Politics of Ukraine

 Gov’t examines contingency strategies if natural gas supply is disrupted or farming exports are affected

By Chryssa Liaggou and Dimitra Manifava

The government is keeping a close eye on developments in the Russia-Ukraine crisis in a bid to respond to any adverse effects it may have both on natural gas and oil imports, as well as on exports of agricultural products to Russia.

Ukraine's legislature, the Verkhovna Rada, has turned down the resignation Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk submitted earlier in July.

Yatsenyuk announced he was stepping down last week after the governing coalition collapsed due to the decision of two of its parties, UDAR and Svoboda, to quit.

Ukraine's state-owned utility Naftogaz has insisted that conditions of gas transit to Europe previously agreed with Russian concern Gazprom be revised.

The European Commission is initiating a meeting between EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak in Moscow this week.

The two are to discuss gas supplies to Ukraine and EU countries.

However, the talks may not take place as Russia has not yet responded, according to reports of ITAR-TASS, as cited by econ.bg.

Ukraine's prime minister resigned July 24 after his governing coalition collapsed, plunging the former Soviet state into political limbo as it struggles to quell a deadly rebellion in the east.        

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko won't be attending the World Cup final in Brazil on July 13, a government statement said, denying assertions by Brazilian officials that he would be there.

Ukraine's Parliament adopted on first reading a bill under which up to 49% of the country's gas pipeline network could be sold to foreign investors.

This could pave the way for US or EU companies, which have eyed Ukrainian gas transportation system over the last months.

Ukrainian military forces have waged a massive artillery fire at east Ukraine’s Donetsk regional city of Kramatorsk overnight to Wednesday.

“A strong gunfire had been waged at the city which was literally showered with shells. Powerful blasts were heard with a frequency like in automatic fire,” a representative of people’s militia told ITAR-TASS.

Kazakhstan and Belarus have rejected Russia's proposal that the the three countries jointly adopt a special system to receive Ukrainian goods.

The European Union signed Friday agreements for deeper political and economic integration with Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.

Leaders of the three ex-Soviet states attended a ceremony in Brussels which marked the step strengthening ties with Europe despite previous Russian resistance.