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Scoop of the day: Western Ukraine braces for flooding, coronavirus spike

Scoop of the day: Western Ukraine braces for flooding, coronavirus spike

Coronavirus

Ukraine has registered 681 new coronavirus cases. There have been a total of 37,241 Covid-19 cases, including 1,012 deaths and 16,642 recoveries, since the start of the epidemic.

Volyn has tightened quarantine restrictions due to a spike in the coronavirus rate. Kindergartens, restaurants and cafes will be closed, interregional public transport services cancelled.

Kyiv and Vinnytsya Region are now among the regions which may soften quarantine regulations now that the Health Ministry has changed its criteria.

Primary coronavirus hospitals in Transcarpathian Region are now 59.65% loaded while the top limit is 50%, the Health Ministry added.

The State Epidemiological Commission has permitted external independent testing for school leavers to be held from 25 June to 17 July, as planned.

The owners and managers of retail chains and cafes in Kyiv will have to arrange enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay tests for the coronavirus for their staff, according to an instruction by Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he will pay a fine for breaching the quarantine rules during a visit to a café in Khmelnytskyy regardless of the court decision.

Risk of flooding

Emergency safety arrangements have been taken due to flooding in Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi regions, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has announced. Hundreds of rescuers and police officers are involved in the efforts.

USA

The leader of the European Solidarity faction and ex-president, Petro Poroshenko, has called on the Ukrainian authorities to put up resolute resistance to acts of sabotage by pro-Russian forces. He said that by leaking some information, former KGB school graduate and MP Andriy Derkach is helping the Kremlin to meddle in the US elections.

Donbas

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine insists on holding a meeting of the Normandy Four leaders "in the coming months" despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Novotroyitske checkpoint on the line of contact in Donbas has resumed operation

Domestic politics

The newly-established party Propozytsiya will not be in opposition to the pro-presidential party Servant of the People, its founding members and mayors of a number of Ukrainian cities and towns have told LB.ua. According to Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov, they are ready to partner with Servant of the People to form a majority, if local elections are hold in a fair manner.

The Committee of Voters of Ukraine has found that 58 members of the pro-presidential party Servant of the People have never spoken from the rostrum over the nine months of the current parliament convocation.

Chornobyl

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has declassified archive documents on the construction of and disaster at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, covering the period from the early 1970s to November 1986.

Nostalgia for USSR

Half of Ukrainians do not regret the collapse of the Soviet Union whereas one in three Ukrainians does, a poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology has found out. Some 35% (48% in 2013) believe that it made Ukraine more good being within the USSR while 28% (18% in 2013) said it did more harm.

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