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MOSCOWAmericans can be forgiven if they are sick of hearing about Ukraine and corruption in connection with Donald Trump and Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The long road to President Trumps impeachment in the House of Representatives and the quick business of acquittal in the Senate left people in the United States drained and desperate to turn the page.

But now it looks like Ukraine is about to open that book again. In the foreground, a lot of broken promises by the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky. In the background, Russian President Vladimir Putin. How much of a role Trump operatives are playing in the picture is unclear.

Last week, Zelensky shook up his cabinet. He fired several ministers pursuing anti-corruption reforms and axed the prosecutor general, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, who had managed to win the respect of clean-government activists in Kyiv.

Ryaboshapka was seen to be doing his level best to avoid pressure from Trump and his personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani to investigate Hunter Bidens relationship with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, where he held a lucrative position on the board.

Zelensky and his aides had also seemed reluctant to pursue such an agenda, which has a great deal more to do with partisan American politics than it does with rooting out Ukrainian corruption. But Zelensky said the fired ministers were underperforming.

The decision to fire him was based on 'bald-face lies,' said the general prosecutor.

Long-time Ukraine watchers saw something more ominous: a pivot away from attempts at sustainable reform, and one toward the presidential elections in the United States.

In the infamous phone call between Trump and Zelensky last July, youll recall, Trump asked Zelensky for a favor: to investigate Burisma and the Bidens. This at a time when Trump was withholding vital military aid from Ukraine.

Zelensky told Trump in July he would soon appoint a prosecutor who would look into the Bidens and who would be 100 percent my person, my candidate. Zelensky assured Trump that this loyal prosecutor will take care of that, will work on the investigation of the case.And just as Zelensky promised, Ryaboshapka did look at the facts, but he always chose his words carefully: Instead of investigating Burisma, he said he intended to audit the case.

Apparently that wasnt enough. In a farewell speech to Ukraines parliament, the Rada, Ryaboshapka warned of the return of pro-Russian politicians to Ukrainian politics, some of the very same who were pushed out of the country by a pro-European revolution six years ago, ending decades of corrupt dominance of its economic and political life.

Zelensky and his team are in the process of eliminating everyone who is independent in the cabinet and in the supervisory boards.

Melinda Haring, deputy director of the Atlantic Councils Eurasia Center

They want to return and live the same way they had lived for 28 years, said Ryaboshapka, that is why I am standing here. The decision to fire him was based on bald-face lies, he said. He had refused to bow to the wishes of Zelensky or members of his Servant of the People party that he pursue politicized cases, he said. I have never been anybodys servant. I have beenI remainindependent. Nobody can influence an independent prosecutor. He can only be fired.

Zelensky and his team are in the process of eliminating everyone who is independent in the cabinet and in the supervisory boards, says Melinda Haring, deputy director of the Atlantic Councils Eurasia Center. Prosecutor Ryaboshapka was too independent and too committed to playing by the rules, she told The Daily Beast. Its entirely possible that they need someone in the general prosecutors seat who will comply with a bogus investigation of Burisma.

Currently there are many politicians in Kyiv pushing for Ukraine to fulfill Trumps favor.

Oleg Voloshin is a member of the For Life party. Its chairman is Victor Medvechuk, a close Putin friend and associate. On Thursday, he condemned Ryaboshapka and all his supporters while pushing the Kremlin line that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the U.S. presidential elections of 2016. Voloshin told the Rada that the outgoing prosecutor and others are are very much terrified of the investigation of Ukraines interference in 2016 American presidential elections and of the objective investigation against Burisma.

A report by Morgan Stanley released earlier this week recommended investors sell Ukrainian government bonds.

Ukraines leading corruption fighters and political analysts believe that the changes underway may drag the country right back into the arms of pro-Russian figures, and that the shift will also hasten Zelenskys lean toward Trump on the issue of investigations.

Daria Kaleniuk, director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, is convinced that Moscow is using the moment to strengthen its powers in Ukraine at a moment when the U.S. is focused on coronavirus and election news, and Europe is overwhelmed with the epidemic as well as a new refugee crisis.

The reshuffle of our government is a direct threat to American-Ukrainian relations: Putins friend, MP Viktor Medvechuk and his party For Life, sing in unison with President Zelenskys party, the Servant of the People, calling to investigate the Bidens, Kaleniuk said. It would be a catastrophe for our future relations with the United States if we stop being bipartisan and take just one position: pro-Republican.

Foreign investors, too, had a negative reaction to the new personalities coming to top positions in Ukraines government and their vague attitude toward International Monetary Fund requirements for reform and transparency.

Some new ministers have rsums that suggest not the slightest intention to reform. The new prime minister, 44-year-old Denis Shmygal, previously worked for the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov in 2017-2019 as director of his Burshtyn power plant.

A report by Morgan Stanley released last week recommended investors sell Ukrainian government bonds, before the uncertainty in Kyiv expanded the budget deficit. We recommend selling Ukraine-2030 Eurobonds and buying Egypt-2031 bonds, said the report, noting that prominent reformers had lost out, including former Economy Minister Timofey Milovanov and former Finance Minister Oksana Markarova.

Ukraine has hundreds of top managers, I dont see many on Zelenskys team, said the Atlantic Councils Melinda Haring. Also, the purge is not over, they will go after the leadership of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, NABU, and the National Bank of Ukraine next, unless the West makes a ton of noise.

Zelensky came to power last year thanks to the massive support of his fans, TV viewers of the satirical television series called Servant of the People. Zelenskys on-screen character, an ordinary schoolteacher, gets elected Ukraines president and the first thing he does is to bring down the most powerful oligarchs, fictional men akin to the countrys richest billionairesRenat Akhmetov, Ihor Kolomoisky, and Dmytro Firtash. In real life, at least two, Kolomoisky and Akhmetov, seem to grow more influential in Ukrainian politics by the day. (Firtash is in Vienna awaiting extradition to the United States.)

Zelensky continues to compare his presidency to his television role while recognizing there are greater challenges in real life.Its true there are more problems. They are catastrophic, Zelensky told The Guardian in an interview published last week. They appear, Im sorry to say, like pimples on an 18-year-old kid. You dont know where they will pop up, or when.

But zits rarely do as much damage as a cabinet shuffle weighted in favor of corruption. This is a turning point for Zelensky and Ukraine, says Vitaly Sych, editor in chief of the well-respected magazine Novoye Vremia. Too many clean, professional ministers aiming to change Ukraine for the better had to leave the cabinet, said Sych. This is nothing left but populism.

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Is Ukraine About to Re-Open the Biden Investigation? - The Daily Beast

The draft law on priority decisions related to the prevention, prophylaxis and elimination of the COVID-19 coronavirus, other infectious diseases associated with it, as well as crisis response measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic provides a clear algorithm for forced isolation and self-isolation, as well as liability for non-compliance with quarantine.

Minister of Health of Ukraine Illia Yemets presented the bill on Friday to MPs and representatives of relevant departments at a meeting of the working group under the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Health, Medical Assistance and Medical Insurance to draft legislative proposals aimed at preventing the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Ukraine.

The bill also provides for the simplification of the procurement of goods, works and services to prevent and combat coronavirus, which will speed up the process of purchasing personal protective equipment and test systems; the ability to work remotely; a ban on holding mass events with more than 200 people; a ban on conducting state surveillance and control measures during the implementation of measures related to the prevention and control of coronavirus; strengthening control of entry and exit to the territory of Ukraine.

According to the press service of the Ministry of Health, deputies supported the initiative and made several amendments to it.

See the article here:
Ukraine develops bill on COVID-19 introducing liability for non-compliance with quarantine - Interfax Ukraine

On March 16, 10 million medical masks will be handed over to healthcare facilities throughout Ukraine, according to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

Tomorrow we will transfer 10 million medical masks to healthcare facilities across Ukraine, Shmyhal wrote on his Telegram channel on March 15.

He also added that together with Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko, he had checked regional medical warehouses.

Ukrainian doctors and junior medical personnel in Ukraine are fantastic people! the prime minister wrote.

As Ukrinform reported, the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic.

Three coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Ukraine, including one death.

Starting from March 12, a quarantine has been introduced in Ukraine for three weeks, as well a package of anti-epidemic measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

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PM Shmyhal: 10 mln masks to be transferred to healthcare establishments around Ukraine - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

Late last July we packed our bags into a small Fiat and headed for a tour of Eastern Europe. Our route took us through the Baltics and Poland, but the main attractions for us were Ukraine and Romania, for their mountain roads, good beer and cooking and especially the weird cars.

Ive enjoyed car spotting posts on various car sites and social media as long as I can remember, so it feels like its only my duty to try and document the automotive oddities either still doing daily driver duty or spending their retirement years hidden in a bush somewhere by the side of the road. Luckily, our drive through these countries proved them to be a veritable treasure trove of strange cars, or regular cars in strange places.

After we woke up on our first day in in the city of Lviv, western Ukraine, it was time to find some breakfast. A stroll in a new city is fantastic for me as it feels like an unopened book, full of unexpected weirdness just waiting for me to find out about it. And what better to start that off than a really badly beaten Alfa Romeo 75, missing large parts of its front end and its hood the wrong color.

I bet theres a story here, how an Alfa like this ended up in Ukraine and how it got into this condition, but it might take as long to piece the story together as it takes to fix the car.

Old, rear-engined Skodas are all kinds of neat and I was happy to spot at least one on this trip. The ochre paint job on this one seemed to fit it well.

There are some Chinese-built cars on the roads of Ukraine, and it might be the westernmost country where you could spot a Chery Amulet.

Amulets use the bodyshell of the first generation Seat Toledo, but the engine is the Ford CVH four-cylinder found in Escorts and Focuses. They seemed to be surprisingly common, too. I think Blake Z. Rong told me he learned to drive in one of these. I shot this clean one in front of a coffee roastery in Lviv.

The ZAZ Tavria is a weird little hatch that perhaps resembles an 80s Mitsubishi or Daihatsu, but its all Soviet. These things were made in Ukraine, and this one has been modified a little. The wheels are original, however, and those really are some enormous hubs.

The AZLK-2141 or Moskvich Aleko is certainly one of the cars I set out to find on this trip, and I was really happy to spot this one as they werent exactly a common sight any more.

A lot of the dimensions and measurements on the Aleko match the late-1970s Chrysler Alpine / Talbot 1307, but nothing is interchangeable.

Another car I definitely wanted to spot on the trip was a Volga, and out of the ones I saw I picked this GAZ-31105 to represent them. Its a modernized version of the original GAZ-24 dating back to the late 60s - early 70s, but this one can be as new as a 2004. We saw this 31105 near the Tsipa brewery in Kvasy, not far from the Romanian border. Its worth visiting if youre ever in the region.

Heres one of the more surprising sights of our trip. I didnt expect to see an Iranian-made IKCO Samand in Ukraine, but here it is. These cars are heavily based on the Peugeot 405 running gear, as those are also made in Iran. I dont think the Samand was sold in many countries other than Iran, but this is actually one of two Samands I saw in Ukraine.

There are a lot of right-hand-drive Japanese second-hand cars on Russian roads, but I was also able to see some in Ukraine. This turbocharged 80s Mitsubishi Galant E15 was a surprise, as its weathered the years fairly well despite a couple of bumps and bruises. The ELECTRO JET sticker probably means something noteworthy on these.

Nivas usually rule, and this one was no exception. The bolted on arch extensions, the big wheels and offroad tires, the improvised bumper and winch, the DIY snorkel - theres so much to appreciate here.

If Im being perfectly honest with you, I didnt expect to see a Mercury Topaz in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. But after seeing so many slightly strange cars among all the Skodas and Dacias, the Topaz seemed to make sense in a really off-beat way.

Same goes for this really quite tired looking Citron BX, sitting just a few meters from the Tempo. When these cars were new, you would have been hard pressed to see them almost next to each other anywhere in the world. But some 35 years on, here they were in southern Ukraine. And so was I.

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Here Are Only Some Of The Good Cars We Saw In Ukraine - Jalopnik

Among other measures, the draft bans mass events with more than 200 participants.

Photo from UNIAN

The ministry's press service says the draft provides for:

- Streamlined procurement of goods, works, and services to prevent and combat coronavirus, which will speed up the process of purchasing personal protective equipment and test systems;

- An opportunity for employees to work from home;

- A ban on holding mass events with more than 200 participants;

- A ban on control and supervision procedures during the implementation of measures related to preventing and fighting the coronavirus;

Read alsoUkraine reports first coronavirus death

- Strengthening border control; and

- A clear algorithm of forced isolation and self-isolation and liability for non-compliance with quarantine rules.

As reported earlier, the Ministry of Health has recommended all employers for the period of a national-wide quarantine to allow employees to work from home.

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Forced isolation and work from home: Ukraine's government drafts "coronavirus" bill - UNIAN