Crime
The house of anticorruption activist Vitaliy Shabunin caught fire last night, he said on Facebook. No-one was hurt but the house got damaged. He suspects an arson attack. Police opened a criminal case into deliberate destruction or damage of property.
Roman Skrypnyk, a resident of Poltava, stole a car and took a police officer who attempted to stop him hostage, threatening others with a grenade. He later exchanged the officer for police Col Vitaliy Shyyan, demanded a Bohdan bus and left the city. In a while, he left the vehicle on the road and ran to the woods. The hostage was released unscathed. An operation is underway to catch the criminal.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has detained a crime boss known as Knyaz in Kharkiv Region. A total of four leaders and active members of the crime ring involved in extortion, raider attacks and premeditated murders in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava regions were detained.
Donbas
The agreement on a full and comprehensive ceasefire in Donbas as of the midnight of 27 July, which was reached by the trilateral contact group on 22 July, is to be signed by the leaders of the Normandy Four (France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine) to upgrade its status and increase the possibility of its observance, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said during a visit to Donbas.
Economy
Ukraine, the National Bank of Ukraine and the EU have signed a memorandum under which Kyiv will get 1.2bn euros in macrofinancial assistance, according to Interfax-Ukraine. This is a 15-year loan to be repaid at 0.125% per annum by 2035.
Ukraine has placed $2bn worth of Eurobonds at 7.25% per annum with maturity in March 2023, well-informed sources told Interfax-Ukraine.
Oleksandr Kokhanovskyy, the founder of the NAVI cybersport team, has bought the Dnipro Hotel in central Kyiv. He told AIN.ua that he planned to turn into an e-sports hotel and hub.
Football
Dynamo Kyiv FC appointed Mircea Lucescu as their new coach, sparking uproar from fans angry over the Romanian's 12-year spell in charge of arch-rival Shakhtar Donetsk. The club's ultras said they would protest over what they see as "the loss of the remaining sense, honour and dignity by the club's management".
Lutsk incident
A court in Lutsk has arrested Maksym Kryvosh, who took 13 people hostage on 21 July, for 60 days without the option of bail. He protested against two of four accounts under which he was arrested – an attempt on the life of a police officer when he threw a grenade, and that he demanded that Zelenskyy admit that he is a terrorist. Kryvosh said that initially he wanted to seize the St Trinity Cathedral in Lutsk, but later changed his mind. He called his act a performance and denied that he had any accomplices.
Coronavirus
By the morning of 23 July, Ukraine has registered 856 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, as well as 828 recoveries and 17 deaths, according to the Monitoring Centre of the National Security and Defence Council.