IMF team says Ukraine shows signs of recovery, progress depends on reforms:
By RFE/RL
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team visiting Ukraine on a fact-finding mission says the country's economy is showing signs of recovery but the strength and durability of the recovery depend on progress in implementing reforms.
Ron van Rooden, head of the IMF mission team that visited Kyiv from November 3 to 17, said Ukraine's economic growth rate was expected to reach 1.5 percent in 2016 and pick up to about 2.5 percent in 2017.
But he said in a statement issued on November 18 that the strength and durability of the recovery "depend crucially on the implementation of ambitious reforms to support Ukraine's transition to a full-fledged market economy."
The statement said that "decisive steps particularly need to be taken to fight corruption, which remains the most frequently mentioned obstacle to doing business in Ukraine."
It added, "tangible results in prosecuting and convicting corrupt high-level officials and recovering proceeds from corruption have yet to be achieved."
According to IMF policy, end-of-mission statements are meant to convey a team's preliminary findings after a visit to a country and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF's executive board.
Meanwhile, in what may be Moscow's next "hybrid war" front...:
New CIA chief on Russia, Ukraine:
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly offered the post of CIA director to Mike Pompeo, a conservative Republican congressman from Kansas.
In April 2014, Pompeo visited Ukraine.
"To the degree that we can demonstrate support for the Ukrainian government, we can change [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's calculus and increase the risk to him," Pompeo said at the time. He added that Putin's goal was "to control Ukraine."
Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry:
Here's some more info from our news desk on Obama and European leaders agreeing to maintain sanctions on Russia:
Obama, European Leaders Endorse Transatlantic Cooperation Amid Trump Fears
U.S. President Barack Obama and major European leaders have agreed on the need to strengthen NATO and “to move the trans-Atlantic agenda forward.”
Obama met with the leaders of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom in Berlin on November 18 at the end of his last European tour as president.
The leaders issued a joint statement pledging to work to secure “diplomatic resolutions to the conflicts in Syria and eastern Ukraine.”
According to the White House, the leaders agreed that Moscow must live up to its commitments under the Minsk agreements on settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine and that Western sanctions against Russia should be maintained until that happens.
According to the United Nations, more than 9,600 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists. More than 22,000 people have been injured since the conflict erupted in April 2014.
Europeans have been worried by statements from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that NATO is “obsolete” and that he would consider lifting sanctions against Russia and recognizing Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea.