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Scoop of the day: Prosecutors want Poroshenko in custody

Scoop of the day: Prosecutors want Poroshenko in custody

Coronavirus

Ukraine has registered 666 new Covid-19 cases over the past day. The total number of coronavirus cases has reached 32,476.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's wife Olena, who tested positive for Covid-19, has been admitted to hospital in Kyiv with double pneumonia. She is in stable condition and does not require lung ventilation, according to the presidential office.

Zelenskyy has tasked the government to intensify international contacts to speed up the purchase of coronavirus vaccines.

The Interior Ministry's service centre in Kyiv closed down after some of its staff tested positive for the coronavirus.

Ivano-Frankivsk and its region will tighten coronavirus restrictions by temporarily closing gyms and fitness centres due to a high incidence rate.

Poroshenko's case

Prosecutors will ask the court to remand ex-President Petro Poroshenko in custody over what they see as the illegal appointment of Serhiy Semochko as deputy chief of the Foreign Intelligence Service, his lawyer Ilya Novikov has said. Controversial judge Serhiy Vovk will hear the prosecutors' motion on 18 June.

Novikov added that Poroshenko would not miss the court sitting even though his father Oleksiy Poroshenko, 84, died today.

Sternenko's case

After a series of protests in central Kyiv, the city's Shevchenkivskyy district court allowed public activist Serhiy Sternenko to stay under round-the-clock house arrest not in Odesa's military garrison, where he is registered, but in Kyiv, where he actually resides. Sternenko is suspected of premeditated murder after he killed his attacker in 2018.

Foreign policy

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has demanded that the Spanish TV and radio company RTVE correct one of its Covid-19 maps showing Crimea as Russian territory, First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova has said on Facebook.

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has invited his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend the 3rd Forum of Regions of Ukraine and Belarus, which is scheduled to be held in Hrodna in October.

The Israeli parliament will ratify the free trade agreement with Ukraine in the coming weeks, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi has told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba over the phone.

Crime

The Supreme Court has overruled the resolution of the Donetsk regional court of appeal which in 2017 refused to open appeal proceedings regarding the confiscation of $1.5bn dollars of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych's entourage. The Supreme Court ordered that the appeal be considered anew.

The HR commission of the Prosecutor-General's Office has opened a disciplinary action file against Deputy Prosecutor-General and top anticorruption prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytskyy. It is based on a complaint filed by the head of the General Inspectorate, Serhiy Lysachenko, the details of which are unavailable. Kholodnytskyy may be suspended while the complaint is being checked.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has filed a lawsuit against artist and blogger Serhiy Poyarkov over threats he allegedly made against him.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has exposed the commander of a Ukrainian warship when he was trying to pass confidential information about the Navy to Russian special services. Without the command's permission, he went to occupied Crimea where he began to cooperate with Russian special services and was granted Russian citizenship. He then returned to his base and started collecting confidential information.

The SBU has blocked an interregional network of bot farms in Kyiv and several other regions, which were managed from Russia. They had the capacity of generating fakes by 10,000 bots. They mostly focused on planting information aimed at escalating the conflict in Donbas, fueling negative sentiments and discrediting the Ukrainian authorities domestically and abroad.

The SBU officially accused a former militant chieftain, Russian national Igor Girkin (Strelkov), of violation of the rules of warfare, control of a terrorist organization, mass riots and seizure of government buildings.

Appointments

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed his adviser Ruslan Demchenko as first deputy secretary of the National Security and Defence Council.

Denys Maslov has been sworn in as propresidential Servant of the People faction MP instead of Oleksandr Tkachenko who was appointed culture minister.

Election

Former pro-Russian Opposition Bloc MP Mykhaylo Dobkin is planning to run for Kyiv mayor. Dobkin, who was the mayor of Kharkiv in 2006-10, said that he did not like Kyiv's current condition and would like to improve it.

Economy

Economy Minister Ihor Petrashko has said described the situation as catastrophic because of the 2% inflation rate. He explained that the macroeconomic forecast was based on the 11% inflation rate while the National Bank of Ukraine expected it to be around 5.8-6%.

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