Ukrainian and Belarusian diplomats have agreed to facilitate preparations for the second Forum of Regions to be held in Zhytomyr in October 2019. Such an agreement was reached during political consultations between Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vasyl Bodnar and First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Andrei Yeudachenka, the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
In addition, an agreement was reached on preparing for signing the plan of consultations between the foreign ministries of Ukraine and Belarus for 2020-2021.
As reported, the first Forum of Regions of Ukraine and Belarus was held in Gomel on October 26, 2018. It was attended by the presidents of the countries, Petro Poroshenko and Alexander Lukashenko. They decided to hold the second forum in Zhytomyr.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he does not rule out the possibility of a meeting and talks with Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky.
“If we meet someday, begin some talks, and I’m not ruling this out, then we must talk how to end the conflict in southeastern Ukraine in the first place,” Putin said at press conference following his visit to China.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Zelensky has already made a statement before the election that he, firstly, is not going to sign a decree on a bill on amnesty and, secondly, [is not going] to grant special status to those territories [certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine],” Putin said.
“Both are the key elements of the content of the Minsk Agreements and how can the issue of the LPR and the DPR be resolved without implementing the Minsk Agreements?” the Russian president said.
“I would gladly ask him these question, discuss these matters with him,” Putin said.
Mentioning that the majority of Ukrainian citizens voted for Zelensky, the Russian president expressed the opinion that “first and foremost, the people expect the future Ukrainian political leadership to resolve these issues.”
“Everyone is fed up with this conflict, everyone is tired of it, and everyone expects this from the new political leadership, including the future president,” Putin said.
“But if from the very threshold, from the start the future president says he is not going to implement the Minsk Agreements, how will he resolve this issue then? I would be glad to discuss that with him, I would like to understand his stance,” the Russian president said.
The team of President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky (Ze!Team) is discussing a possible change in the leadership of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) and the institutional strengthening of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
“Today, a detailed action plan in terms of anti-corruption policy is at the stage of finalization. The Zelensky team has a clear agreement on the need to reset the National Agency on Corruption Protection (NACP). There is a very serious discussion on resetting the leadership of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO),” Halyna Yanchenko, a Ze!Team advisor on anti-corruption policy and digitalization, said on Facebook on Friday.
As for NABU, according to her, most of the team of the newly elected president “considers it necessary to support and strengthen NABU institutionally.”
“I also stand in these positions personally. Moreover, the plan for the first 100 days of the future president discusses the initiative to grant NABU the right to independently wiretap [only the SBU can do this now] from communication channels, a step the experts have advocated for a long time,” she said.
The deficit of the national budget of Ukraine in January-March 2019 amounted to UAH 26.166 billion, in particular the general fund deficit was UAH 39.272 billion with the target being UAH 43.54 billion, according to data released by the State Treasury Service.
According to the agency, government borrowing for the three months of 2019 amounted to UAH 115.3 billion, while debt repayment almost UAH 94.3 billion.
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance reported that the national budget deficit for this period was financed mainly by public borrowing.
Privatization brought almost UAH 184 million with the expected figures for this period exceeding UAH 6 billion.
In general, the national budget for this period received UAH 210.6 billion in revenues, with general fund income being UAH 178.2 billion and the target standing at UAH 194.15 billion.
National budget expenditures in January-March this year were at the level of UAH 237.4 billion, including UAH 218.2 billion in the general fund, with the plan being UAH 239.3 billion.
According to the treasury, local budgets during this period posted a surplus of UAH 17.2 billion, and the surplus of the general fund was UAH 19.4 billion.
Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky has gone to Turkey for a brief vacation.
“We have agreed to be open. So, we’re flying to Turkey. I’m taking the kids to the yearly festival Veselo,” Zelensky wrote on his Facebook page.
Zelensky said that it would be his first day off for the past four months, and said he would be returning to Ukraine in a couple of days.
Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) has announced that it has reached a final settlement price of EUR 221.095 million with Slovenian Steel Group (SIJ) to acquire Perutnina Ptuj, a leading poultry meat and a meat-processing company headquartered in Slovenia.
According to a company report, the price per share is EUR 22.34. SIJ held 9.897 million shares in the Slovenian company. The acquisition was completed in February 2019 subject with final purchase price defined based on audited financial statements of 2018. MHP has now completed this process and has today confirmed a 90.69% stake in Perutnina Ptuj.
“The company is undertaking a full assessment of Perutnina Ptuj’s production facilities and will reveal a full modernisation plan later this year during roadshow/meeting with stakeholders both in Slovenia and London together with top management of both companies,” MHP said.
MHP is the largest poultry producer in Ukraine. It also deals with production of grain, sunflower oil, meat goods.
