President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the law on amendments to certain Ukraine’s legislative acts on government support of culture, creative industries, tourism, small and medium businesses due to the restrictive measures related to the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) disease.
“Creative industries, cultural institutions are among those which suffered most from lockdown. After all, their activities have stopped almost completely and now they live in total uncertainty. These are entire sectors of the economy that are now on the brink of survival. They also pay taxes and provide people with jobs, therefore, need no less support than traditional business sectors,” the head of the state said during signing the document.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted law No. 692-IX at second reading on June 16. It was supported by 343 MPs. The document establishes a reduction in property rental fees at the request of the tenant of a cultural institution engaged in entrepreneurial activity using this property, for the entire time that it could not be used.
The document also provides additional opportunities for radio by simplifying procedures by amending the law of Ukraine on advertising.
It is important that the document also stipulates the government support for cinematography in the form of providing a government grant for the development of film projects. It is noted that for national fiction, animated, documentary films, films for children (including artistic and cultural significance), films of artistic and cultural significance (copyright), television films, series and debut films, it can be up to 100% of total estimated cost inclusive.
Amendments are also being made to the law of Ukraine on the rental of state-owned and communal property in order to normalize the provision of paid services in the field of culture and arts by cultural institutions.
An action group, which consists of human rights activists, journalists, political scientists and other opinion leaders, has stated that it is necessary to replace public representatives in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) in Minsk. The action group also said that more effective negotiation platforms could be created if the government does not admit its mistakes.
According to members of the action group, the team of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues sabotaging the Minsk process by creating artificial obstacles for the implementation of his campaign promise to establish peace in Donbas as soon as possible.
Non-transparent appointment of negotiators as representatives of certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (ORDLO) and obviously secondary dependent people, who do not have enough authority among the internally displaced persons (IDPs), aroused distrust among a major part of the Ukrainian society and absolute non-acceptance among Ukrainian citizens, who live in the non-government controlled territories.
Special attention should be paid to the “background” of the new negotiators which mainly consists of active and intentional actions aimed at deepening the split in the Ukrainian society and discrimination of a part of citizens based on political, territorial and other grounds.
“The negotiations on the settlement of the situation in Donbas will succeed only if people, who are not involved in instigation of war, participate in them,” journalist, representative of NGO Freedom of Speech Center Dmytro Vasylets said.
Doctor of Political Sciences Oleksandr Semchenko said during the press conference that the president’s initiative to include public representatives in the delegation is good. However, the implementation of this initiative by Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Reznikov distorted and discredited the idea. The introduced negotiators are guided exclusively by private political interests and will not do any good.
“It is ordinary citizens who have suffered an unprofessional personnel policy of the President’s Office in first turn and became prisoners of the situation. For example, we are witnessing the fact that representatives of the self-proclaimed republics (Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics) have been unable to agree with the Ukrainian side on the opening of a checkpoint for a long time explaining this by the epidemiological situation. In fact, the reason is on the surface – a political protest caused by categorical non-acceptance of the public representatives in the Ukrainian delegation,” the leader of the Anti-War movement, Viktoria Shylova, said.
“We demand that the president of Ukraine intervene in the situation as soon as possible. It is not a mistake which matters for the system of any state, as everyone makes mistakes, but the response to this mistake. If the newly appointed people (public representatives) aggravate the crisis in the Minsk talks, such people must be replaced immediately. We are awaiting an adequate response of the Ukrainian authorities and, at the same time, in order to not waste time, we are initiating a range of negotiation platforms at both the national and international levels,” lawyer, human rights activists, Head of the Public Council under the Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Hennadiy Borysychev.
BORYSYCHEV, REZNIKOV, SEMCHENKO, SHYLOVA, VASYLETS, ZELENSKY
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he himself is not afraid of the coronavirus, and that even wanted to fall ill with the disease in order to show Ukrainians what it is like, but later abandoned the idea. “I wanted to go through it myself. To make it easier for people. Once when we were all depressed, we got together and I suggested, ‘Let me fall ill with the disease and immediately isolate myself at Bankova [the street on which the President’s Office is located]. I will survive the disease and show people what it is like. I wanted to do this so people would understand it is not the plague and that we will all die [of COVID-19],” Zelensky said in an interview with the Ukrainska Pravda ezine on June 3-4.
The president said he later abandoned the idea because “it was too much.”
“It was not difficult to do. But, of course, my family wouldn’t have forgiven me. They would have said I am crazy. And, in principle, they would have been right,” the president said.
In 2019, the family of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky sold the UAH 246,144 worth corporate rights to all 12 Ukrainian enterprises to the family of first assistant to the head of state Serhiy Shefir.
“In the spring of 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky got rid of the shares in Green Family Ltd, as well as all four brand names registered in the Russian Federation. He also got rid of corporate rights to Vilhar Holdings Limited and Aldorante Limited foreign companies,” the president’s press service said on Saturday, May 30.
Zelensky continues to be the owner of a large number of trademarks. Thus, in 2019, two Sluha Narodu trademarks (the Servant of the People) were registered in his name.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) evaluated several trademarks in 2019. According to its report, the cost of Vechirniy Kvartal (Evening Quarter) brand name was UAH 45.81 million. The cost of Rozsmishy Komika (Make Comedian Laugh) brand name was UAH 14.65 million.
“Based on the assessment, Volodymyr Zelensky received royalties from the use of the brand names in the amount of UAH 5.048 million, so his income increased compared to the previous year,” the president’s press service said.
Some UAH 567,875 was spent to pay for consulting services of PwC.
According to the declaration of the presidential candidate of Ukraine submitted by Zelensky in January 2019, at that time he owned 99.99% of the corporate rights to Studio Kvartal-95 LLC (another 0.01% was owned by Olena Zelenska), some 18% to Studio Kvartal-95 LLC, some 100% of the corporate rights to Kinokvartal LLC, some 18.75% to Kvartal-Concert LLC, some 12.5% to Kvartal TV LLC, some 16.7% to producer center Liha Smihu LLC, and some 22.5% to Animation Studio-95 LLC.
He also owned 12.5% of Invest-Anima LLC, some 13% of Gaudi Studio LLC, and some 15% of Fish House LLC (restaurant business).
Olena Zelenska owned another 25% of Zelari Fish LLC (processing and preserving, trade in fish, crustaceans and mollusks).
Zelensky was the ultimate beneficial owner of Kinokvartal LLC, Studio Kvartal-95 LLC, Aldorante Limited (Cyprus), Vilhar Holdings Limited (Cyprus), Film Heritage Inc. (Belize), San Tommaso S.R.L. (Italy), and Megiritano Ventures Ltd (British Virgin Islands).
Olena Zelenska was the ultimate beneficiary of Studio Kvartal-95 LLC, Zelari Fish LLC, Aldorante Limited (Cyprus), Film Heritage Inc. (Belize), and San Tommaso S.R.L. (Italy).
Since 2012 Zelensky had been a shareholder of Megiritano Ventures Ltd (British Virgin Islands) and, together with his wife, they were shareholders of Aldorante Limited (Cyprus), since 2008, he had been a shareholder of Vilhar Holdings Limited (Cyprus).
Later he also filled the declaration with information that since May 28, 2012 he had been a shareholder of Green Family Ltd (Nicosia, Cyprus), which at that time owned the Russian company Green Films. There was information on January 24, 2019 that Zelensky withdrew from Green Family Ltd.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Crown Prince of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan have discussed the prospects for trade, economic and investment cooperation, in particular, in the field of agriculture, development of road and medical infrastructure in Ukraine.
“The coronavirus should not destroy international trade and economic ties between the countries. For Ukraine, the development of infrastructure is critical – above all, modern hospitals and high-quality roads. After the coronavirus, life will continue, and we can plan investments now,” the Ukrainian president said.
The association of international pharmaceutical manufacturers AIPM Ukraine has asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to organize a Green Route at customs checkpoints to speed up supplies of medicines in the conditions of panic of the population rushing to buy medicines over the spread of the coronavirus disease COVID-19.
“Manufacturers and importers of medicines, under the current conditions, are trying to meet the demand in full for the appropriate medicines,” the association said in a letter sent to the president.
AIPM Ukraine said that, according to information available from AIPM Ukraine member companies, queues at customs, in particular at the Yahodyn customs post, lead to a significant slowdown in the supply of necessary medicines.
“We ask you to contribute to solving this problem and ensure priority customs clearance of medicines by introducing an official” green corridor “for these categories of goods, as has already been done in the European Union in accordance with the recommendations of the European Commission,” AIPM Ukraine asked President Zelensky .
The association also pointed out the need to establish working interaction on this issue with the customs authorities of neighboring countries, such as Poland, to ensure a similar priority for the customs clearance of medicines at their customs posts to ensure imports to Ukraine.
