EU-Ukraine Summit
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, President of the European Council Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen held the 23rd EU-Ukraine Summit in Kyiv today, which culminated in the adoption of a joint statement.
They reaffirmed their continued commitment to strengthening the political association and economic integration of Ukraine with the European Union; acknowledged the European aspirations of Ukraine and welcomed its European choice; recognised the substantial progress made by Ukraine in its reform process and agreed on the need to further enhance these efforts; acknowledged the importance of further strengthening cooperation in countering hybrid threats and tackling disinformation; and reaffirmed Ukraine's role as a strategic transit country for gas and reiterated our support to continue gas transit via Ukraine beyond 2024.
"Together with the EU, we share the opinion that the responsibility for the lack of progress in the peace settlement in Donbas lies entirely with Russia, which is undoubtedly a party to the conflict, which is recorded in the Joint Statement today," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Open Sky Agreement
Ukraine and the EU have signed an Open Sky Agreement. The signing took place on the sidelines of the 23rd EU-Ukraine summit in the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The agreement provides for airlines' access to all Ukrainian and European airports without restrictions.
Medvedchuk's case
Kyiv's Pecherskyy district court has imposed a measure of restraint in the form of house arrest on pro-Russian MP Viktor Medvedchuk in the so-called "coal" case, Interfax-Ukraine has said. Thus the court dismissed the prosecutors' request to arrest Medvedchuk with an option of bail of 1bn hryvnyas. Medvedchuk will remain under house arrest at least until 7 December 2021.
The Prosecutor-General's Office has aready said that it will appeal the court decision.
Coronavirus
Kherson Region will enter the red quarantine zone as of 15 October, the minister of the Cabinet of Ministers, Oleh Nemchinov, has said on Telegram.
International arbitration
The Ukrainian side has spoken at a hearing in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in the case of the seizure of three Ukrainian ships and their crews by Russia in 2018, UNN has reported.
Ukraine criticised the remarks made by Russian representatives yesterday.
"The Russian Federation has violated a fundamental principle of the law of the sea - the inviolability of warships. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea guarantees this immunity. This means that the Ukrainian naval ships Nikopol, Berdyansk and Yana Kapu are an expression of our sovereignty and must be respected as such. But Russia does not adhere to international law," the director of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's international law department, Oksana Zolotaryova, who represents the country at the hearing, said.
Cyber attack on pharmacy network
The pharmacy retailer ANTs suffered a large-scale cyber-attack which blocked its data system. The hackers are demanding a ransom in Bitcoins from the company but it will not pay, its CEO Mykola Shcherbyna has said.
"A group of professional hackers broke the company's information security system, blocked the website, shut off the Internet in pharmacies and demanded a ransom for the ability to continue working. Because ANTs is the largest national network of pharmacies, the attackers have deprived hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians of the opportunity to safely and conveniently access drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic. That is why my principled position, the position of my colleagues and shareholders - despite the losses incurred and potential - to not conduct any negotiations with cyber terrorists, much less pay them, because, in essence, it would make their 'business' stronger and open the door to new attacks," he said.