Gorshenin Institute's announcement
Gorshenin Institute will host a roundtable "Global finance reform: a search for the best ways in an unstable system" at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, 8 December. The event is organized by Growford Institute and Gorshenin Institute with the information support of LB.ua.
Coronavirus
Ukraine registered 13,141 new Covid-19 cases, 13,882 recoveries and 169 deaths in 24 hours by the morning of 2 December. The case total has reached 758,264.
The Cabinet of Ministers will not extend the weekend quarantine, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said. There were 6,000 cases fewer than projected and "the situation with hospital bed occupancy is evening out". Restrictions applicable to the orange zone will be in effect until further notice.
The Cabinet of Ministers is working on a project of population-wide testing for coronavirus, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said in an interview with the Korrespondent magazine. "The priorities are Kyiv and the region, regional centres and big cities with the population of over 100,000 people," he noted. He also added that restrictions on business operations would be introduced at the end of the year.
There will be no lockdown until Catholic Christmas, that is 25 December, Ukrinform has quoted Servant of the People MP Halyna Yanchenko as saying.
Exclusive: Tymofiy Mylovanov, an adviser to presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak, has spoken in favour of a long-term lockdown in an interview with LB.ua. "I speak for the introduction of long-term, three- or four-week continuous restrictions not for the whole economy but where the probability of virus spread is the highest," he said.
A poll by the Rating sociological group has found that 58% of Ukrainians support the introduction of a lockdown during New Year holidays.
The Cabinet of Ministers has exempted foreign-made coronavirus vaccines and a number of antibiotics from VAT, Interfax-Ukraine has reported. A day earlier, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said that his office would need 15.1bn hryvnyas for Covid-19 vaccination whereas the draft budget only has 2.6bn hryvnyas.
Russia
Ukraine and its partners have foiled Russia's attempt to legitimize representatives of the separatis republic in Donbas using the Appia format of the UN Security Council, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.
Crime
Former MP Maksym Mykytas, who is suspected of seizing the property of the main department of the National Guard of Ukraine in the so-called Ukrbud case, has voluntarily reimbursed 50m hryvnyas of the 81.64m-hryvnya losses to the state budget. All suspects' property worth 300m hryvnyas was impounded and 30m hryvnyas was charged to the state budget due to the violation of the suspect's obligations, the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has said.
The NABU has accused Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova of interfering in the Ukrbud case by preventing its detectives and anticorruption prosecutors from serving a notice of suspicion to a former employee of the state-owned Ukrbud construction company by disqualifying four prosecutors in the case. According to Ukrayinska Pravda, the potential suspect in question is a deputy head of the presidential office, Oleh Tatarov.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has foiled an attempt by two Ukrainian women returning from the Middle East to import a batch of diamonds worth almost 17m hryvnyas without customs clearance at Boryspil International Airport.
Cryptocurrency
Parliament has passed the bill on virtual assets as a whole, thus having made a step towards cryptocurrency legalisation.
Reshuffle
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the dismissal of Yuriy Husyev as head of the Kherson regional state administration due to his change of job. As reported earlier, Husyev will head the state-owned concern Ukroboronprom.
Accident
A miner at the Dobropilska mine in Donetsk Region was deadly injured when he got under the shaft of a coal-mining machine. Investigation is under way.