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New NSDC sanctions package
Ukraine’s National Defense and Security Council in a meeting on March 19 imposed the maximum personal sanctions against 27 former high-ranking officials.
Among them: former fugitive President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, former Defense Minister Pavel Lebedev, former Director of the Ministry of Education Dmitry Tabachnik, former Attorney General Viktor Pshonka, Crimean “prosecutor” Natalya Poklonskaya, “head” of the administration of occupied Crimea Sergey Aksenov and others.
In addition, the NSDC decided to apply restrictions against 19 companies using the Ukrainian subsoil. The media, as well as the former people’s deputy Sergei Leshchenko, wrote that they belong to businessman Pavel Fuks. Fuchs himself called this information false.
In addition, the National Security Council sanctioned two companies registered in Hong Kong. They own 49.9% of the shares in Donetskoblgaz and are controlled, according to the SBU, by a Ukrainian citizen who left the country in 2014 and is now hiding in Russia.
Fighting the pandemic in Ukraine
During the day of March 18, 15,850 new cases of coronavirus infection were confirmed in the country, this is the highest rate since the beginning of the year. The NSDC is preparing for a meeting to consider the situation with the spread of the infection in Ukraine.
On March 19, Ukraine passed the 100,000 vaccine mark against the coronavirus. The Ministry of Health believes that the country has entered the second stage of vaccination.
Zelensky wrote a new appeal
After the NSDC meeting, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, released a video message, in which, among other things, he commented on the decisions of the National Security Council. In particular, the president was surprised that the restrictions on Yanukovych had not been enforced since 2014 and said the times when there was a list of names who can use the Ukrainian subsoil are over.
The President of Lithuania spoke in the Rada
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, who has been in Ukraine on a working visit since March 17, addressed the Verkhovna Rada. He began his speech from the podium in Ukrainian.
“I speak to you in an ancient and dignified language that has long been hunted down and destroyed, but not destroyed,” Nauseda said.
In addition, he spoke in support of the sovereignty of Ukraine, announced the need to extend sanctions against the Russian Federation until it leaves the illegally occupied territories of Ukraine.
He also called on Ukraine to stop buying electricity from the Belarusian nuclear power plant, as Russia trying to use the nuclear power plant project to expand their influence.
What did the Ukrainian MPs take away?
The Verkhovna Rada adopted a law on collectors, whose activities will be monitored by the National Bank, but could not vote to reject daylight savings time. The clock hands will need to be translated again. The Rada also removed responsibility for vaccine side effects from COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers and changed its working hours due to the introduction of a strict quarantine in the capital.
The courts rejected Medvedchuk and his “group of channels”
The Kiev Court of Appeal rejected the appeal of the head of the political council of the Opposition Platform – For Life, Viktor Medvedchuk, and allowed the distribution of Vakhtang Kipiani’s book The Case of Vasily Stus, where the godfather of Russian President Vladimir Putin (he Stus represented in court in Soviet times) is called a “trustworthy lawyer” who “crucified the poet”.
The Supreme Court dismissed the demand to lift the sanctions against the channels of the Medvedchuk group. The court did not recognize the application of restrictions to the channels as a violation of citizens’ rights.
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