Situationen i Ukraina just nu, del 4

"...there is no good way out of the diplomatic and constitutional trap created in Minsk, nor could there be one at any moment after the agreement’s signing. For Poroshenko and former president Leonid Kuchma,
sent by him to the capital of Belarus, there are only two options left, which are bad and very bad."

"It shows that the Minsk talks are not going well for Ukraine. We are nearing a scenario which will be disastrous for Ukraine. Kuchma does not want to put his signature under it. Most likely, Putin is so far succeeding in his drive to impose the occupied Donbas on Ukraine on his terms. Western mediators also support a prompt resolution of all this mess."

The interview in The Day magazine (Ukrainian) with a political scientist Mykhailo Basarab,details an exchange between Kravcuk and Kuchma, neither of whom want to put their names behind further moves towards a Minsk agreement settlement.

Kravchuk takes the typically irresponsible Ukrainian line of "“Can the Minsk Agreements be submitted for ratification in the Verkhovna Rada? No, because it is not a document signed by heads of state or
foreign ministers or prime ministers."

Meanwhile the political scientist suggests:
"The biggest problem of our politicians is that they lack the courage to say that as of 2016, Ukraine is unable to regain control of the Donbas on acceptable terms. We should stop indefinitely talks on the return of occupied territories, fortify the dividing line between the two adversaries, strengthen the defense sector, and conduct reforms. We will revisit the issue of returning the Donbas and Crimea when the world will put the aggressor in its rightful place or Ukraine will be powerful enough to independently restore our sovereignty over these territories."

Den ukrainske presidentens administration överväger att bjuda Carl Bildt att bli premiärminister i stället för Jatsenjuk.

En utlänning — svensken Carl Bildt — kan bli en ny premiärminister. Han har varit aktivt engagerad i Ukrainas problem och är för tillfället inte verksam i Sverige som politiker.

Det är säkert ett tecken på oligarkernas kamp om de resurser som ännu finns kvar i Ukraina, och Arsenij Jatsenjuk kan bli ett växelmynt. Vad gäller Carl Bildt tror jag inte att det är en sannolik variant, därför att han säkert förstår att det är omöjligt att förändra något i landet utan att byta regimen och hela ledningen

våra ministrar är utlänningar med andra länders medborgarskap. De kan numera göra vad de vill, därför att det är klart att de i framtiden inte kommer att ha något gemensamt med Ukraina.

Carl Bildt dementerar dock det sensationella ryktet. I ett mejl till Dagens nyheter skriver han att Ukraina har en mycket bra premiärminister och att det inte finns någon anledning att byta. "Och att jag skulle vara aktuell saknar varje aktualitet", skriver han i mejlet.

According to UkrAgroConsult, an agriculture-focused consulting firm, grain exports for the last six months of 2015 saw a 31 percent increase from the same period in 2014.

Kernel, the Andriy Verevskiy-owned company that is Ukraine’s second-largest grain exporter, logged an 18 percent increase in exports between the second quarter of FY 2015 and the second quarter of FY 2016 in a Jan. 20 report.

The company also recorded a 31 percent increase in oilseed production over the same period.

Ivan Dzvinka, a researcher at Eavex Capital, said that agricultural exports were increasing across the board.

“The Ukrainian agricultural sector is indeed strengthening its competitive position on the export markets,” Dzvinka wrote in an email to the Kyiv Post. “Notably, export volume from Ukraine were expanded in 2015 vs. 2014 for all grains (corn, wheat, barley), soybeans, meat, milk products, sugar & confectionary, eggs & egg products, just to name a couple.”