were working, and now for various reasons. And for the most part, our diplomatic presence there is focused on consular work. This means that consuls provide our citizens with documents, visit them in prisons, and there are several thousand, and plus, the political hostages of the Kremlin from Crimea, this is the representation of our interests in courts, in other institutions,” he said.
Bodnar mentioned Georgia, which broke off diplomatic relations with Russia after the 2008 war, represented by Switzerland.
“We carried out a ‘probing’ of positions, none of the countries represented in Moscow agreed to represent our interests, given the amount of work that would have to be done to ensure the interests of our citizens,” the diplomat said.
Bodnar said now the diplomatic presence between the countries is at a low level: there is no ambassador of either Ukraine in Russia or Russia in Ukraine.
He also said that, most likely, such representation will only decrease.
The total public debt of Ukraine in August 2021 in U.S. dollars decreased by 0.5%, or by $440 million, to $92.53 billion, the Ministry of Finance said on its website.
According to the ministry, in hryvnia terms, due to the slight strengthening of the hryvnia, the national debt decreased by 0.6%, or by UAH 14.28 billion, to UAH 2.485 trillion.
The Ministry of Finance specified that external debt in August also decreased by 0.5%, or by $290 million, to $54.49 billion, including direct – by 0.3%, or by $120 million, to $45.41 billion.
According to the ministry, in August, state guarantees on loans from Ukreximbank increased by UAH 4.58 billion, to UAH 10.85 billion, as a result of which the domestic state-guaranteed debt also increased by UAH 4.63 billion, to UAH 41.42 billion. However, due to the redemption of government bonds, as a whole the aggregate domestic public debt in the past month decreased by 0.5%, or by UAH 5.11 billion, to UAH 1.022 trillion.
In general, since the beginning of the year in dollar terms, the total state debt of Ukraine has increased by 2.5%, or by $2.3 billion, while thanks to the strengthening of the hryvnia to UAH 26.86/$1 from UAH 28.27/$1, in hryvnia terms it has decreased by 2.6%, or by UAH 66.5 billion.
Main trade partners of Ukraine in % from total volume (export from Ukraine to other countries) Jan-June 2021
SSC of Ukraine
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree that changed the composition of the National Investment Council on Monday, September 27.
According to decree No.488/2021 released on the presidential website, the following officials were included to the National Investment Council’s staff: Chairman of the Board of Directors of VEON Ltd. (Kingdom of the Netherlands) Gennady Gazin; chief representative of the Polish state oil and gas company “PGNiG S.A.” in Ukraine (Republic of Poland) Ireneusz Derek; Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov; First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Economy Minister Oleksiy Liubchenko; President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Odile Renaud-Basso; Deputy Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko and Vice President of the European Investment Bank Teresa Czerwińska.
According to the decree, the following officials were removed from the National Investment Council: former member of the supervisory board of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy Yulia Kovaliv; former Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy, former Economy Minister Ihor Petrashko, former President of the EBRD Suma Chakrabarti.
The decree comes into force on the day of its publication.
The European Commission (EC) welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s determination to fight the deeply rooted influence of vested oligarchic interests on the country’s life and expects the next steps in this direction.
The European Commission said this to the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Friday commenting the adoption of the law on de-oligarchisation by the Verkhovna Rada.
“We welcome President Zelensky’s determination to address the deeply rooted influence of vested oligarchic interests in the political and economic life of Ukraine,” the European Commission said.
The diplomats in Brussels underscored the adoption of the bill “On the prevention of threats to national security associated with the excessive influence of persons with significant economic or political heft in public life (oligarchs)” at the second reading in the Verkhovna Rada on 23 September. “This is a step forward. We expect the law to be implemented fully and with determination, in a legally sound manner. We believe that in addition to the implementation of the adopted law, more steps are needed, in particular to close Ukraine’s institutional gaps, to achieve the desired de-oligarchizing effect,” they noted.
At the same time the European Commission stressed that Ukraine “invested a lot of efforts into closing the space for corrupt practicing, by i.a. cleaning the banking sector and ensuring transparency of the public procurement.” “We encourage to continue these efforts in others sectors prone to corrupt practices,” the diplomats said.
They are convinced that “strengthening of planned and existing institutions (such as the rule of law authorities, including the court system; the Anti-Monopoly Committee; the public broadcaster; an independent press regulator among others) should stand at the heart of this fight to consolidate the rule of law, shore up the trust of Ukrainian citizens in public institutions and, not least, to unleash Ukraine’s economic potential for the benefit of all people of Ukraine.”
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved an agreement with the Government of the Republic of Peru to abolish visa requirements for short stays.
The relevant decision was made at the Wednesday government meeting.
This agreement was signed in Kyiv on July 15, 2021. The agreement provides for the abolition of visa requirements for the entry and stay of citizens of countries on the territory of the state of the other party for up to 90 days within 180 days.
For citizens of Ukraine, the possibility of visa-free tourist trips to Peru for up to 183 days will remain, which Peru introduced by a unilateral decision in 2003.
