Coronavirus
Ukraine expects to receive the first batch of a coronavirus vaccine, presumably by AstraZeneca,on 16-17 February, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said on the air of Inter TV.
Ukraine has identified 2,332 new cases of Covid-19 after running 11,073 tests, Stepanov said in the morning update on Facebook. Some 2,478 patients have recovered and 62 died.
Donbas
Russia-backed militants have violated the ceasefire twice since midnight, the Joint Forces Operation HQ said in its evening update. They fired with an anti-tank grenade launcher near Slavne, a mounted automatic grenade launcher and a heavy machine-gun near Svitlodarsk.
The National Security and Defence Council will discuss the situation in Donbas among other matters at its meeting on 19 February, according to Servant of the People MP Iryna Vereshchuk.
Ex-President Petro Poroshenko has said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces should be returned to the positions they had been at before the so-called disengagement; unit commanders should be delegated the right to decide on returning fire and counter-sniper groups should be returned to the line of contact.
NABU
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the bill on the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Justice Minister Denys Malyuska has said. If adopted, Artem Sytnyk will be removed from the post of NABU head and his first deputy Gizo Uglava will step in.
By-elections
Ex-President Petro Poroshenko's European Solidarity will nominate cardiologist and army support volunteer Yuliya Kuzmenko in the parliamentary by-elections in single-seat constituency No 50 in Donetsk Region. In 2019, she was declared a suspect in the murder case of journalist Pavlo Sheremet.
Media
Exclusive: The National Council for TV and Radio Broadcasting has initiated a court action to annul the licenses of the pro-Russian TV channels 112 Urayina, NewsOne and ZIK after the NSDC slapped them with sanctions and banned from broadcasting for five years, Information Policy and Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko has told LB.ua.
According to Tkachenko, when he was leaving the One Plus One media group in 2019, he had no information that Vladimir Putin's friend Viktor Medvedchuk owned a stake in the eponymous TV channel. He added that Medvedchuk cannot own 25% in the channel.