Top 5 News Stories 9 June
1. On 10 June, permanent representatives of the EU countries plan to decide on the extension of Crimean sanctions against Russia for another year, writes on Twitter Radio Liberty correspondent Ricard Jozvyak. He says, “EU ambassadors will, on Wednesday, give green light to prolong the EU’s Crimea investment ban by another year.”
The EU sanctions imply no import of goods from Crimea and Sevastopol into the EU region; no investments in Crimea or Sevastopol; no travel services in Crimea and Sevastopol, no European cruise liners calling at Crimean ports; and no export of certain goods and technologies to Crimea, in particular, those relates to transport, telecommunications and energy. Link
2. The EU Delegation representatives express the readiness to support Ukraine in carrying out coal industry reform. This was discussed during the first meeting of Acting Energy by Minister Olha Buslavets with EU Ambassador Matti Maasikas, reports the Energy and Environmental Protection Ministry. Buslavets says, “The biggest challenge is the reform of mines in “mono-cities”, whose population completely depends on their work. We must put people’s interests first and ensure the country’s energy security. We want to use the experience of European and other countries that have successfully solved similar problems”. Relevant negotiations with Germany, the World Bank and other international partners are underway. Link
Starting 10 June, Ukraine may enter the next stage of rolling back COVID-19 quarantine measures, which envisages the opening of recreation centres. Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov made this statement during a briefing, UNIAN reports. “Among other things, this stage will allow recreation facilities (except children’s camps) to restart functioning. All of these recreation facilities can operate only if they comply with the rules established by Ukraine’s Ministry of Health,” says Stepanov. However, the re-opening of recreation centres depends on the epidemiological situation in a particular region. Ukraine records 463 new cases of Coronavirus in the last 24 hours. Link
4. To welcome loosened restrictions, Ukraine’s regions ought to meet certain requirements: incidence (the number of new cases within the last seven days), hospital bed occupancy (less than 50%) and testing coverage (less than 12 per 100,000 people). However, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Carpathian, Lviv, Rivne, Chernivtsi and Chernihiv regions do not meet these requirements and, consequently, can’t be granted a relief in restrictions. reports Ukraine’s Ministry of Health Link
5. Raiffeisen Bank International disbands an IT team for digital banking in Vienna and moves to Ukraine, the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reports. The task is assigned to the Ukrainian start-up Edenlab. Why Ukraine? RBI’s press service says, they have a highly qualified IT team and the project is “in a 100 percent RBI subsidiary”. Does that mean RBI is buying Edenlab? The spokesperson does not provide comments. Link
