Ukraine's Prime Minister To Travel To Britain To Attend Forum On Reforms
Ukraine says Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman is to travel to Britain on July 5 to meet with British leaders and take part in a conference devoted to the country's reform process.
Hroysman is to attend a conference on reforms in Ukraine on July 6, the Ukrainian government’s web portal said on July 4.
During his visit, which is ending on July 7, he is also due to meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, and the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Suma Chakrabarti.
Meanwhile, Hroysman was quoted as saying that the next installment of a $17.5 billion international bailout will be delayed until later this year because parliament won't pass all of the required reforms before its summer recess.
The delay will hold up the $1.9 billion fifth tranche of the country’s International Monetary Fund rescue program, he told Bloomberg in a July 3 interview in Kyiv.
The latest disbursement had been planned for June or July, Bloomberg reported. Parliament breaks for summer next week and reconvenes in September.
With reporting by Bloomberg
Ukrainian Cyberpolice Seize Server Of Small Company Linked To Global Attack
Ukraine's cybercrime police seized servers belonging to a small company at the center of a global outbreak of malicious software after "new activity" was detected there, officials said early on July 5.
The announcement raised the possibility that the hackers behind last week's wide-ranging cyberattack were still seeking to sow chaos.
Tax software firm M.E. Doc was raided to "immediately stop the uncontrolled proliferation" of malware, cyberpolice spokeswoman Yulia Kvitko said, suggesting that M.E. Doc had been preparing to send a new update like the one that infected computers worldwide last week.
"Our experts stopped [it] on time," she told AP.
It wasn't immediately clear how or why hackers might still have access to M.E. Doc's servers. The company has been the focus of intense attention from authorities since it was identified as the Patient Zero of the outbreak, which crippled computers at several multinational firms and knocked out cash machines, gas stations, and bank branches in Ukraine.
The company has denied allegations that its poor security helped seed the malware epidemic.
M.E.Doc is used by around 80 percent of companies in Ukraine to file taxes.
Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
This ends our live blogging for July 4. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
European Parliament backs trade preferences for Ukraine:
By RFE/RL
BRUSSELS -- The European Parliament has overwhelmingly backed a decision to grant Ukraine temporary trade preference for some agricultural and industrial products.
The measures passed on July 4 will apply for three years from the end of September.
The proposal was made by the European Commission to improve access for Ukrainian exporters to EU markets following the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area that provisionally entered into force at the start of 2016.
EU officials tell RFE/RL they hope the measure will help boost Ukraine's economy, which has suffered greatly since 2014 when Russia illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and began supporting pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine's preferential trade treatment includes annual quotas for tariff-free imports on agricultural products such as honey, wheat, corn, and barley as well as industrial goods like copper, aluminum, and fertilizers. (Rikard Jozwiak)