Ukraine reports 4,161 COVID cases
The Ministry of Health reported on April 16 that Ukraine has confirmed 4,161 cases of COVID-19. The ministry said 116 people have died and 186 have recovered. Two days earlier, Ukraine had reported 392 new cases of coronavirus over the past day, bringing the total number to 3,764, according to information released by the Public Health Center. The Public Health Center also said on April 14 that some 39,084 tests have been conducted in Ukraine to detect new coronavirus infections. A total of 2,145 people in the country are undergoing treatment at home under doctors’ supervision, while 1,368 people have been hospitalized, including 59 children. (Radio Svoboda, Ukrinform)
227 servicemen remain isolated
No new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed for servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as of the morning of April 14, while more than 200 people are in isolation, the press service of the Command of the Medical Forces of the Ukrainian army said. Nineteen cases of COVID-19 have been registered, including one recovery and one fatality. Some 227 people remain in isolation and self-isolation, the command said. (Interfax Ukraine)
SBU official suspected of collaboration
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) says one of its top officials has been detained on suspicion of collaborating with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). In an April 14 statement, the SBU said Maj. Gen. Valeriy Shaytanov is suspected of high treason and terrorism. It said audio and video recordings gathered during the case provided “irrefutable evidence” of the crime. According to the SBU, Maj. Gen. Shaytanov started working for the FSB in 2014 and had planned “terrorist acts” in Ukraine, including allegedly planning to murder Adam Osmayev, the leader of Chechen volunteers fighting on the Ukrainian side against Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine’s east. Mr. Osmayev was injured and his wife was killed in an ambush near Kyiv in October 2017 that Ukraine blamed on Russian agents. Maj. Gen. Shaytanov also allegedly provided information to Moscow about secret operations against Russia-backed militants in eastern Ukraine and recruited additional agents, the SBU said. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Wildfires in Chornobyl area extinguished
Emergency crews have extinguished wildfires that had been burning near the defunct Chornobyl nuclear power plant. The acting director of Ukraine’s State Ecology Inspection, Yehor Firsov, said in a statement on Facebook on April 14 that after 10 days, firefighters had managed to finally extinguish the blaze. “In short, the fire was extinguished. The rain helped a lot. The level of the radiation background is permanently being measured, but according to the data we have, in general, everything is normal,” Mr. Firsov wrote. Mr. Firsov’s Facebook statement came hours after Viktoria Ruban, spokeswoman for the Kyiv regional directorate of the State Emergency Situations Service, told reporters at the Dytyatky checkpoint near the Chornobyl restricted zone that the situation has been complicated by heavy winds in the area. The day before, the fire had approached the ghost city of Prypiat, which was abandoned by all residents in April 1986 after the nuclear disaster at Chornobyl. Ms. Ruban said that firefighters had managed to stop the fire near Prypiat. Earlier in the day, the Emergency Situations Service said that firefighting operations in the area were under way, adding that radiation in the region and in the capital, Kyiv, was within “permissible” levels. A day earlier, Greenpeace Russia had warned that fires blazing through the exclusion zone are much larger than authorities in Kyiv were admitting and that they posed a radiation risk. The fires began on April 3 in the western part of the uninhabited exclusion zone before spreading to nearby forests. The National Police said they have detained two people suspected of setting the initial fire. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
One soldier killed in Ukraine’s east
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense reported on April 13 that in the previous 24 hours, one Ukrainian soldier was killed and one Ukrainian soldier was wounded in action. During that period, the ministry said, “Russian-terrorist forces opened fire on Ukrainian positions in the Luhansk and Donetsk sectors of the front – three times in total.” On the dates of April 10-11, no Ukrainian soldiers were killed and four Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in action. During those two days, Ukrainian positions in the Luhansk and Donetsk sectors of the front were fired upon 23 times in total, including at least 10 times with heavy weapons – mortars and artillery. (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
IMF praises adoption of legislation
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has praised the Ukrainian Parliament’s adoption of legislation on banking and land reforms that could unlock billions of dollars in loans. Ukraine has been in talks with the IMF for months about a three-year, $5.5 billion loan tied to reforms to help the country meet a spike in debt repayments this year. The Verkhovna Rada on March 30 voted to lift a ban on the sale of farmland and approved in the first reading a banking law, although it failed to adopt a revised budget for 2020. “We welcome the support by the Ukrainian Parliament in the first reading of the legislation aimed at strengthening the fundamentals of bank restructuring, and we expect its final adoption,” IMF envoy Goesta Ljungman said in a statement on April 4. “We also look forward to the adoption of amendments to the budget for 2020, which will help the authorities respond to the extraordinary challenges that have arisen as a result of COVID -19.” The banking bill prevents the former owners of banks that were nationalized or liquidated in recent years during a widespread financial-sector clean-up from regaining ownership rights or receiving monetary compensation. Though the legislation also has other implications for Ukraine’s banks, observers say its main purpose is to prevent one of Ukraine’s most powerful tycoons, Ihor Kolomoisky, the former co-owner of PrivatBank, from regaining ownership rights to the bank. Lawmakers also approved legislation lifting a ban on the sale of farmland, which is expected to unlock enormous investment potential in what is already one of the world’s top grain exporters. The land market should be opened by July 1, 2021, based on the bill’s provisions. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Interfax and Reuters)