Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to pay a historic visit to Ukraine in a few weeks, according to Sidhant Sibal, chief diplomatic correspondent for the Indian publishing house WION, citing his own sources in New Delhi. This visit, which is currently being prepared, is tentatively scheduled for the third week of August, probably on the 23rd.
Earlier this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally invited the Indian leader to visit the country during a phone conversation. Since then, the two countries have been holding active high-level talks. Indian Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba discussed bilateral relations. National security advisors from both countries, Ajit Doval from India and Andriy Yermak from Ukraine, also held talks.
In June, Prime Minister Modi met with President Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy. Discussing the current situation in Ukraine, the Indian leader emphasized the need for dialogue and diplomacy, stressing that India is ready to support a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
This visit will be the first personal contact between the two leaders since the beginning of the war, outside the format of the G7 summits. Prime Minister Modi may travel to Ukraine via Poland, and is likely to hold talks with the Polish leadership before traveling to Kyiv.
Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Ukraine comes almost two months after he traveled to Russia for the annual Russian summit, during which the war in Ukraine was also discussed. During his talks with Putin, Prime Minister Modi expressed regret over the deaths of innocent people and children at the Okhmatdyt hospital.
US presidential candidate from the Republican Party Donal Trump commented on his phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Today, President Zelensky and I had a very good phone conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine…. I appreciate President Zelensky reaching out to me because as your next President of the United States, I will bring peace to the world and end a war that has cost so many lives and destroyed countless innocent families. Both sides will be able to come together and make an agreement that will end violence and pave the way for prosperity,” Truth wrote on social media after speaking with Ukrainian President Zelensky on Saturday night
Trump also mentioned that Zelensky congratulated him on the success of the Republican National Convention and on becoming the Republican Party’s nominee for President of the United States.
“He condemned the heinous assassination attempt that took place last Saturday and noted that these are times when the American people come together in a spirit of unity,” Trump emphasized.
On Saturday night, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone conversation with US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“I spoke with Donald Trump to congratulate him on his nomination from the Republican Party and to condemn the shocking attempted attack on him in Pennsylvania. I wished him strength and absolute security in the future,” Zelensky wrote on his social network X (Twitter).
During the conversation, according to the President of Ukraine, he emphasized America’s vital bipartisan and bicameral support in defending Ukraine’s freedom and independence.
He also emphasized that Ukraine will always be grateful to the United States for its assistance in strengthening its defense capabilities in countering Russian terror, as Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian cities and villages continue daily.
“We have agreed with President Trump to discuss in person what steps can make peace just and truly lasting,” Zelenskyy summarized.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, before the IMF Board of Directors made a positive decision on the allocation of $2.2 billion to Ukraine for the fifth tranche under the EFF extended financing program, signed the law on resetting the Bureau of Economic Security (#3840-IX), the adoption of which was one of the structural beacons of the program.
Information about the signing of the document by the head of state is posted on the website of the Verkhovna Rada.
“An important step forward was the adoption last week of the law on reforming the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine. It is necessary to quickly and decisively implement this law”, – said the head of the mission of the International monetary Fund (IMF) in Ukraine Gavin Gray at a press conference on Friday evening after the allocation of the tranche to Ukraine.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada on June 20 by 239 votes with the required minimum of 226 votes adopted the law on the reset of the BEB. “The text is agreed with partners. With independent selection of the new head of the BEB, recertification and personnel selection. With the participation of foreign experts and Ukrainian business. It could have been better, but already well done,” – commented on the adoption of the first Deputy head of the relevant Committee of the Rada Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
According to him, according to the document, the new head of the BEB is selected by a commission of six members, half of whom are international experts with the right to a casting vote. Re-certification is carried out by a commission of six people each from the newly elected BEB director and from international partners, but at the suggestion of the Ukrainian business community. In addition, a Personnel Commission created according to the same scheme will work for the next three years.
“Guaranteed independence of the BEB director at the level of NABU/SAP/NAPK. And many more important changes about the independence of the institution. It is always possible more and better, but in general very ok”, – summarized Zheleznyak.
BEB reboot, IMF, LAW, ZELENSKY
On the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue summit, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the heads of leading Singaporean investment companies, the press service of the Ukrainian president reports.
“The event was attended by the heads of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Temasek Holdings, Wilmar International, the Singapore Business Federation, Blackstone Singapore, telecommunications operator SingTel, Universal Success Enterprises, and construction company Meinhardt Group,” the statement said.
During the meeting, Zelensky emphasized that the Ukrainian economy, even in difficult conditions of war, finds ways to develop and grow, adapting to new circumstances.
In addition, Zelenskyy expressed gratitude to Singaporean businessmen who continue to work in Ukraine and keep their jobs.
The President also emphasized that there is great potential for further development of Ukrainian-Singaporean trade cooperation, especially in the field of technology and innovation.
Zelenskyy also reaffirmed Ukraine’s commitment to creating additional attractive incentives for investors.
“The Head of State invited Singaporean investors to take part in a joint conference with the EU on the restoration, reform and modernization of the Ukrainian economy to be held in Berlin. A program for mobilizing international financial support, implementing long-term projects and creating attractive conditions for investing in Ukraine’s economy will be presented there,” the statement said.
Participants of the Congress “Reform of the Public Finance System – the Way to Restore Ukraine” and business representatives have called on President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to implement the tasks identified by leading think tanks and business associations as key priorities for this year.
According to a statement released on Friday by the Ukrainian Business Council (UBC), the key institutional reforms include the reboot of the BES and the State Customs Service with the election of the head in an open competition with the decisive vote of international partners, re-certification of employees during the year and approval of KPIs, as well as the establishment of market salaries for employees of the State Customs Service.
Another priority is the reboot of the State Tax Service on the same terms as the State Customs Service, including the creation of high-quality Public Control Councils and the introduction of an inclusive approach to the development of state policies and strategies.
“The work on the draft laws and their submission to the Verkhovna Rada should be preceded by an expert and public discussion of the relevant strategy and state policy. To improve the quality of the legislative process, it is necessary to provide for the mandatory submission of a regulatory impact analysis by all subjects of legislative initiative and the need for a certain minimum number of MPs-authors to register a draft law. Restrict the submission of alternative draft laws on the same issue to prevent legislative spam,” the statement reads.
Regarding the recovery, economic development and preservation of economic potential, the business asks to implement an optimal model of employee booking based on economic indicators, which allows for digital booking of a person liable for military service per day (e-booking), which will increase tax revenues to the budget, de-shadowing of wages and increasing the sustainability of all forms of business, including individual entrepreneurs.
In addition, the business asks to ensure an effective and transparent mechanism for business travel outside Ukraine for business trips for company executives, employees and individual entrepreneurs, as well as to implement systems to support and stimulate entrepreneurship in the areas of possible hostilities in the de-occupied communities.
Addressing the President and MPs, the business calls for preventing pressure from law enforcement agencies, as it leads to significant economic losses and disruption of state budget revenues. To this end, entrepreneurs recommend establishing the principle of presumption of innocence of the taxpayer (so that the body proves its guilt, not the taxpayer), concentrating the functions of pre-trial investigation of economic crimes exclusively in the BES, establishing personal responsibility of investigators (prosecutors and judges) for violations of the CPC and standards of prosecutors’ activities in the field of investment protection during pre-trial investigation, which have already been adopted and should become mandatory.
To reduce the pressure, the business also recommended automating the closure of criminal cases that have been “hanging” for years, providing the necessary safeguards for a quick and impartial pre-trial investigation, setting clear deadlines for pre-trial investigation in all criminal proceedings and judicial control over their observance, setting a deadline for returning seized property or lifting the arrest (10 days), and making the investigator liable for failure to comply with the court decision.
The business also proposes to introduce monthly reporting on criminal cases that have been under investigation for more than 6 months and the property seized (confiscated) in them by law enforcement agencies and to ensure the protection of the rights of participants in criminal proceedings (Draft Law No. 9211 as a basis, with amendments for the second reading).
As part of the reform of the tax system and customs legislation, the business community will ask to reduce the total tax burden on the payroll and replace the income tax with the tax on withdrawn capital after the end of martial law with the preparation of relevant legislative changes in advance, as well as to change the ideology of the SMKOR from “punitive” to analytical, to introduce a deadline for blocking tax invoices with an increase in the mandatory threshold for VAT registration.
The statement of the business associations emphasizes that it is necessary to ensure the preservation of the current simplified taxation system while minimizing its abuse, in particular: to define the criteria for distinguishing between employment and freelance by law. To do this, replace the broad fiscalization of sole proprietors of the 2nd and 3rd groups of the EH with the fiscalization of exclusively risky categories of taxpayers who are likely to reach the EH limits.
The business expects the guaranteed obligations regarding the conditions of doing business in the Diia.city tax regime to remain unchanged for 25 years and to ensure full automatic exchange of information with other countries, as well as to create an effective mechanism for automated comparison of documents on the customs value of goods.
With regard to reducing inefficient state budget expenditures, entrepreneurs are asking to review expenditures to optimize them, increase efficiency of their use, and adapt the amount of public spending to new demographic realities (this includes reducing expenditures on representative bodies of state power, the justice system, education, healthcare, and housing subsidies).
The business also expects the authorities to establish objective KPIs for all budget programs, publicly disclose budget estimates of budgetary institutions, and monitor the effectiveness of spending on government programs.
It is specified that the appeal was signed by 18 business associations, including: Association of Taxpayers of Ukraine, Association of Private Employers, IT-Ukraine Association, All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council, All-Ukrainian Professional Association of Entrepreneurs, SUP, Board, CLUB100, CEO Club, CFO Club, Kharkiv IT Cluster, Oil and Gas Association of Ukraine, CCI, Ukrainian Cluster Alliance, Ukrainian Security Industry Federation, UCAB, Ukrainian Association of Direct Sales, Ukrharchoprom.
The document was also signed by three coalitions of business associations – the USS, the Coalition of Business Communities for the Modernization of Ukraine, and the National Business Coalition.
