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Scoop of the day: Zelenskyy reports on two years in office

Scoop of the day: Zelenskyy reports on two years in office

President's presser

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has held a nearly three-hour-long news conference at Kyiv's Antonov aircraft plant to look back at his two years in office.

Some of his key statements are:

- At a pending summit, US President Joe Biden and Russia's Vladimir Putin will discuss Ukraine within the agenda pre-agreed with Ukraine only. However, there is a risk that the USA may lift sanctions on Russia's Nord Stream gas pipeline project under pressure or in exchange for something. This would spell a defeat for Biden and the USA.

- By issuing its passports to Donbas residents, Russia is making the first step towards the annexation of the region, similarly to how it did in Crimea.

- The Ukrainian presidential office is in contact with Russians to arrange a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin.

- A referendum may be called on the issue of Donbas.

- Zelenskyy's government would not require the services of former officials, such as ex-prime ministers Volodymyr Groysman, Yuliya Tymoshenko or Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

- An anti-oligarch bill may be tabled next week. It does not seek to kill big business but is called to stem their influence on the media, politics and officials.

- The "era" of Ukrainian pro-Russian politician and Putin's friend Viktor Medvedchuk is coming to an end now that he is suspected of high treason.

- Zelenskyy does not rule out the counterintelligence of the Security Service of Ukraine may have been involved in the killing of Belarus-born Russian journalist Pavel Sheremet in Kyiv in July 2016.

Government appointments

Parliament has appointed Chief Sanitary Doctor Viktor Lyashko as health minister, Tax Service head Oleksiy Lyubchenko as first deputy prime minister and economy minister, and Ukravtodor road maintenance company head Oleksandr Kubrakov as infrastructure minister.

EU travel

Ukraine and the EU have reached a political agreement on the possibility of mutually recognizing "vaccination passports", Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanyshyna has said. The decision can be quickly implemented at the technical level too.

Land reform

The G7 ambassadors based in Kyiv said on Twitter they were looking to forward to "completing the steps needed for effective implementation of land reform when the market opens on 1 July. This includes monitoring of land ownership & transactions, public info on land users’ and owners’ rights, and credit access for small farmers".

Security

On the request of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Culture and Information Policy Ministry has blacklisted Russian actors Igor Kopylov, Igor Petrenko and Maria Mironova as persons posing a threat to Ukraine's security.

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