Ukrainian news round-up – Mar 23 2009

Top news stories about Ukrainians, Ukraine and beyond!

Economy

  • RosUkrEnergo said Ukraine’s state gas company Naftohaz could again have trouble finding the money to pay for the higher gas prices Russian Gazprom is now charging ($360 per 1,000 cubic metres in the first quarter up from $179.50 in 2008). But with a $16.4 billion IMF loan programme still on hold due to unresolved issues surrounding a large budget deficit, the government’s financial and gas reserves are dwindling. Naftohaz says the main problem it faces is non-payment by Ukrainian consumers, mostly in utilities. Tymoshenko has asked Russia for a $5 billion loan, a possible life-line that would give Moscow more leverage over Ukraine ahead of presidential elections which constitutional experts say must take place by late January 2010.
  • “The modernisation of Ukraine’s gas pipeline is vital if the former Soviet republic is to achieve its goal of joining the European Union”, President Victor Yushchenko said Saturday in an interview.

Politics

Other news in Ukraine

Other news abroad

  • Jaroslaw Duzyj passed away this month in Macomb, Michigan, a Concentration Camp survivor who established the Ukrainian Studies Foundation at Harvard University. Jaroslaw also served as the president, vice president, treasurer and director of the Ukrainian Cultural Center and financed, edited and published many works about Ukrainian history, geography and art.
  • Japan, seeking to meet a 2012 cap on greenhouse-gas emissions, agreed to purchase carbon dioxide credits from Ukraine in its first such overseas deal. The two countries signed a contract for the sale of credits under the United Nations-sponsored Kyoto Protocol, under a so-called green investments plan which will allow Ukraine to boost spending on environmental projects and energy-saving technologies.

Sports

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