UKRINFORM NEWS AGENCY

  NEWS FROM UKRAINE

Ukraine counts on Turkey's support in the matter of holding a session by the UN General Assembly on the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster in April 2006, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn said at a meeting with Turkish Vice Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in Kyiv on Thursday.  He stated the Verkhovna Rada's readiness to step up cooperation with Turkey at the parliamentary level.

The two sides highly assessed the paces of development of Ukrainian-Turkish cooperation, the volumes of trade turnover, academic exchanges and tourist business.

The two interlocutors discussed European integration-related matters and the role of the two Parliaments in this process.

***

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko discussed with her Moldovan counterpart Vasile Tarlev possibilities of cooperation between the two countries in the energy sphere. According to Yulia Tymoshenko "Ukraine has all possibilities to fully supply electric power to Moldova". Moreover, according to Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine and Moldova have "all possibilities to arrange joint projects of electric power exports to third countries". Cooperation between the two countries in the energy sphere "has very good prospects", Yulia Tymoshenko expressed her confidence. While characterizing results of the meeting on the whole, the Prime Minister of Ukraine noted that "the Ukrainian-Moldovan relations acquire absolutely different contents at present".

By results of the meeting with Vasile Tarlev within the framework of his working visit to Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko also underscored that the Ukrainian Government would initiate urgent consideration of ratification of an Agreement on free trade with Moldova by the Ukrainian Parliament. According to her, "We are interested in that and we will promote this project".

According to the Ukrainian party, Ukraine and Moldova will also manage to sign a bipartite protocol with MOldova, the WTO member, within the framework of Ukraine's joining this organization.

During a meeting with Vasile Tarlev Yulia Tymoshenko confirmed Ukraine's firm intention to create mixed Ukrainian-Moldovan frontier checkpoints.

***

Georgian President Michael Saakashvili's initiative on holding a Conference on voluntary basis of new European democracies is considered by Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev to be "good and constructive". He said about that by way of answering journalists' questions at a mixed with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko press conference, following negotiations between the Ukrainian and Moldovan delegations.

"I personally familiarized with this initiative by the Georgian President. It is good and constructive. But it is the initiative at the presidential level, Vasile Tarlev said. He underscored that as Prime Minister of Moldova, he, certainly, supports all democratic values, including their implementation in Moldova. He reminded that since 2002 Moldova determined European integration to be its main strategic vector of domestic and foreign policies. Since 2001, Moldova is the World Trade Organization member and member of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe.

He also assured that the Moldovan party "will support any initiatives, including those of the Ukrainian party". He explained his position in the following way: "We  know that we share common democratic values".

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, while answering this question, noted that for her "Yalta is associated with sun, sea, warmth and peace between the countries". Therefore Yulia Tymoshenko would like that all initiatives, developed in Yalta, be very friendly, very constructive and  that they would not bring discord to those wonderful natural conditions, which exist in Yalta.

***

Ukraine considers a visit by Turkish Vice Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to Ukraine as an important stage in development of the Ukrainian-Turkish relations, Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs Borys Tarasyuk told a joint press conference in Kyiv on Thursday. As he told the journalists, the Thursday negotiations tackled political and economic matters, education and culture-related issues, the two states' cooperation within NATO and the EU and Iraqi matters.

As Borys Tarasyuk told the press conference, the parties paid particular attention to matters of preparation of a state visit by President Viktor Yushchenko to Turkey, slated for June 7 and 8. Visits by Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to Turkey and the Turkish Parliament Chairman to Ukraine are slated to be held in 2005, too.

Borys Tarasyuk stated his vision of priority areas of cooperation in energy domain, particularly transportation and supplies of fuels. He also noted positive dynamics of cooperation in the education sphere, stating active academic exchanges.

Borys Tarasyuk briefed his counterpart about decisions of the Chisinau Summit of the GUUAM, having discussed the two nations' Black Sea economic cooperation. According to him, Ukraine views Turkey as an extremely important partner in the Black Sea region. Ukraine's cooperation with Turkey will open the way to other Black Sea countries for, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister said.

As Abdullah Gul noted in turn, there are no political problems between Ukraine and Turkey. He stated the two states' close international cooperation. According to him, 3,000 Ukrainian citizens visited Turkey in 2004 and he predicted that the number of Ukrainian tourists would increase.

As he told the press conference, the Turkish business is successfully working in Ukraine. He invited Ukrainian business representatives to the Turkish market. As he said, Turkey lays much expectation on the upcoming visit by the Ukrainian President, which would give a new impetus to the relations between Ukraine and Turkey.

***

"I would recommend those people, who seek "orange sources of revolution" for other states, to seek where sources of the national rescue war, led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, or the rebellion by Spartacus in Ancient Rome were", in such a way Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Anton Buteiko commented on statements by chief of the Russian Federal Security Service Nikolay Patrushev with regard to export of the "orange revolution", which he made at the Russian Duma on Thursday.

As Anton Buteiko stressed, there was a positive dialogue and a desire for cooperation during the recent meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian Presidents. "Special services are obviously fulfilling special tasks and are seeking for something, which one can't see. If seeking for sources or causes of a revolution somewhere abroad, seeking for export of revolution, one can go too far", Anton Buteiko noted.

***

The Ukrainian and Czech Interior Ministries' representatives discussed measures of counteraction to ethnic crime rings' activity in the Czech Republic, which Ukrainian citizens are members in. The matter was raised at a meeting in Prague, where the Ukrainian delegation, led by Deputy Minister for Internal Affairs Hennadiy Moskal, was on a visit to.

The sides particularly touched on the activity of the "Mukachevska", "Lvivska", "Kyivska", "Luhanska" and "Uzhgorodska" crime rings, which are involved in crimes, committed on the Czech territory mainly toward Ukrainian citizens, who are coming to the Czech Republic for a job.

On the whole, 7,000 crimes are committed in the Czech Republic by foreigners, 1,700 of them are committed by Ukrainian nationals.

The Ukrainian and Czech delegations agreed on establishment of expert groups for combating illegal migration, trade in humans, car stealing and organized crime.

***

Ukraine will become a member of the EU within the near ten years. The majority of experts adheres to this opinion, director of the European Commission project "Promotion of regional development of Ukraine" Jean-Luc Poget told the international conference "Regional and local development in Ukraine: challenges and opportunities" in Kyiv on Thursday.

The conference, which was organized by the above mentioned project of the European Commission, the Ukrainian Ministry of Economy and the Association of Regional Development Agencies, tackled such important matters as institutional environment of regional development in Ukraine, the administrative-territorial reform and its impact on regional development, ways to enhance competitiveness of Ukrainian regions, with a view of approaching the EU, and using standards and experience of EU countries' regional development.

As Jean-Luc Poget noted by way of talking about the EU administrative-territorial system, in the EU there is a direct connection between central and regional bodies of authority and the central power is monitoring and managing matters of economic development of the state.

According to him, the policy of regional development is one of the key instruments of the European Union's activity.

The European Commission project has been designed for 30 months and is aimed at promoting political and strategic development of Ukraine and adjusting its legislation to European norms.

Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Roman Bezsmertny was expected to take the floor at the conference.

***

First sitting of the Mixed Working Group by the Ministry of transportation and communication and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on investments took place at the Ministry on Thursday, the Ministry press service told Ukrinform.

The meeting was presided by Deputy Minister Pavlo Riabikin and EBRD Transportation Department Director Riccardo Puliti.

The working group discussed, in particular, three joint projects, which are supposed to be realized in 2005. In particular, it is the project "Development of Railroads of Ukraine" with a credit to the tune of 51.88 M. USA (borrower is the Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railway), a project for reconstruction of highway M06 Kyiv-Chop with a credit to the tune of 75 M. euro and the project "Modernization of the Aeronavigation Servicing System in Ukraine" with a credit to the tune of 25.4 M. USD.

Also, investment projects were discussed at the meeting, which are prepared for realization. In particular, the project "Implementation of Express Passenger Traffic on Ukraine's Railway" with a credit to the tune of 120 M. USD (borrower is the Ukrzaliznytsia), a project on maintenance of the Kyiv-Chop highway worth 100 M. euro (borrower the UkrAvtoDor) and the project on development of the Illichevsk Sea Port infrastructure with a credit to the tune of 24.5 M. euro (borrower is the Sea Commercial Port of Illichevsk).

Ricardo Puliti officially informed the Ukrainian party about readiness to grant 200 M. euro for the third project of the UkrAvtoDor "Completion of Construction of Highway Kyiv-Chop on a Section from the City of Kyiv to the City of Brody".

***

The Cabinet abolished a decision of the former Government on granting discounts to carriages by private railway wagons. At present, unified, economically substantiated and transparent discounts are set to tariffs on transit by rail freightage in private wagons for all participants of this process, Minister of transportation and communication Yevhen Chervonenko told journalists on Thursday.

According to him, the Ministry was fighting over one and a half months to abolish preferences, granted to several private firms. Alongside with this, consideration of this issue on various pretexts was removed form agenda of the Cabinet's sittings, even despite the PGO and Antimonopoly Committee presentations about non-compliance of those preferences with active legislation.

According to the Ministry of transportation and communication, Ukraine, in the person of state railway, lost to the tune of over 100 M. UAH and continued to lose almost 800,000 UAH each day since the second half of 2004. Those funds were mainly received by business companies, such as the  UkrTransLeasing, the LemTrans, the Transforwarding, etc.

As Yevhen Chervonenko noted those preferences made other owners of cargo to approach those privileged companies for services. But, finally, preferences, were abolished and unified, economically substantiated and transparent discounts to tariffs on transit by rail freightage  in private wagons were set for all participants of this process.

According to the Ministry, thanks to that the State will receive by 2005's end additional profits to the tune of over 200 M. UAH. At the same time, provided that discounts were liquidated at all, private wagons would most probably be handed over to operator companies in other CIS countries, where such discounts exist. And this would lead to paralysis of railway cargo carriage and the state economy as a whole.

***

The non-scheduled session of the Donetsk Regional Council elected former Chairman of the Donetsk Regional Administration, Deputy Chairman of the regional branch of the Party of Regions Anatoliy Blyzniuk Deputy Chairman of the Regional Council on Thursday.

As Anatoliy Blyzniuk said in his speech to the session, "we don't need confrontations with new power, we must work in the interests of the region and the country, move forward and reach new results for the benefit of Ukraine and Donbas".

***

Representatives of two African countries SAR and Sudan simultaneously visited Kharkiv and demonstrated their interest toward contacts with business circles in Kharkiv region. Kharkiv Regional Administration Head Arsen Avakov met with SAR Ambassador to Ukraine Ashraf Sentso, who is supposed to visit the Kharkiv Tractor Plant, the Malyshev and the Aviation Works.

During a meeting with the Kharkiv Regional Administration Head the diplomat said that SAR is supposed to construct seven electric power plants, and the country is in need of specialists in the energy sphere and mechanical construction. During the meeting issues, connected with NEPAD project "New Partnership for African Development» and arranging twin-city relations between Kharkiv and Johannesburg were discussed. A twin-city agreement envisages cooperation in realization of educational and social programs. During the meeting it was announced about plans on opening SAR Consulates in a number of Ukrainian cities, Kharkiv including.

The Head of Kharkiv Regional Administration met on Wednesday with a Sudan delegation, which is headed by Aviation Minister Ali Tamim Fertak. The guests' interest concerned cooperation in the sphere of aircraft construction. The Sudan guests visited the Kharkiv State Aviation Plant and they intend to purchase a number of the AN-140 and AN-74 planes.

Planes made in Kharkiv are of interest to Iran clients, too. On Thursday the Regional Administration Head is supposed to hold a meeting with representatives of the Iranian party, a press conference by Kharkiv Aviation Plant Director General Pavlo Naumenko is supposed to be staged.

***

The Appeal Court adopted a ruling about remitting arrest of the Dynamo Football Club stock (Kyiv), Dynamo club press service Head Serhi Polkhovsky told Ukrinform.

He noted that by this the Court satisfied a complaint by Dynamo Football Club President Ihor Surkis, Founders Council Chairman Valentyn Zhursky and the Club about lawfulness of  stock's arrest.

As Ukrinform earlier reported, in March the Pechersk District Court of the City of Kyiv satisfied a suit by the Pacific International Sport Clubs Limited (PISCL) and by its ruling arrested stock of the Dynamo Football Club (Kyiv). The Company's claim  stated that the PISCL's rights for priority purchasing Club's stock  were violated.

***

During the Eurovision song contest a creative action will be held in Kyiv "Ukraine is European Country". This was discussed during a meeting of the working group of the Organizing Committee on preparation of the Eurovision, which was held by Vice Prime Minister Mykola Tomenko. In particular, participants in the meeting decided that a week of Ukrainian culture would  be held at the time of holding the Eurovision song contest.

It was also adjusted at the meeting that an official opening of the Eurovision in Ukraine would take place on May 16 on the Square near the Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv. On May 17 former song contest winner Ruslana Lyzhychko will give a charitable concert at the Arena entertaining center.

On May 18 on Maidan Nezalezhnosti through assistance from the Kyiv City Hall and the Kyiv Star Company a concert "Ukraine is Heart of Europe" will be staged. On May 19 a TV European opening of the Eurovision will be staged and the song contest semi-final will be broadcast to all European countries.

Also, a stage will be functioning on Maidan since May 19, where well-known Ukrainian musicians and singers will perform from the following groups.Okean Elzy,. VV, Tartak, Mandry, Haidamaky, Motorrolla, as well as singers will perform, such as Maria Burmaka, Haitana and other performers.

On May 21 the song contest finale will be staged, a winner will be determined by results of voting, and an award will be presented to a winner of the song contest.

***

Ukraine counts on Turkey's support in the matter of holding a session by the UN General Assembly on the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster in April 2006, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn said at a meeting with Turkish Vice Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in Kyiv on Thursday.  He stated the Verkhovna Rada's readiness to step up cooperation with Turkey at the parliamentary level.

The two sides highly assessed the paces of development of Ukrainian-Turkish cooperation, the volumes of trade turnover, academic exchanges and tourist business.

The two interlocutors discussed European integration-related matters and the role of the two Parliaments in this process.

***

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko discussed with her Moldovan counterpart Vasile Tarlev possibilities of cooperation between the two countries in the energy sphere. According to Yulia Tymoshenko "Ukraine has all possibilities to fully supply electric power to Moldova". Moreover, according to Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine and Moldova have "all possibilities to arrange joint projects of electric power exports to third countries". Cooperation between the two countries in the energy sphere "has very good prospects", Yulia Tymoshenko expressed her confidence. While characterizing results of the meeting on the whole, the Prime Minister of Ukraine noted that "the Ukrainian-Moldovan relations acquire absolutely different contents at present".

By results of the meeting with Vasile Tarlev within the framework of his working visit to Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko also underscored that the Ukrainian Government would initiate urgent consideration of ratification of an Agreement on free trade with Moldova by the Ukrainian Parliament. According to her, "We are interested in that and we will promote this project".

According to the Ukrainian party, Ukraine and Moldova will also manage to sign a bipartite protocol with MOldova, the WTO member, within the framework of Ukraine's joining this organization.

During a meeting with Vasile Tarlev Yulia Tymoshenko confirmed Ukraine's firm intention to create mixed Ukrainian-Moldovan frontier checkpoints.

***

Georgian President Michael Saakashvili's initiative on holding a Conference on voluntary basis of new European democracies is considered by Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev to be "good and constructive". He said about that by way of answering journalists' questions at a mixed with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko press conference, following negotiations between the Ukrainian and Moldovan delegations.

"I personally familiarized with this initiative by the Georgian President. It is good and constructive. But it is the initiative at the presidential level, Vasile Tarlev said. He underscored that as Prime Minister of Moldova, he, certainly, supports all democratic values, including their implementation in Moldova. He reminded that since 2002 Moldova determined European integration to be its main strategic vector of domestic and foreign policies. Since 2001, Moldova is the World Trade Organization member and member of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe.

He also assured that the Moldovan party "will support any initiatives, including those of the Ukrainian party". He explained his position in the following way: "We  know that we share common democratic values".

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, while answering this question, noted that for her "Yalta is associated with sun, sea, warmth and peace between the countries". Therefore Yulia Tymoshenko would like that all initiatives, developed in Yalta, be very friendly, very constructive and  that they would not bring discord to those wonderful natural conditions, which exist in Yalta.

***

Ukraine considers a visit by Turkish Vice Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to Ukraine as an important stage in development of the Ukrainian-Turkish relations, Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs Borys Tarasyuk told a joint press conference in Kyiv on Thursday. As he told the journalists, the Thursday negotiations tackled political and economic matters, education and culture-related issues, the two states' cooperation within NATO and the EU and Iraqi matters.

As Borys Tarasyuk told the press conference, the parties paid particular attention to matters of preparation of a state visit by President Viktor Yushchenko to Turkey, slated for June 7 and 8. Visits by Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to Turkey and the Turkish Parliament Chairman to Ukraine are slated to be held in 2005, too.

Borys Tarasyuk stated his vision of priority areas of cooperation in energy domain, particularly transportation and supplies of fuels. He also noted positive dynamics of cooperation in the education sphere, stating active academic exchanges.

Borys Tarasyuk briefed his counterpart about decisions of the Chisinau Summit of the GUUAM, having discussed the two nations' Black Sea economic cooperation. According to him, Ukraine views Turkey as an extremely important partner in the Black Sea region. Ukraine's cooperation with Turkey will open the way to other Black Sea countries for, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister said.

As Abdullah Gul noted in turn, there are no political problems between Ukraine and Turkey. He stated the two states' close international cooperation. According to him, 3,000 Ukrainian citizens visited Turkey in 2004 and he predicted that the number of Ukrainian tourists would increase.

As he told the press conference, the Turkish business is successfully working in Ukraine. He invited Ukrainian business representatives to the Turkish market. As he said, Turkey lays much expectation on the upcoming visit by the Ukrainian President, which would give a new impetus to the relations between Ukraine and Turkey.

***

"I would recommend those people, who seek "orange sources of revolution" for other states, to seek where sources of the national rescue war, led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, or the rebellion by Spartacus in Ancient Rome were", in such a way Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Anton Buteiko commented on statements by chief of the Russian Federal Security Service Nikolay Patrushev with regard to export of the "orange revolution", which he made at the Russian Duma on Thursday.

As Anton Buteiko stressed, there was a positive dialogue and a desire for cooperation during the recent meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian Presidents. "Special services are obviously fulfilling special tasks and are seeking for something, which one can't see. If seeking for sources or causes of a revolution somewhere abroad, seeking for export of revolution, one can go too far", Anton Buteiko noted.

***

The Ukrainian and Czech Interior Ministries' representatives discussed measures of counteraction to ethnic crime rings' activity in the Czech Republic, which Ukrainian citizens are members in. The matter was raised at a meeting in Prague, where the Ukrainian delegation, led by Deputy Minister for Internal Affairs Hennadiy Moskal, was on a visit to.

The sides particularly touched on the activity of the "Mukachevska", "Lvivska", "Kyivska", "Luhanska" and "Uzhgorodska" crime rings, which are involved in crimes, committed on the Czech territory mainly toward Ukrainian citizens, who are coming to the Czech Republic for a job.

On the whole, 7,000 crimes are committed in the Czech Republic by foreigners, 1,700 of them are committed by Ukrainian nationals.

The Ukrainian and Czech delegations agreed on establishment of expert groups for combating illegal migration, trade in humans, car stealing and organized crime.

***

Ukraine will become a member of the EU within the near ten years. The majority of experts adheres to this opinion, director of the European Commission project "Promotion of regional development of Ukraine" Jean-Luc Poget told the international conference "Regional and local development in Ukraine: challenges and opportunities" in Kyiv on Thursday.

The conference, which was organized by the above mentioned project of the European Commission, the Ukrainian Ministry of Economy and the Association of Regional Development Agencies, tackled such important matters as institutional environment of regional development in Ukraine, the administrative-territorial reform and its impact on regional development, ways to enhance competitiveness of Ukrainian regions, with a view of approaching the EU, and using standards and experience of EU countries' regional development.

As Jean-Luc Poget noted by way of talking about the EU administrative-territorial system, in the EU there is a direct connection between central and regional bodies of authority and the central power is monitoring and managing matters of economic development of the state.

According to him, the policy of regional development is one of the key instruments of the European Union's activity.

The European Commission project has been designed for 30 months and is aimed at promoting political and strategic development of Ukraine and adjusting its legislation to European norms.

Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Roman Bezsmertny was expected to take the floor at the conference.

***

First sitting of the Mixed Working Group by the Ministry of transportation and communication and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on investments took place at the Ministry on Thursday, the Ministry press service told Ukrinform.

The meeting was presided by Deputy Minister Pavlo Riabikin and EBRD Transportation Department Director Riccardo Puliti.

The working group discussed, in particular, three joint projects, which are supposed to be realized in 2005. In particular, it is the project "Development of Railroads of Ukraine" with a credit to the tune of 51.88 M. USA (borrower is the Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railway), a project for reconstruction of highway M06 Kyiv-Chop with a credit to the tune of 75 M. euro and the project "Modernization of the Aeronavigation Servicing System in Ukraine" with a credit to the tune of 25.4 M. USD.

Also, investment projects were discussed at the meeting, which are prepared for realization. In particular, the project "Implementation of Express Passenger Traffic on Ukraine's Railway" with a credit to the tune of 120 M. USD (borrower is the Ukrzaliznytsia), a project on maintenance of the Kyiv-Chop highway worth 100 M. euro (borrower the UkrAvtoDor) and the project on development of the Illichevsk Sea Port infrastructure with a credit to the tune of 24.5 M. euro (borrower is the Sea Commercial Port of Illichevsk).

Ricardo Puliti officially informed the Ukrainian party about readiness to grant 200 M. euro for the third project of the UkrAvtoDor "Completion of Construction of Highway Kyiv-Chop on a Section from the City of Kyiv to the City of Brody".

***

The Cabinet abolished a decision of the former Government on granting discounts to carriages by private railway wagons. At present, unified, economically substantiated and transparent discounts are set to tariffs on transit by rail freightage in private wagons for all participants of this process, Minister of transportation and communication Yevhen Chervonenko told journalists on Thursday.

According to him, the Ministry was fighting over one and a half months to abolish preferences, granted to several private firms. Alongside with this, consideration of this issue on various pretexts was removed form agenda of the Cabinet's sittings, even despite the PGO and Antimonopoly Committee presentations about non-compliance of those preferences with active legislation.

According to the Ministry of transportation and communication, Ukraine, in the person of state railway, lost to the tune of over 100 M. UAH and continued to lose almost 800,000 UAH each day since the second half of 2004. Those funds were mainly received by business companies, such as the  UkrTransLeasing, the LemTrans, the Transforwarding, etc.

As Yevhen Chervonenko noted those preferences made other owners of cargo to approach those privileged companies for services. But, finally, preferences, were abolished and unified, economically substantiated and transparent discounts to tariffs on transit by rail freightage  in private wagons were set for all participants of this process.

According to the Ministry, thanks to that the State will receive by 2005's end additional profits to the tune of over 200 M. UAH. At the same time, provided that discounts were liquidated at all, private wagons would most probably be handed over to operator companies in other CIS countries, where such discounts exist. And this would lead to paralysis of railway cargo carriage and the state economy as a whole.

***

The non-scheduled session of the Donetsk Regional Council elected former Chairman of the Donetsk Regional Administration, Deputy Chairman of the regional branch of the Party of Regions Anatoliy Blyzniuk Deputy Chairman of the Regional Council on Thursday.

As Anatoliy Blyzniuk said in his speech to the session, "we don't need confrontations with new power, we must work in the interests of the region and the country, move forward and reach new results for the benefit of Ukraine and Donbas".

***

Representatives of two African countries SAR and Sudan simultaneously visited Kharkiv and demonstrated their interest toward contacts with business circles in Kharkiv region. Kharkiv Regional Administration Head Arsen Avakov met with SAR Ambassador to Ukraine Ashraf Sentso, who is supposed to visit the Kharkiv Tractor Plant, the Malyshev and the Aviation Works.

During a meeting with the Kharkiv Regional Administration Head the diplomat said that SAR is supposed to construct seven electric power plants, and the country is in need of specialists in the energy sphere and mechanical construction. During the meeting issues, connected with NEPAD project "New Partnership for African Development» and arranging twin-city relations between Kharkiv and Johannesburg were discussed. A twin-city agreement envisages cooperation in realization of educational and social programs. During the meeting it was announced about plans on opening SAR Consulates in a number of Ukrainian cities, Kharkiv including.

The Head of Kharkiv Regional Administration met on Wednesday with a Sudan delegation, which is headed by Aviation Minister Ali Tamim Fertak. The guests' interest concerned cooperation in the sphere of aircraft construction. The Sudan guests visited the Kharkiv State Aviation Plant and they intend to purchase a number of the AN-140 and AN-74 planes.

Planes made in Kharkiv are of interest to Iran clients, too. On Thursday the Regional Administration Head is supposed to hold a meeting with representatives of the Iranian party, a press conference by Kharkiv Aviation Plant Director General Pavlo Naumenko is supposed to be staged.

***

The Appeal Court adopted a ruling about remitting arrest of the Dynamo Football Club stock (Kyiv), Dynamo club press service Head Serhi Polkhovsky told Ukrinform.

He noted that by this the Court satisfied a complaint by Dynamo Football Club President Ihor Surkis, Founders Council Chairman Valentyn Zhursky and the Club about lawfulness of  stock's arrest.

As Ukrinform earlier reported, in March the Pechersk District Court of the City of Kyiv satisfied a suit by the Pacific International Sport Clubs Limited (PISCL) and by its ruling arrested stock of the Dynamo Football Club (Kyiv). The Company's claim  stated that the PISCL's rights for priority purchasing Club's stock  were violated.

***

During the Eurovision song contest a creative action will be held in Kyiv "Ukraine is European Country". This was discussed during a meeting of the working group of the Organizing Committee on preparation of the Eurovision, which was held by Vice Prime Minister Mykola Tomenko. In particular, participants in the meeting decided that a week of Ukrainian culture would  be held at the time of holding the Eurovision song contest.

It was also adjusted at the meeting that an official opening of the Eurovision in Ukraine would take place on May 16 on the Square near the Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv. On May 17 former song contest winner Ruslana Lyzhychko will give a charitable concert at the Arena entertaining center.

On May 18 on Maidan Nezalezhnosti through assistance from the Kyiv City Hall and the Kyiv Star Company a concert "Ukraine is Heart of Europe" will be staged. On May 19 a TV European opening of the Eurovision will be staged and the song contest semi-final will be broadcast to all European countries.