This has just been issued by RFE/RL's news desk:
Ukraine's Central Bank Lowers Its 2016 Growth Forecast
Ukraine's central bank has more than halved its 2016 growth forecast as the cash-strapped country battles crises ranging from a fall in commodity prices to a new trade embargo by Russia.
The National Bank of Ukraine said on January 28 that several unfavorable factors beyond the country's control forced the downward revision of its growth forecast from 2.4 percent to 1.1 percent.
The central bank had made the 2.4 percent growth prediction in late November.
Earlier in January, Moscow expanded its embargo on Ukrainian products and restricted their movement across its territory to other markets in response to Kyiv's decision to approve a free-trade and political association pact with the European Union.
Russia and Ukraine have been at odds over the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and Moscow’s support of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Based on reporting by AFP and UNIAN
Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas combat zone, courtesy of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE):
Sanctions against former Ukrainian officials are still in place, despite the ruling of an EU court to lift some of them, said Serhiy Horbatyuk, a representative of Ukraine's Prosecutor-General's Office.
"Sanctions against 17 former officials are now in place, they were not canceled," he said, adding that the measures will remain in place at least until March.
According to Horbatyuk, Ukraine is sending Deputy Prosecutor-General Vitaliy Kasko to the EU to "support the Prosecutor-General's position on continuing the sanctions."
Ukrainian deputy Volodymyr Ariyev also said on his Facebook page that although the European court in Luxembourg ruled to cancel sanctions whose validity expired a year ago, the assets of former Ukrainian officials remain frozen. New sanctions are in place, he said.
A January 28 ruling by the EU’s General Court said it was wrong to freeze the assets of five close associates of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.