Political headlines

Situation in the east

Military situation: Militants violated the ceasefire 16 times on 9 June. One Ukrainian service member was wounded, said the press office of the Joint Forces Operation.

Domestic politics

COVID-19 update: 525 new cases, 357 patients recovered and 23 patients died on 9 June, according to the official data published by the authorities. Since the beginning of the outbreak, Ukraine has registered 28,381 cases, 12,769 persons have recovered and 833 persons have died.

New softening of quarantine restrictions: Deputy Minister of Health Viktor Liashko has announced that as of 10 June, it is allowed to hold cultural events (general sanitary precautions and limited concentration of the audience apply) and to reopen hotels (except children sanatoria). Mr Liashko noted that seven regions, including the capital, would not be able to allow that, because they still have more than 12 cases per 100,000 population. Mayor of Kyiv Klitschko also noted that the city could not ease the restriction further as the incidence rate is more than 15. If this indicator goes over 24, Kyiv will have to reintroduce the previously lifted tougher restrictions. The Mayor stressed that the authorities were doing their best to take care of the health of the citizens, but Kyiv residents sometimes behave as if the virus had disappeared.

Former President Poroshenko has visited the State Bureau of Investigation: He was summoned for interrogation in the case of the alleged unlawful import of paintings without paying customs duties. SBI stated that prosecutors had handed over to him a notification of suspicion. Meanwhile, Mr Poroshenko’s defence lawyer Illya Novikov denied that. According to him, delivering a notification of suspicion was against the procedures because Mr Poroshenko had been summoned for interrogation as a witness. Furthermore, the notification of suspicion was reportedly related to another case, namely appointment by Mr Poroshenko of Sergiy Semochko, a controversial figure, as a Deputy Head of the Intelligence Service.

Foreign policy

Shmyhal, Freeland discuss visa liberalisation, extension of FTA. During his first telephone conversation with Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on 9 June, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal discussed the liberalisation of the visa regime and the extension of the free trade agreement between the two countries, according to Shmyhal’s Twitter account.

Venediktova discusses investment protection with ambassadors of Baltic, Scandinavian countries. Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova discussed current issues and prospects for cooperation with the ambassadors of Norway, Latvia, Finland, Estonia to Ukraine, the Chargé d'Affaires of Lithuania in Ukraine and the first secretary of the Swedish Embassy in Ukraine, the website of the PGO reported. She called investment protection as one of the important areas of work. "For effective work in this direction, the PGO is now creating an Investment Protection Office, the main task of which will be protection of business from pressure," the Prosecutor General stressed. Venediktova also informed the ambassadors that the reform of the prosecution bodies was ongoing and its vector had not changed, Ukrinform reports.

Ukrainian living in Spain taken prisoner by Donbas militants for removing a Russian flag. Ukrainian human rights activists urge the Spanish authorities and the EU to respond to Yepes-Vinuesa’s abduction. Yevhenia Yepes-Vinuesa, a Ukrainian living in Spain, has been taken prisoner in the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ [DPR], probably in response to her removing the Russian flag which the militants had hung from the balcony of her private apartment, TV 112 Ukraina reports. She arrived in Donetsk in December 2019 to visit relatives, and was staying in her own apartment in the centre of the city.  It is not clear when she had planned to leave, but was unable to do so because of the pandemic and blocking of all checkpoints to government-controlled Ukraine.

MH17 case: One of prosecutors recognises Russia’s role in Donbas conflict. Prosecutor Dedy Woei-A-Tsoi believes that many of the so-called "separatists" in Donbas were Russian citizens who came to Ukraine to fight, Deutsche Welle reported.

Law enforcers order expert examination of tapes of Biden-Poroshenko conversations leaked by MP Derkach. Law enforcement agencies have ordered an expert examination of the tapes of the conversations that took place between former US VP Joseph Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on 16 November 2016, which were leaked by MP Derkach (independent). Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova announced this in an interview with the Ukrainian News Agency. According to her, samples of Poroshenko’s voice will be taken after that. She also believes that it will be necessary to raise the issue of cooperation with the United States on this issue after the examination of the tapes. “The case is being investigated strictly within the framework of the law to ensure that it does not become political in the light of the upcoming elections in the United States," she said.

Economic headlines

IMF Board approves USD 5.0bn SBA for Ukraine, including USD 2.1bn first tranche. The IMF Executive Board approved yesterday a USD 5.0bn 18-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) for Ukraine, aiming to help the country manage the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure a swift return to growth after the crisis ends. The programme’s first tranche of USD 2.1bn is to be disbursed immediately, with the remainder to be split into four tranches. The Dragon DAILY

Disbursement of USD 2.1 bln by IMF sent to Ukraine – country's rep in IMF. The first disbursement of USD 2.1 billion by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been sent to Ukraine, Vladyslav Rashkovan, the representative of Ukraine in the IMF, has said. Interfax-Ukraine

IMF worsens Ukraine's GDP decline in 2020 to 8.2%, growth in 2021 worsened to 1.1%. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reviewed downwards its forecast for Ukraine's GDP decline in 2020 to 8.2% from 7.7% in its April World Economic Outlook. Interfax-Ukraine

Headline inflation slows to 1.7% y/y in May. Consumer prices rose 0.3% m/m in May, down from +0.8% in April, causing the y/y tally to slow to 1.7% from 2.1% in April. Core inflation, an indicator adjusted for regulated utility tariffs and prices of raw foods and energy, inched up by 0.1% m/m in May, slowing from +0.4% in April and bringing y/y growth to 3.0%, marginally down from 3.1% in April. State Statistics Service, the Dragon DAILY

Ministry of Finance sells UAH 6.8bn of hryvnia bonds, slashing yields to record lows, places EUR 353m of EUR bonds. At a primary auction yesterday, the Finance Ministry sold UAH 6.8bn of hryvnia-denominated bonds, up from UAH 3.1bn last week, including UAH 0.5bn each of 3-month and 6-month debt at 9.0% and 9.5% p.a., respectively (-84bp and -61bp w-o-w), UAH 0.2bn each of 9-month paper and 12-month bonds at 10.7% p.a. (-19bp and -16bp w-o-w, respectively), and UAH 5.3bn of 18-month bonds at 10.8%. MinFin also sold EUR 353m of 12-month EUR-denominated bonds at 2.2%, virtually in line with the previous EUR sale on Mar. 24. Ministry of Finance, the Dragon DAILY

Oshchadbank — Net profit shrinks in April. According to provisional NBU data, state-owned Oshchadbank booked net profit of UAH 0.7bn (USD 24m) in April, down from UAH 1.5bn (USD 58m) in March and bringing 4M20 net income to UAH 3.3bn (USD 128m). Total assets rose 11% y/y to UAH 239bn, while customer deposits surged 20% y/y to UAH 194bn. NBU, the Dragon DAILY

Electricity consumption down 5% y/y in May, production falls 10%. Electricity consumption in Ukraine fell by 4.9% y/y to 8.9 TWh in May, bringing 5M20 consumption down 4.9% y/y to 49.7 TWh. Domestic power production fell 9.6% y/y to 10.9 TWh over the period, with 5M20 production down 8.2% to 62.5 TWh. Electricity exports plunged by 44% y/y to 238 GWh last month, remaining up 15% y/y at 2.4 TWh in 5M20, while imports shrank to a tiny 33 GWh in May, totalling 1.7 TWh in 5M20 (there were no imports in 5M19). Energy Ministry, the Dragon DAILY

Ukraine's hryvnia slides to UAH 26.64 to U.S. dollar on June 10. The official forex rate against the euro for Wednesday is fixed at UAH 30.09 per euro. UNIAN