Coronavirus
On the morning of 22 December, Ukraine reported 8,513 new Covid-19 cases, 232 fatalities and 14,020 recoveries. The case total since the start of the pandemic has thus reached 979,506.
The Health Ministry has approved a coronavirus vaccination schedule. The first to get a jab in January-April 2021 are high-risk groups, including those performing critical functions in fighting the pandemic.
According to the State Statistics Service, 8,350 out of 485,734 people, who died in January-October, had the Covid-19 diagnosis, while 6,818 succumbed to flu and pneumonia.
Donbas
The Joint Forces Operation HQ registered six ceasefire violations by pro-Russian militants on 21 December, including near Zolote-4, Pivdenne, Luhanske, Shumy and Vodyane. Two Ukrainian servicemen sustained shrapnel wounds near Pivdenne.
Defence
Exclusive: The newly-appointed director of the state defence concern Ukroboronprom, Yuriy Husyev, expects the first results of his company's reform, such as the adoption of legal norms and managerial decisions on the establishment of individual holdings.
"I would not talk about decentralization, on the contrary, I would talk about consolidation. Whereas today Ukroboronprom employs 137 companies, it is planned to establish a holding company, Defence Systems of Ukraine, which is to include 65 companies, and Aerospace Holding, which will include three major sub-holdings: aerospace, aerospace components and space systems," Husyev has said in an exclusive interview with LB.ua.
Economy
Exclusive: There are no reasons to be preparing for budget sequestration, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko has told LB.ua. "We have carefully calculated all the economic capabilities of the country, tax administration reserves. In particular, by fighting the 'shadow' sector. The revenues are supported by detailed calculations. This is real money which the state plans to receive next year," he said.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has allowed Tomas Fiala's Dragon Capital Investments Limited (Cyprus) to buy pro-Russian MP Vadym Novinskyy's Unex Bank.
Datagroup, a fixed communications and digital services provider, has announced that it has secured a deal to buy 100% in Volia, a leading telecommunications and content services provider.
Crime
The Special Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) will ask the court to put a deputy head of the presidential office, Oleh Tatarov, in custody with a bail option of 10m hryvnyas, Interfax-Ukraine has learnt from a SAPO source.
Unidentified individuals have stormed the house of Brovary mayor Ihor Sapozhko and beaten him. They have also robbed the house. Sapozhko described the attack as @political pressure and reprisal" seeking to force him to leave the election run. Sapozhko has been the town's mayor since 2010.
Appointments
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed the former first deputy economy minister, Yuliya Svyrydenko, as a deputy head of the presidential office. Zelenskyy also dismissed deputy head Yuliya Kovaliv, who announced her resignation yesterday