Yuliya Tymoshenko, leader of the All-Ukrainian Union Batkivschyna (Fatherland) party, has been on the top in presidential ratings in Ukraine, being followed by such candidates as showman Volodymyr Zelensky, the leader of the Civil Position party Anatoliy Hrytsenko, the leader of the Opposition Platform — For Life bloc Yuriy Boiko, and the incumbent president Petro Poroshenko. This has been established as a result of an all-Ukrainian opinion poll jointly conducted by the Ukrainian Oleksandr Yaremenko Institute for Social Research and the Social Monitoring Center from December 1 to 10, 2018.
Some 14.8% of those polled said they would vote for Tymoshenko in the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine, which are due on March 31, 2019. The other candidates have the following ratings: 8.8% for Zelensky, 8.6% for Hrytsenko, 8.3% for Boyko, and 8.1% for Poroshenko. At the same time, 14.1% of those polled could not provide an answer and another 11.8% said they would not go to vote at all.
Among the respondents who have made up their mind and are going to cast their votes in the elections in March, 20% would vote for Tymoshenko, 11.9% would vote for Zelensky, 11.6% would vote for Hrytsenko, 11.1% would vote for Boiko, and 10.9% would vote for Poroshenko. Some 3.2% of those polled said they would vote for some other candidates.
A total of 2,198 people were polled in face-to-face interviews across Ukraine for the exception of the temporarily occupied territories. The sample standard deviation is not more than 2.1%.
President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine has signed the law on ratification of a memorandum of mutual understanding between Ukraine and the European Union on the allocation to Ukraine of macrofinancial assistance from the European Union to the tune of EUR 1 billion, the presidential website said. By implementing the memorandum, Ukraine will be able to receive additional funding from the EU to the tune of EUR 1 billion to be used for purposes stated in the national budget.
In order to receive each of the two tranches of the EU’s financial assistance to the tune of EUR 500 million each, Ukraine must meet certain conditions that have been agreed upon by the parties in such areas as tax and customs policy, fighting corrupting, small-scale privatization, management of state-run enterprises, corporate management in state-owned banks and banking supervision, and further reforms in power industry, health care, and social care.
As was earlier reported, the Verkhovna Rada ratified the memorandum on November 8, 2018.
The agreements were signed in Kyiv on September 14, 2018, following President Poroshenko’s earlier agreements with leaders of EU institutions as a result of the East Partnership Summit that took place in Brussels on November 23, 2017, and the 20th Ukraine-the EU summit that was held in Kyiv on July 9, 2018.
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More than 20% of Ukrainians polled have said that they are going to vote for Yuliya Tymoshenko, the leader of the All-Ukrainian Union Batkivschyna (Fatherland) party, in the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine in 2019, a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the Razumkov Center and the Sociological Group Rating shows. According to the result of the poll, 21% of those polled are ready to vote for Tymoshenko for the next president of Ukraine.
She is followed by showman Volodymyr Zelensky (11%), the incumbent president Petro Poroshenko (10%), and the leader of the Civic Position party Anatoliy Hrytsenko (10%).
Then comes one of the leaders of the Opposition Platform for Life Yury Boiko (9%), followed by the leader of the Radical Party Oleh Lyashko (8%), rockstars Svyatoslav Vakarchuk (6%), and MP Yevhen Murayev (5%).
The anti-rating is led by Poroshenko as more than a half of Ukrainians are not going to vote for him under any circumstances.
The poll was jointly conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the Razumkov Center and the Sociological Group Rating from October 19 to November 2, 2018. A total of 10,000 people aged from 18 and up were polled in all the regions of Ukraine except for Crimea and Russia-occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The statistical margin of error is no more than 1%.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko will take part in the plenary session of the first Forum of the Regions of Belarus and Ukraine, which will be held in Gomel on Friday, the presidential press service of Belarus has reported. “It is expected that President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko will also attend the event. Before the participation and speeches at the main platform of the forum, the presidents hold a one-to-one meeting. The main focus of the talks will be on trade development, economic and investment cooperation of the two countries through the prism of the potential of direct contacts at the regional level,” the press service noted.
They also informed that following the results of the forum, the signing of a number of documents and the conclusion of agreements aimed at expanding cooperation in the whole range of areas of Belarusian-Ukrainian cooperation are expected.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has excluded Dmytro Shymkiv, ex-governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeriya Gontareva, Borys Lozhkin, ex-Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk, Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova, MP Serhiy Rybalka and ex-head of the State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov from the National Reforms Council. By the same decree, Poroshenko included Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Serhiy Marchenko, Acting Minister of Finance Oksana Markarova, and Head of the National Bank Yakiv Smolii in the National Reforms Council.
The National Reforms Council is a special advisory body under the president on strategic planning, coordinating positions on the reform strategy in Ukraine and monitoring their implementation.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has appointed Serhiy Shutenko Ambassador of Ukraine to Greece.
“To appoint Serhiy Oleksandrovych Shutenko extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of Ukraine to Greece,” presidential decree No. 267/2018 of September 3 states.
Shutenko, born in 1968, worked in the Mission of Ukraine to NATO, as the Consul General of Ukraine in Thessaloniki (Greece), the deputy director of the personnel department of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine.
