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Scoop of the day: Ukrainian defence minister resigns

Scoop of the day: Ukrainian defence minister resigns

Reshuffle

Defence Minister Andriy Taran has tendered his resignation, the Cabinet of Ministers' representative in parliament, Taras Melnychuk, has said. The outgoing deputy prime minister and minister for the reintegration of temporarily occupied territories, Oleksiy Reznikov, is deemed to be the key candidate for defence minister.

According to Servant of the People faction head Davyd Arakhamiya, Taran is stepping down "due to his health condition and the need to carry out speedy reforms".

According to Melnychuk, the first deputy prime minister and economy minister, Oleksiy Lyubchenko, also tendered his resignation.

MPs plan to vote on the ministers' resignations on 3 November and on appointments on 4 November.

Donbas

A serviceman of the 128th detached mountain assault brigade, Serhiye Yelyseyev, was killed during the separatist shelling of Ukrainian positions near Pavlopil, the brigade has said.

Four ceasefire violations have been registered since midnight, including two with the weapons banned by the Minsk agreements.

Denial of Russian buildup

The secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov, has denied Western media reports on the buildup of Russian troops in Ukraine.

"There is a deliberate misinformation of the entire society. Let us say that what they write there does not correspond to reality. As of today, it does not correspond to reality. We observe all the processes, it is disinformation and we do not understand why they are doing it... What will happen tomorrow, we do not know, as of today there is no such clustering, such buildup they write about," Danilov told Radio Liberty.

Army

A former leader of the Right Sector and commander of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, Dmytro Yarosh, has told Radio Liberty that he was appointed an adviser to Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyy in October.

USA

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the climate summit in Glasgow.

"During a conversation with @POTUS in Glasgow, the security situation in Donbas was discussed. The USA continues to support territorial integrity and reforms in Ukraine," Zelenskyy tweeted about his meeting with Biden.

In a separate tweet Zelenskyy said that he and Blinken discussed the tense security situation in Donbas.

"Talked about Ukraine-US military-defense cooperation, challenges in the energy sector. The USA firmly supports Ukraine's territorial integrity, praises progress in reforms and a strong commitment to their implementation," he tweeted.

Electricity

Belarus has started to supply 500 MW electricity to Ukraine as part of emergency help, according to the Belarusian Energy Ministry.

Unauthorised stock

An unauthorized storage site for toxic substances has been discovered in Poltava Region. Among the seized items are toxins and biological agents that are pathogens of acute infectious diseases.

According to the SBU press service, the illegal storage site was found at one of the state enterprises in the region. A large quantity of highly hazardous poisonous substances, about 700 units of biological agents, approximately 15 l of precursors, almost 20 kg of chemicals of unidentified origin were found on the territory of the facility.

Coronavirus

Parliament gave the first reading to the bill (No 6084) providing criminal punishment for the forgery of Covid certificates and their use.

People without vaccination certificates or negative PCR tests will not be able to enter parliament, according to a resolution MPs adopted today.

Ukraine reported 19,455 new Covid-19 cases and 700 coronavirus-related deaths this morning.

Coronavirus survey

Some 36% of adult Ukrainians have been vaccinated against coronavirus, 18% said they were ready to be vaccinated and 43% were not ready, a survey conducted by the sociological group Rating has found out.

Some 41% of respondents are worried about the possibility to get sick with the virus, 57% do not have such fears. Some 77% are worried about health of their relatives and friends, 23% are not worried.

Poll

Some 56.9% of Ukrainians disapprove and 28.2% approve of the performance of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In July, these figures were 56.1 percent and 29.3 percent respectively, according to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).

Some 35.4% of respondents say that Zelenskyy has fully or partially fulfilled their hopes, although 4% of them say that he has fully fulfilled their hopes. Half of the respondents (47.7%) said that he did not meet their expectations. Another 14.2% said that they never had any hopes for Zelenskyy.

If parliamentary elections were held at the end of October, five parties would enter parliament.

"The biggest support would have gone to Servant of the People (18.3% of those who made up their minds), Opposition Platform-For Life (17%), Fatherland (15.4%), European Solidarity (15.1%) (the difference between the four parties is within the statistical error). Strength and Dignity (5.6%) also has over 5%. A bit below the threshold are Dmytro Razumkov's party (4.5%) and the Radical Party (4.5%). Compared to July, support for the top parties has changed within the margin of error," the survey results say.

Budget

Parliament has given the first reading to the 2022 draft budget.

Media

Opposition Platform-For Life MP Nestor Shufrych bought Teleprostir Ltd. in late October. The company is licensed for satellite broadcasting under the UkrLive logo.

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