French Foreign Minister To Attend Moscow's Victory Day Celebrations
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says he plans to take part in Moscow’s May 9 celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Fabius announced his visit in a radio interview on May 6.
Although Moscow invited 68 heads of state and leaders of international organizations, only about 20 have confirmed their attendance amid international condemnation for Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and Russia’s support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
They include Chinese President Xi Jinping and Cuban President Raul Castro, as well as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The Moscow celebrations are highlighting the Soviet Union’s role in the allied victory.
Russia plans to march 16,000 soldiers in a Red Square parade along with hundreds of military units -- including new Koalitsiya-SV howitzers artillery pieces and new Armata T-14 tanks.
Based on reporting by Reuters, TASS, and Europa-1
Ukraine faces highest inflation since 1996
KIEV, May 6 (Reuters) -- Prices in Ukraine will rise this year at the fastest rate since 1996 due to a sharp slump in the national hryvnia currency and a rise in utilities prices under an IMF bailout programme, a Reuters monthly survey showed.
Analysts of 14 Ukrainian banks and brokerages see inflation accelerating to 36 percent in 2015 from 24.9 percent last year.
In 1996 consumer prices rose 39.7 percent and gross domestic product contracted 10 percent as Ukraine endured almost a decade of economic crisis after the Soviet Union collapsed and the country became independent.
Ukraine's economy shrank 6.8 percent last year amid political upheaval and a burgeoning conflict with Russia.
Spiralling prices and the central bank's tough monetary policy will limit the lending Ukraine's economy needs to regain its footing in 2015, according to Ukrainian analysts polled by Reuters.
Last month analysts forecast lower annual inflation, at 31.8 percent, but expectations worsened after the index of consumer prices jumped to 45.8 percent in March year-on-year from 34.5 in February and 28.5 percent in January.
"Prices will continue to rise, but maybe not as quickly (as in March). Producers and importers want to get proper profitability and they have included currency depreciation risks in prices", said DaVinci analysts in written comments.
In February the hryvnia lost about 50 percent of its value against the dollar when the rate dived to all time low of 36.1 to the dollar amid the standoff with Russia.
In April the hryvnia strengthened to 22-23/$1 after the central bank imposed stronger controls on import deals and tougher monetary policy.
Even with a more stable hryvnia, analysts expressed doubts that the authorities would be able to tame inflation to the 30.1 percent forecast by the central bank, let alone to the 26.7 percent envisaged by the government in the 2015 budget.
"An expected further rise in utilities' tariffs will fuel inflation", said Oleksander Zholud of the Centre for Policy Studies.
In March the International Monetary Fund approved a four-year $17.5 billion programme supporting reforms in Ukraine. Gradual tariff increases and subsidy cuts in the state budget are among the government's key commitments under the program.
In April the price of gas was raised twice and electricity tariffs soared 50 percent. Householders face further price-hikes in the near future. In order to contain inflation the central bank increased its key refinancing rate to 30 percent from 19.5 percent in March.
Analysts said that expensive refinancing costs, soaring inflation, and losses in the Ukrainian banking system were inhibiting lending, eroding hopes for economic recovery.
Ukraine's central bank sees a two percent economy rise in the fourth quarter of 2015 after seven consecutive quarters of decline.
The analysts worsened their forecast for Ukraine's gross domestic product in 2015 to a contraction of 7.6 percent from 7.0 percent last month and said they did not expect any quarterly rise this year.
"If the military and political situation in the east of the country does not improve in the near future.... we can expect a much deeper recession," analysts of Raiffeisen Bank Aval said in a note.
A year-old armed conflict with pro-Russian separatists in the Ukraine's eastern territories has killed more than 6,000 people and wiped out around 20 percent of the country's industrial assets.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Five Ukrainian serviceman killed in past 24 hours in east - Ukraine military
KIEV, May 6 (Reuters) -- Five Ukrainian servicemen were killed and twelve wounded in separatist eastern territories over the past 24 hours despite a ceasefire deal, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on Wednesday.
"The most severe losses among government troops occurred near Avdiivka, where an armoured personnel carrier was blown up by an enemy landmine," Lysenko said, referring to a town north of rebel-held Donetsk
EU's top diplomat says destabilised Russia in nobody's interest
BEIJING, May 6 (Reuters) - A destabilised and isolated Russia is in nobody's interests, and sanctions are only being kept in place because a truce agreement in the conflict in Ukraine is not being fully implemented, the European Union's foreign policy chief said on Wednesday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused "someone in the European Union" on Tuesday of trying to ensure a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine does not hold.
Pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian government agreed the truce in the Belarussian capital Minsk on Feb. 12, but it has failed to end all fighting and the Lithuanian president told Reuters it was now all but dead.
Speaking to students during a visit to Beijing, the EU's top diplomat Federica Mogherini said that while she did not see Russia as an "actor" of instability or insecurity, violations of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty were a matter of universal concern.
"Like China, our European priority is for the violence to stop in the east of Ukraine. Our efforts, as Europeans, are all focused on the full implementation of the Minsk agreements, and we are concretely contributing to that," she said at the elite Peking University.
"At the same time, the European Union has developed a policy of sanctions towards Russia, but I could not stress enough in all my speeches that a sanctions policy is not in itself a policy - it's an instrument, a tool. And as such we are keeping that as long as the Mink agreement is not fully implemented."
Kiev and the West accuse Moscow of sending arms and troops to help the separatists in fighting which has killed more than 6,100 people in just over a year.
Russia denies the accusations and says the West instigated the overthrow of a Moscow-backed Ukrainian president last year as part of efforts to reduce Russian influence in the region.
Mogherini said that in many other areas, such as talks on Iran's controversial nuclear programme, Russia was often a constructive partner.
"A destabilised and isolated Russia is not in the interest of the European Union, is not for sure in the interest of the Russian people, and I believe it's not in the interest of the Russian leadership, but it is for them to decide," she added.
Moscow Court Considers Extending Savchenko's Pretrial Detention
By RFE/RL
A court in Moscow is considering whether to extend the pretrial detention of Ukrainian pilot and parliament member Nadia Savchenko.
The hearing comes a day after Savchenko's lawyer announced that Russian authorities have extended their preliminary inquiry into Savchenko’s case until November 13.
Savchenko has been jailed in Russia since July, when she says she was illegally brought into the country after being abducted by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
She is charged with complicity in the killing of two Russian journalists who died in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, as well as illegal border crossing.
She denies guilt and conducted a hunger strike for more than 80 days to protest her incarceration.
The United States said on May 5 that it is concerned over the “callous and outrageous” treatment of Savchenko by Russian authorities, and called for her immediate release.