After the transfer to communities of 2 million hectares of land in municipal ownership, 750,000 hectares of state agricultural land will remain in the state geocadastre, Roman Leschenko, the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre, has said.
“In Ukraine, 10.4 million hectares of state-owned agricultural land do not exist … 1.7 million hectares of state-owned land were transferred to municipal ownership in 2018-2019, and today, having signed a historical decree, we are transferring more than 2 million hectares of land to communities … According to the state land cadastre, after the transfer of more than 2 million hectares of land in Ukraine, 750,000 hectares of state-owned agricultural land will remain in the state geocadastre,” he said, speaking at the land forum Land for the People in Chernihiv region.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has stated that the stabilization fund of the state will be about UAH 200 billion.
“We are creating the state stabilization fund, its size will be about UAH 200 billion. This will be absolutely enough to provide pensioners, those who today will need help due to job loss,” Shmyhal said in the Svoboda Slova (Freedom of Speech) program on ICTV Channel.
The prime minister emphasized that the state has resources for such expenses.
Among other things, Shmyhal noted that in the near future an expert strategic council will be created to make solutions that will allow going through the crisis most mildly and begin developing after its completion.
The premier noted that at the moment Ukraine is more prepared for a possible crisis than in 2008.
The execution of awards of international arbitration courts issued not in favor of a state, in particular, the Russian Federation, remains difficult, Senior Lawyer of EVRIS Law Firm Maksym Zamikhovsky has said. “What unites Yukos, Crimea and Franz Sedelmayer? The awards of international arbitration courts to recover compensation for the actual expropriation of investments and assets of nonresident claimants from the Russian Federation, but another aspect unites all three lawsuits – the problematic recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards against the state,” he told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
The lawyer said that, in particular, one of the complexities of execution of these awards is challenging the competence of the arbitration itself, which may entail the cancellation of its award on formal grounds.
“This is exactly what happened in the Yukos case and, probably, will be undertaken by the Russian Federation in a dispute with the owners of Crimean assets,” he said.
Zamikhovsky said that since the basis for applying to arbitration court is the relevant bilateral agreement between states or an international treaty, the Russian Federation uses a different interpretation of the terms “foreign investment”, trying to prove the absence of this element.
“For example, in the Yukos case the thesis of the internal nature of the dispute applied, since the beneficiaries of the plaintiffs are citizens of the Russian Federation. As for the Crimean assets, the Russian Federation does not recognize foreign investments, believing that they were committed by residents of Ukraine and on its territory.
“The fact of the subsequent expropriation of the assets of the Russian side in this case is silent,” he said.
At the same time, the lawyer said that the second, more large-scale obstacle is the concept of sovereign immunity, according to which recovery from the state without its consent is not allowed. However, immunity does not apply to disputes in which the state acts as a “private person” (jure gestionis), as well as cases where there is consent to its withdrawal.
“The question whether the ratification of the international treaty on investment protection is consent to possible enforcement of arbitration awards, due to violation of its terms, remains controversial. The answer to it will either fill the arbitration awards with real force, or make them no more than a beautiful declaration,” the lawyer said.
The aggregate state (direct) and state-guaranteed debt of Ukraine in April 2018 decreased by 0.41%, or by $320 million, to $77.05 billion, according to the website of the Ministry of Finance.
In the national currency, the national debt declined by 1.59%, or by UAH 32.62 billion, to UAH 2.021 trillion.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the reduction of state and state-guaranteed debt is due to both the repayment of part of obligations and the strengthening of the national currency exchange rate in the reporting period.
Since the beginning of the year, the aggregate state (direct) and state-guaranteed debt in U.S. dollar terms increased by 0.97%, or by $740 million, in the hryvnia declined by 5.64%, or by UAH 120.7 billion.
The ministry said public debt in April fell by 1.36%, to UAH 1.749 trillion (in dollars by 0.18%, to $66.67 billion), in particular external debt by 1.9%, to UAH 1.003 billion (in dollars by 0.73%, to $38.22 billion).
The state-guaranteed debt in April fell by 3.03%, to UAH 272.24 billion (in dollars by 1.87%, to $10.38 billion), in particular the external one by 3.19%, to UAH 258.54 billion (in dollars by 2.03%, to $9.86 billion).
The ministry noted the principal amount of the national debt was denominated in U.S. dollars – 41.35%, another 31.93% was in the hryvnia, 17.66% in special drawing rights, 7.9% in euros. In addition, less than 1% of the national debt is denominated in Canadian dollars and yen.
