Gas
Ukraine offered Russia a discount for shipping natural gas to Europe to increase supply and ease the region’s energy crunch, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The discount applies to volumes beyond the contractual 40bn cu.m. a day of natural gas that Ukraine already transports to Europe from Russia, Zelenskyy said Friday in emailed comments to Bloomberg News.
Ukraine is ready to provide additional volumes of gas transit to the EU in the amount of 55bn cu.m. per year on special terms. The Ukrainian presidential press service said that this was discussed at a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council on 22 October.
Nord Stream 2
Europe may be subjected to gas blackmail by Russia and allow the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to start operation without certification of the operator, Lana Zerkal, an adviser to the Ukrainian energy minister, told Radio Liberty.
Asked whether Europe could be subjected to Russian gas blackmail and risk launching the pipeline without certification, Zerkal said: "There is such a risk."
Defence minister
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed a candidate for defence minister, according to Censor.net editor in chief Yuriy Butusov. Zelenskyy wants Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories to replace Andriy Taran.
Donbas
Two Ukrainian servicemen were wounded in Donbas, the Joint Forces Operation HQ said on 23 October.
Three ceasefire violations were registered on 23 October. Russia-backed militants shelled Novozvanivka with 120-mm mortars.
US military aid
The third batch of additional international security assistance worth 60m dollars from the US government has arrived in Ukraine for the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's press service has said.
The new shipment includes ammunition, anti-tank and precision-guided weapons, medical equipment and the like.
Coronavirus
Only four regions remain in the yellow quarantine zone as of 24 October, according to the Health Ministry. These are Vinnytsya, Transcarpathian, Kirovohrad and Poltava regions.
On the morning of 24 October, Ukraine reported 20,791 new Covid-19 cases and 386 fatalities.
Certificate fraud
Investigators in Khmelnytskyy Region are investigating the case of entering false data on coronavirus vaccinations into the eHealth database, the regional police have said.
The investigation has revealed that the data on vaccination, which was not carried out, was entered by officials of one of the regional medical institutions to conceal the loss of the coronavirus vaccine.
Kharkiv
The Zombie festival, which was initially scheduled for 30-31 October and later cancelled due to the dire coronavirus situation in the city, will take place after all. The spokesman for the Gorky park, where the event is to take place, said all quarantine requirements would be observed.
Russia
Russia will not be able to prevent residents of temporarily occupied Donbas and Crimea from communicating with the Ukrainian authorities, Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko commented on Russian diplomats' reaction to the initiative to set up centres for communication with the president along the line of contact with the self-proclaimed Donetsk Region and occupied Crimea. The initiative was recently announced by the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov.