• IMF Recommends that Ukraine Raise Excise Tax on Alcohol and Tobacco

    By increasing the excise tax on cigarettes and beer, Ukraine will add approximately UAH 28.7 billion and UAH 4.5 billion to its budget, respectively in 2016, as stated in a report by the International Monetary Fund. The text of this report was made available to the Ukrainian news agency UKRINFORM.

    Based on the IMF estimates, by increasing the excise tax on tobacco by 40% Ukraine would receive an income of UAH 28.7 billion (1.3% of GDP) this year.  Raising the excise tax on beer by 100% would …

  • Ukrainian Ambassador to Czech Republic demands that a map depicting Crimea as part of Russia be fixed

    The Ukrainian Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Boris Zaychuk, demanded that the Czech publisher, Ottovo Nakladatelství, rectify a map of Ukraine in their “World Atlas of Football” edition in order for it to be in accordance with national law.

    “In this atlas, Crimea is colored the same as Russia.  In addition, the general map of the world in this edition does not show Crimea as a part of Ukraine.  Therefore, the map violates international law and ignores the consolidated position of the EU …

  • Traffic blocked in Crimea due to transport of Russian military equipment

    In the Crimean city of Simferopol, traffic was blocked for 40 minutes on Thursday due to the transport of Russian military equipment. The column of military hardware was being transported from Sevastopol to Belogorsk, reported Krym.Realii.

    The column of equipment from Russia's Black Sea Fleet included armored fighting vehicles, KAMAZ cars for personnel transport, Ural vehicles, and field kitchens.

    Since the annexation of Crimea, the movement of Russian military equipment on the peninsula has …

  • Canadian Doctors to Give Free Reconstructive Surgery to Ukrainian Veterans in Kiev

    In Kiev, on February 19 – 28, 2016, Canadian doctors will provide free reconstructive surgery to wounded Ukrainian soldiers and Maidan activists.

    As a correspondent of UKRINFORM reported, this initiative was organized by the Canadian-Ukrainian Fund in cooperation with the government of Canada.  "All operations will be free.  It is expected that there will be about 30-40 patients," the Fund informed.

    To carry out this mission, the government of Canada has invested 1.2 million Canadian dollars.  …

  • Russia refuses to participate in next meeting of Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine

    The Russian Federation has refused to participate in the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on the 10th of February in Minsk.  This was reported to the Ukrayinskaya Pravda by sources close to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

    As previously reported, the Russian representative in the Trilateral Contact Group, Boris Gryzlov, had expressed readiness to come to Minsk to continue consultations at any time.

    A meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the “Normandy …