The week ahead: All eyes on parliament, which is redoing the state budget and must pass a law preventing bank fraud law to qualify for $8 billion in lending from the International Monetary Fund. Orthodox Easter is April 19, which will hopefully coincide with the start in the decline of coronavirus cases.
Top stories from the weekend:
Zelensky’s active weekend: Speech to the nation, visit to the war front
The Ukrainian president outlined the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic on April 10 and then visited Ukrainian troops defending the nation against Russia’s six-year war on April 11.
How are Russian-occupied Crimea & Donbas faring with coronavirus?
Read Anna Myroniuk’s inside account of what’s happening on the ground in Ukraine’s stolen territories.
Lawmakers move to spend $2.4 billion to fight COVID-19
It’s a lot of money in a budget that amounts to only $50 billion annually; deficit spending expected to rise to $11 billion, or 7% of GDP. How effectively the money will get spent is already a big question. There are complaints that anti-corruption agencies are starved while Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s empire sees a hefty budget increase.
King of the skies pressed into action
Who do you call on when you need 400 tons of COVID-19 supplies airlifted from China? Poland knows the answer: Ukraine’s iconic Antonov An-225 Mriya, the world’s heaviest and largest cargo aircraft.
334 Ukrainian health workers infected with coronavirus
The estimate from Health Minister Maksym Stepanov underscores the risks taken by Ukraine’s front-line workers.
