Iran downing case
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is concerned that Iran may somehow muddle the decryption of the flight recorders from the Ukraine International Airlines PS752, which was downed near Tehran in early January. Talking to One Plus One TV, he quoted experts as saying that Iran was not prepared for proper decryption. “I fear that Iranians may involve our specialists, saying let us decrypt it here, on the site, and then they will say: why would even need the black boxes now?” he said.
He said that Iran had offered to pay 80,000 dollars to each bereaved family but the Ukrainian authorities did not agree. “It is too little, it seems to me. When a wife says that her husband was the only breadwinner and she has no job and her child needs to go to a university, 80,000 dollars is not enough at all. Of course, life cannot be measured in money, but we will press for higher compensation,” he said.
Trump case
When Rudolph W. Giuliani met Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak on 2 August 2019, he asked him to help the mayor of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klitschko, keep his job, The New York Times has reported. Calling the mayor a “good guy”, Giuliani said that he made it clear that he was relating his personal view of Klitschko, not that of the administration.
Economy
The government has failed to meet the budget revenue target in January. The budget received 42.6bn hryvnyas, which is 13.8bn hryvnyas (or 24.5%) less than planned (56.4bn hryvnyas).
Migration
Four teenagers were found in a refrigerator lorry delivering apples from Macedonia to Russia near Lviv, zaxid.net has reported. Two of them had Afghani documents, the other two had none. Doctors are concerned about their condition as apples are transported at +2 to +5 without air ventilation.
Crime
A plastic surgeon was shot dead in Kyiv’s Saksahanskyy Street on the evening of 2 February. The attacker made several shots and allegedly snatched something from the victim. Police opened an investigation into premeditated murder.