President's office accused of pressure
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed as "hype" the statements made by the presenters of the Countdown talk show on the Ukrainian public TV UA:First who accused the presidential office of putting pressure on them.
Presenter Myroslava Barchuk said the presidential office made an ultimatum on 11 October that the show should feature two members of the president's Servant of People party or none of them will come. A week later the presidential office said the MPs would come only if another guest, MP Geo Leros was disinvited. Barchuk's co-presenter Pavlo Kazarin validated her words.
Crime
Kyiv's Pecherskyy district court has upheld a request by the State Investigation Bureau to arrest former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov in absentia on suspicion of state treason. The case concerns the preparation and signing of the so-called 2010 Kharkiv agreements under which the stationing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea was extended by 25 years in exchange for a 100-dollar discount on Russian gas for Ukraine.
Donbas
A Ukrainian serviceman was wounded amid nine ceasefire violations in Donbas, the Joint Forces Operation HQ has said. On three occasions separatists used heavy weapons banned by the Minsk agreements.
Coronavirus
Ukraine ranked sixth in the world and fourth in Europe by the daily number of new Covid-19 cases. By the number of Covid fatalities, it ended up fourth and third respectively.
This morning Ukraine reported 18,912 new Covid-19 cases and 495 deaths.
Sumy Region will join five other regions in the red quarantine zone as of 23 October.
According to Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, Kyiv is on the doorstep of the red zone. He urged city residents to get vaccinated.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the red zone may expand but the authorities are not planning a nationwide lockdown yet.
Kyiv mayor
Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko has met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time this year, he told ZN.ua. "We have had a long discussion about the capital's problems," he said.
ZN.ua suggested that they discussed the presidential office's plans to separate the posts of Kyiv's mayor and the head of the Kyiv city state administration. Both are currently held by Klitschko.
Crime prevention
The Security Service of Ukraine's (SBU) counterintelligence has blocked the smuggling of metallic mercury from Transcarpathian Region to the EU. The highly toxic substance could be used for mass chemical attacks. The smugglers were stopped as they were trying to ship 3 kg of mercury, the SBU said.