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Kyiv (ICRC) - The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer completed his five-day visit to Ukraine today. Mr Maurer met the president of Ukraine as well as government and parliament officials and talked to the representatives of the non-government-controlled territories. He also visited either sides of the contact line in the Donbas region, where the ceasefire is holding since late July this year.

The discussions have been focused on the cumulative consequences of the six-year conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic on people and communities on both sides of the contact line in the Donbas.

Mr Maurer addressed the issue of people missing in connection with the conflict and establishment of the Commission on Missing Persons, access to water and health services as well as perspectives on the risks for the population of mines and other unexploded ordinance. The ICRC president has been also seeking for prospects for securing the systematic and unhindered access of the ICRC to all detainees held in connection with the conflict in the Donbas. Furthermore, he reiterated the need for mechanisms to allow safe passage of civilians with urgent humanitarian needs across the line of contact during COVID-19 pandemic.

Water, electricity and gas installations have always been particularly vulnerable in the conflict and the ICRC has been investing many resources in maintaining the water supply systems. Mr Maurer visited one of the filtrations stations of the Voda Donbasa company that supplies water to people living on both sides of the contact line in the Donetsk Region. The ICRC has so far invested over 15.5 million CHF in maintaining and servicing both water supply companies in the Donbas.

The ICRC president also visited construction sites of health facilities on both sides of the contact line. He saw Gorlovka ambulatory and laid the foundation stone to the first Emergency Health Care Department in Ukraine that the ICRC is building in the Bakhmut hospital, which will serve 200,000 people. The ICRC is investing 3.5 million CHF in building the department, equipping it and training its staff.

Support to people caught in the Donbas conflict is ICRC's 8th largest operation in the world. This has been Mr Maurer's third visit to Ukraine as ICRC president. The first took place in February 2015 and the second in March 2017.

For further information, please contact:

Sanela Bajrambasic, ICRC Ukraine Communication Coordinator, +380 95 262 80 49, https://twitter.com/sbsanelab1

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Ukraine: Addressing the cumulative effects of conflict and COVID-19 in the Donbas - Ukraine - ReliefWeb

The city of Kyiv and all regions in Ukraine are not ready to ease quarantine measures introduced to prevent the spread of COVID-19, according to data provided by the Health Ministry on November 6.

The highest incidence rate of COVID-19 during the past 14 days has been recorded in Chernivtsi region (585.5 per 100,000 population), Zhytomyr region (492.5), and Khmelnytskyi region (481.7).

The lowest incidence rate of COVID-19 in the last 14 days has been reported in Kirovohrad region (111.3), Dnipropetrovsk region (146.5), and Luhansk region (182.8).

The incidence rate of COVID-19 in the city of Kyiv is 311.6 per 100,000 population. An average incidence rate across Ukraine is 288.3 per 100,000 population.

The Health Ministry explains that regions with high prevalence of COVID-19 are considered to be regions that have one of the following indicators: the occupancy of beds in health facilities intended for hospitalization of patients with confirmed COVID-19 exceeds 50% during the past five days; the average number of PCR and ELISA tests conducted during the past seven days is less than 24 per 100,000 population; the detection rate of COVID-19 is more than 11%; the growth rate of COVID-19 is more than 10%.

As of November 6, 440,188 COVID-19 cases were laboratory confirmed in Ukraine, including 9,721 cases recorded during the previous day.

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Health Ministry: None of regions in Ukraine ready to ease quarantine measures - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

For Americans, the November 3 presidential election will be the most significant vote in many decades. The election also will have consequences for Ukraine: Whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden sits in the White House at the end of the day on January 20, 2021 will matter greatly for U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Europe.

Since Ukraine regained its independence in 1991, the United States has proven a strong and supportive partner. Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama each saw a stable, independent, democratic Ukrainian state with a robust market economy as in the U.S. interest, including in contributing to a more stable and secure Europe. Washington thus has provided substantial political, economic andparticularly since 2014military support to Kyiv. It has sanctioned Russia for its aggression in Crimea and Donbas and sought to bolster NATO in the face of a growing Kremlin challenge to Western security.

The Trump administration has largely continued these policies. It has provided Kyiv reform and military aid, including lethal military assistance. It has applied additional sanctions on Russia, albeit under pressure from Congress. And it has taken steps to strengthen the U.S. military presence in NATO, at least until recently.

However, it has never been clear that Mr. Trump himself supports these policies. His principal engagement on Ukraine was his attempted extortion of Kyiv to advance his personal political prospects, an effort that led to his impeachment. While his administration has taken a tough line on Russia, Mr. Trump seems incapable of criticizing Vladimir Putin or Russian misdeeds. He apparently thinks that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, ignoring the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community, the Mueller investigation and the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee.

Mr. Trumps disdain for NATO has long been clear, going back to the 1980s. In June, he decided to withdraw 10,000 U.S. troops from Germany, apparently out of pique at Chancellor Merkels refusal to attend a G7 summit at Camp David. Senior Pentagon officials scrambled for weeks to offer military justifications for the drawdown, but those that they provided did not survive serious scrutiny.

If Mr. Trump is re-elected, he will not have to worry about facing the voters in another election campaign. He will cement his control of the Republican Party, leaving Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives less able to block his bad instincts. What accommodations would he make with Mr. Putin? Would he be inclined, as he suggested in 2016, to recognize Russias illegal annexation of Crimea and lift economic sanctions? Would he withdraw the United States from NATO, as many former U.S. officials fear? The Alliances collapse would be a huge gift to Mr. Putin and leave Ukraine in a precarious geopolitical position.

It will be different if Mr. Biden is elected (full transparency: the author fervently hopes for this). The United States would have a president who understands the U.S. interest in a successful Ukraine and who knows the country well from his time as vice president. He would be the kind of friend that Ukraine needs, supportive but also ready to press the Ukrainian leadership to take necessary reform steps. He recognizes the security challenge that Russia presents to Ukraine and the West, and he realizes the importance of a strong trans-Atlantic relationship with a robust NATO at its core. And Mr. Biden might prove a president who could bind some of the differences that so badly divide Americans today. An America more unified at home would be a stronger international actor.

Whether Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden wins the elections will mean very different things for U.S. policies affecting Ukraine. That said, the American electorate will decide the next president largely on domestic issues, such as the Trump administrations handling of COVID19 and the economy. Ukraine has no role to play in this, and Ukrainian officials should continue to do all that they can to avoid their country becoming a political football in the U.S. campaign.

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A consequential election for Ukraine - Brookings Institution

Observers from the International Election Observation Mission of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) actively conducted election monitoring at polling stations in various regions of Ukraine on the day of local elections in Ukraine on October 25, according to a statement posted on the UWC website.

According to the report, despite the challenges associated with the pandemic, UWC and UCCA International Observation Missions were able to delegate short-term observers on election day.

International observers monitored compliance with election procedures stipulated by the Law, namely: polling station operation procedures, the mechanism of informing voters, the voting process, the counting of votes as well as a number of other aspects of the electoral process. International observers also paid attention to compliance with voting safety procedures introduced in response to COVID-19 pandemic as well as the accessibility of polling stations for people with disabilities.

"We consider the interference of other states, particularly, Hungary, in the electoral process of Ukraine to be unacceptable. We also hope that the voting rights of citizens of 18 territorial communities in eastern Ukraine who were unable to participate in the October 25 elections will be restored," said Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Head of the UWC International Election Observation Mission.

"According to preliminary results to date, the voting has taken place with minor, unsystematic violations that will not affect the final results of the vote," he added.

A press conference by UWC and UCCA international election observation missions will take place on October 28, 2020, at 15:00 Kyiv time. The live broadcast will be available on the Ukrainian World Congress Facebook page.

Photo: Ukrinform

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UWC publishes preliminary observations of its mission on election day in Ukraine - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

Only the Opposition Platform - For Life went out to the streets to mark the Day of Ukraine's liberation from the Nazis while the authorities prohibit the term Great Patriotic War. The Chairman of the Political Council of Opposition Platform - For Life party Viktor Medvedchuk said this during his visit to Zakarpattia.

He stressed that today is a truly nationwide holiday.

Dear war veteran, Zakarpattia residents, today is truly a national holiday - the holiday of the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazi-German invaders. It was on this day, 76 years ago, that the military operation also called East Carpathian Operation carried out by the 1st and 4th Ukrainian fronts was successfully completed. On October 27, Uzhhorod was liberated, and the Red Army reached the borders of modern Ukraine on October 28. This is truly a holiday. A glory, deep respect for those who died a heroic death, and there were millions of them during the Great Patriotic War, millions, who died liberating Ukraine, Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians and other representatives of the multinational Soviet Union. Millions of military servicemen, those who took the arms and defended, liberated Ukraine, and then, fulfilling their international duty, freed all of Europe, Viktor Medvedchuk said.

The politician expressed surprise that the authorities on this day did not honor the memory of the fallen soldiers and did not honor those who survived.

Behavior of the authorities in recent years is surprising, when this is simply being forgotten, when throughout the country not the authorities but the opposition, the representatives of Opposition Platform - For Life went out to honor the memory of heroes today, the memory of those who forged victory in the enemys rear, memory of the fortunately surviving Veterans and participants in hostilities of the Great Patriotic War, but the government remains silent. What about the national holiday? What about its nationwide meaning? What is the government doing today, when our fellow party members in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in Dnipro, in Kryvyi Rih, in Odesa, in Kyiv lay flowers at the graves, honors those who, fortunately, stayed with us, Viktor Medvedchuk noted.

He added that the current government, like the previous one, is rewriting the real history of the country.

At this time, the government, on one hand, bans the term Great Patriotic War, on the other hand, the other, previous authorities, prohibited the use of St. George ribbons on awards. Today they are trying to rewrite history, today those who once helped and were accomplices of fascism, those who honor this particular category of people are trying to take all the victory and what happened in 1941-45 years as their own merit, the politician summed up.

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Medvedchuk: Only Opposition Platform For Life took to streets to mark Day of Liberation of Ukraine from Nazis, while authorities ban term 'Great...