Cabinet of Ministers promises business deregulation, and West prepares military aid: today's highlights

Military support for Ukraine

Australia and France have announced that they will cooperate to jointly produce artillery shells for Ukraine. They will jointly produce several thousand 155-millimeter shells. For this purpose, the French defense company Nexter will cooperate with Australian companies that will supply powder for the shells.

At the same time, the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, said that Poland is ready to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets in coordination with the North Atlantic Alliance. “Work on obtaining F-16 fighters continues. We have positive signals from Poland, which is ready to give them to us in coordination with NATO,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that the 14 Challenger 2 tanks that London pledged to give to Ukraine would arrive at the front line “this side of summer”.

“Border protection” in the Kursk region

The governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, said that additional troops are being deployed to his region to protect the border and ensure the security of the region. According to Russian media, additional troops arrived in the Kursk region in the spring and fall.

On January 25, however, Starovoit said that the risk of “invasion of the Kursk region” was low and that the authorities were constantly strengthening the region's defense capabilities. Nevertheless, the governor regularly reports on shell-hitting in the region. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are accused of the shelling.

The death of an aviation squadron commander

In Donetsk Oblast, Major Danylo Murashko, commander of an aviation squadron, was killed. It happened during a mission when he was shot down by an enemy fighter jet. The pilot tried to divert the plane from residential buildings in the village of Shabelkivka until the last second. As a result, he lost altitude, was unable to eject safely, and died.

According to the command's estimates, since February 24, Murashko has flown 141 combat missions: he destroyed about 70 armored vehicles, more than 80 vehicles, about 30 fuel and lubricant tanks, and about 600 occupiers.

The command decided to nominate the fallen defender for the title of Hero of Ukraine (posthumously).

Losses of the occupiers

According to estimates by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Defense Forces have already killed 126,650 Russian occupiers during the full-scale war. As of January 29, Russia lost another 490 of its soldiers, 4 tanks, 3 armored combat vehicles, and other equipment.

Threats from Putin

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a BBC documentary that during an “emergency” conversation with Putin in early February 2022, before Russia invaded Ukraine, Putin threatened him with a missile strike in response to warnings that the war would be a “complete disaster”. According to him, Putin said the missile strike “would take only a minute”.

Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, immediately denied Johnson's statement. “What Mr. Johnson said is not true. More precisely, it is a lie. Moreover, I will tell you, it is either a deliberate lie, in which case we need to ask why he chose this version of the statement. Or it was unconscious, and he did not actually understand what President Putin was talking about,” Peskov said.

Deregulation of business

The Ministry of Economy proposes to abolish 47 % of state regulation tools – permits, licenses, declarations of approval – to significantly expand economic freedoms in Ukraine and stimulate business development.

The Ministry emphasizes that it is proposed to abolish regulations that create unnecessary obstacles to the normal operation of the business. For example, in the area of labor relations and labor safety, there is currently a rule requiring approval from the State Labor Service of Ukraine for the “Instruction on the Procedure for Cleaning Dust in Production Facilities”.

Updated procurement system

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said he has ordered the development of an updated procurement system for the Ukrainian army. He said that it is a system that should balance secrecy and public control over procurement for the army.

According to Shmyhal, the updated system should include the publication of prices for products and goods. To develop the system, a working group should be set up under the leadership of the Minister of Economy. This group will consider the possibility of creating a separate section in Prozorro for military needs.