Ukrainska Pravda claims that the EU has decided to lift the visa regime with Ukraine. The announcement on whether or not Ukraine has fulfilled all the necessary requirements is to come today, but Ukrainska Pravda claims to have obtained parts of the document.
“Considering the relations between Ukraine and the EU, the European Commission will submit [to the EU Council] a legislative proposal to change the regulation 539/2001,” says Ukrainska Pravda, quoting the document.
Council Regulation 539/2001 lists countries whose citizens require and do not require visas to enter the European Union.
From our news desk on the debt:
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says his country won't repay a $3 billion debt owed to Russia by this weekend.
Yatsenyuk announced at a televised government session December 18 a "moratorium" on any debt repayments to Russia. He did not indicate when Ukraine would be ready to repay the debt.
That effectively means that Ukraine is defaulting on the debt. Moscow has previously said it will take Ukraine to court if it failed to pay on time.
Relations between the two neighbors soured after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in March 2014 and threw its backing behind separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian leaders have accused Moscow of sending troops and weapons to the east, a claim the Kremlin has denied.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AP
More on the debt:
The Eurobond matures on December 20, but Ukraine has a 10-day grace period before it will be considered officially to be in default.
Yatseniuk also said Ukraine would cancel payments on $507 million of Ukrainian commercial debt held by Russian banks.
Some news just in from Brussels (courtesy of RFE/RL's news desk):
The European Commission says both Georgia and Ukraine meets all benchmarks for getting visa-free travel to the European Union's Schengen zone, possibly allowing the citizens of the two countries to travel to the EU without visas as soon as 2016.
The commission announced on December 18 that it will now be up to the EU member states and the European Parliament to decide whether to actually grant visa-free travel for the two countries next year.
However sources in Brussels say that, while the European Parliament will vote in favor of visa-free travel for the two countries, it might prove difficult among some member states to approve the measure, especially regarding Ukraine.
Some big member states, notably Germany, are believed to be fearful that visa liberalization will increase migratory flows into the EU.
The commission's reports regarding Ukraine and Georgia meeting the benchmarks were initially supposed to come out on 15 December.
However, Brussels chose to wait until a meeting held on December 16 in Brussels between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, EU Council President Donald Tusk, and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to iron out the last remaining differences.
The Kremlin-funded outlet RT is claiming that Vladimir Putin actually didn't admit Russia has a military presence in eastern Ukraine.
In case you missed it, at his annual press conference yesterday, Putin told journalists that Russia has "never said" there were no Russian personnel carrying out "certain tasks" in eastern Ukraine, but that this does not mean there are "regular" Russian army troops there. "Feel the difference," he added.
This was widely interpreted as an admission that Russian military specialists were present in eastern Ukraine.