BBC News | The communist soldier using charity sites to fund his war - BBC News BBC News Several Americans and Brits are using charity donation websites to finance their war efforts in eastern Ukraine. |
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The communist soldier using charity sites to fund his war - BBC News - BBC News
Ukraine's prospects are looking up.
Two years ago, the countrys then finance minister Natalie Jaresko was seeking fiscal aid. The economy was shattered by war with Russia, which saw GDP plummet by 9.7 per cent in 2015.
Things look rather different for her successor. Oleksandr Danylyuk, a former executive with consultant McKinsey in London, took over in early 2016, just as the economy started to rebound.
Earlier this month, he returned to the capital to sell investments in an economy which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says may be on the verge of a boom.
Growth will be two per cent this year, Danylyuk predicts, before accelerating to three per cent in 2018, in line with IMF forecasts.
Read more: Ukraine's central bank pulls plug on PwC bank audit rights over PrivatBank
Even with the shadow of its aggressive neighbour still casting a pall over the east of the country, Danylyuk projects a palpable confidence in his countrys prospects.
Given where Ukraine is, we can easily grow six per cent [in a year], he tells City A.M.
On the back of the expected rebound, the Ukrainian government is looking to re-enter international bond markets for the first time since 2013, potentially with an autumn issue.
The exact amount to be issued has not yet been decided, Danylyuk insists, although a figure between $500m (385m) and $1.5bn currently seems most likely.
The success or failure of reforms will be the driving force for demand for Ukrainian debt, with big changes in energy, healthcare and a new land market on the way.
Danylyuk says: All the reforms we are doing are actually aimed at making these sectors attractive to investors. We understand that internal resources are limited.
The government has already made big and sometimes domestically unpopular changes, including the removal of energy subsidies.
They are also set to introduce a requirement for pensioners to pay tax for a minimum number of years before they can draw a state pension, a move which will broaden the tax base.
Read more: Ukraine vows to "vigorously" defend itself over Russian loan
Another central plank of the changes is the fight against corruption. There is close to zero tolerance for corruption in Ukraine, says Danylyuk.
The Euromaidan revolution in 2014 which brought the current government of President Petro Poroshenko to power was driven in part by frustration with the cronyism of the previous government.
Yet Ukraine ranks 131st in Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index, level with Iran and Russia, and corruption in the private sector is much lower down the list of priorities, Danylyuk admits.
Not many people in Ukraine think about [private sector corruption] this way, he says. The corruption thing is something happening within the state, the government.
If corruption was one driver of the 2014 revolution, the other was the chance to throw off the yoke of Russian influence and move closer to Europe.
Russias response was brutal, annexing Crimea to the south and the thinly-veiled instigation of a separatist occupation in the eastern Donbas region.
The prospect of a frozen war that occasionally flares up into violence is hardly conducive to a thriving economy, and Russia is still capable of turning the screw: a trade blockade this year may have knocked a whole percentage point off annual growth.
However, Danylyuk is relatively sanguine about the Russian threat, which he characterises as an expensive artificial boost of patriotism by Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine has completely weaned itself off Russian energy imports since 2014, while recent economic growth proves the country is resilient.
There is not much they can do actually to further destabilise [Ukraine], so its a good signal, says Danylyuk. Im very optimistic.
Unsurprisingly, Danylyuk is firm that sanctions on Russia must remain in place, praising the US, France and the UK, one of the most reliable partners, for their pressure.
While pushing for the international community to ostracise Russia, the longer-term vision for his country the vision he is selling to investors is a globalised Ukraine more deeply embedded in the institutions of the West.
Its an open, vibrant economy, deeply integrated with the European Union free-trade area, but also having very extensive links with other countries, he says. It will be a totally new economy.
Read more: The problem with Ukraine and Iraq isnt Putin and Islamic State
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Ukraine is set for a new lease of life: A country at war tries to return both to normality and the bond markets - City A.M.
LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Belarus sees no solution to the crisis between its neighbors Russia and Ukraine without another regional summit, the country's Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said on Monday.
"I believe that for now there are no prospects for a solution to the Ukraine crisis," Makei told a joint news conference with his Slovenian counterpart Karl Erjavec during a one-day visit to Slovenia on Monday.
"To solve the crisis the Minsk agreements would have to be respected, which unfortunately is not the case today," Makei, who was speaking through an interpreter, said in reference to an agreement reached in the capital of Belarus in 2014 and 2015.
This was designed to ensure a ceasefire and long-term stability after the crisis which erupted at the start of 2014 when protesters ousted pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, prompting Russia to annexe Crimea.
Makei said another meeting between Russia, Ukraine and other participants in the crisis would have to be organized in order to solve the crisis.
Reporting by Marja Novak; editing by Alexander Smith
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Belarus sees no solution to Ukraine crisis without another summit - Reuters
KIEV (Reuters) - Russian aggression is to blame for violence in eastern Ukraine, where people are dying in what should be seen as a "hot war" rather than a "frozen conflict", the U.S. special envoy to the Ukraine peace talks said on a visit to Ukraine on Sunday.
Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, was appointed to his current role on July 7 to help resolve the conflict between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists, which has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014.
Washington cites the conflict as a key obstacle to better relations with Russia.
On a visit to the Ukrainian-held town of Kramatorsk, 690 km (430 miles) southeast of Kiev, Volker said he would prepare a set of recommendations on how Washington can better engage with the peace process.
"This is not a frozen conflict, this is a hot war, and it's an immediate crisis that we all need to address as quickly as possible," he said.
Relations between Ukraine and Russia went into freefall after Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea and the subsequent outbreak of a pro-Russian insurgency in the eastern Donbass region.
Ukraine accuses Russian of sending in its own soldiers and military equipment, which Moscow denies.
Volker replied in the affirmative when asked whether he saw the conflict as being as the result of Russian aggression rather than internal Ukrainian factors.
"We've seen what's happened, we understand the way this conflict has begun, we understand the way it is being managed today, and that's why it's important that the United States become more engaged."
Fighting in the Donbass region has killed 12 people in a particularly bloody week, prompting Germany and France to urge immediate progress in implementing ceasefire agreements signed in Belarus in 2015 that are regularly flouted.
Leaders of France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia will speak by phone on Monday to discuss the conflict.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in early July that Russia must make the first move to bring peace to Ukraine, which President Petro Poroshenko called a powerful signal of Washington's backing.
A career diplomat, Volker is a former aide to Republican Senator John McCain, a Russia hawk who wants the United States to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine, a move the previous administration under Barack Obama shied away from.
Editing by Mark Trevelyan
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Russia to blame for 'hot war' in Ukraine: US special envoy - Reuters
French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will call the leaders of Russia, Germany, and Ukraine on July 24 in a stepped-up international effort to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
The holding of the Normandy format talks between Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is part of a continuous effort by the four countries to resolve the conflict in which Russia-backed separatists are fighting Ukrainian troops.
More than 10,000 people have died in the conflict, which began in early 2014, with hundreds of thousands of others forced to flee their homes.
A cease-fire agreement signed in February 2015 in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, has failed to end the violence, which has recently flared up and led to at least 11 Ukrainian soldiers being killed in recent days.
The French president's announcement comes one day after the United States announced that special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker will travel to Kyiv for talks.
The State Department said Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, will meet in Ukraine with those who "have been affected by Russian aggression."
He will also visit Brussels, France, Austria, and Britain in an effort to find a "path to restoring Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Moscow denies involvement in the conflict despite compelling evidence that Russia has supported the separatists financially and militarily.
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French President To Hold Talks With Putin, Merkel, Poroshenko On Ukraine Conflict - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty