Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko together with President Viktor Yushchenko and Verkhovna Rada Speacker Arseniy Yatseniuk took part in laying the flowers to the monuments to Taras Shevchenko and Mykhaylo Hrushevsky on the occasion of the Constitution Day. In the ceremony participating also were members of the Government and people’s deputies of Ukraine.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko is convinced that till 2010 the trade turnover between Ukraine and Turkey will reach 10 billion USD. The Head of Ukrainian Government announced during her meeting with head of Turkish Grand National Assembly Köksal Toptan.

“Future and even present of the coal industry exist, we just have to find the right approach to this and within a year our team will demonstrate how the branch has to operate,” Yulia Tymoshenko emphasized. Prime Minister imparted that in the process of elaborating the program of coal industry reforming she will consult with specialists. According to her, today an understanding in terms of realization of a pilot project in reforming the branch on the basis of the Frunze coal mine of RovenkyAntracite enterprise has been achieved.

Ukraine’s Premier noted that despite the Frunze mine has best conditions for work but even under such conditions it is a diabolical work. “I have such an impression like I have descended to the Earth core where there are impossible for normal work conditions – temperature, humidity, dustiness but people are working there and provide Ukraine with coal,” she emphasized. Prime Minister of Ukraine also considers coal miners receive low wages and added that miners every day descending into the mine are heroes.

“We have all the appropriate tables ready for the President in order to make the decisions,” said Tymoshenko. “We agreed with the President to meet on Friday morning to finalize the best approach and provide the country with a changed budget,” she added. When asked where the meeting will take place, Tymoshenko said that this will be a separate meeting at the President’s office. Tymoshenko reminded that in five months on the job, her government’s work in bringing the economy out of the shadow and stopping contraband resulted in 30.4 billion hryvnias in addition revenue. “These are colossal amounts of money that should be geared towards the country’s development and on investment, especially in the coal industry, and increasing salaries for government workers,” she noted.

Yulia Tymoshenko noted that the government plans to develop an investment project on this. “You need to take water that is pumped out of the mines, purify it well and use it for everyday needs,” stressed the Premier.

Tymoshenko stated that part of the money was to come directly from the state budget and the rest was to be obtained from privatization. “But you know that honest and transparent privatization – not the kind that we’ve had until now – has been stopped. All of our privatization plans and the government’s decisions have been frozen,” complained Tymoshenko. “We will be able to make larger repayments if this process is unblocked for the government,” promised the Premier. “The government needs to be able to work. More than 150 draft laws that have been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada are not being reviewed, dozens of decisions have been frozen – and all of them are related to economic development,” noted the Premier.

While descending into the mine Yulia Tymoshenko is accompanied by Minister of Coal Industry Viktor Poltavets, head of Ukraine’s Prime Minister apparatus Mykhaylo Livinskyi as well as head of VR Committee on industrial and regulatory policy and entrepreneurship Natalya Korolevska and leaders of the mine. The duration of descent and ascent at the Frunze mine will last for about three hours.

Yulia Tymoshenko recalled that in April during previous visit of governmental delegation of the Russian Federation to Kyiv, led by ex-Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, the meeting achieved into coordination of a list of priority issues of bilateral cooperation. According to Yulia Tymoshenko, now the Economic Cooperation Committee has prepared a plan of actions in terms of achievement of strategic objectives in collaboration between Ukraine and Russia which is intended to be approved in the course of the Moscow’s visit.

In the course of its session the Cabinet of Ministers has adopted a decision on allocation of funds from the reserve fund of the State Budget for holding top-priority works on elimination of consequences of the natural disaster which happened in Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Ternopil and Chernivtsi regions on June 23. According to the Govt’s order four western regions have been allotted 27 million 220 thousand hryvnyas, in particular, to Lviv region – 22,273 thousand, Ternopil – 1 million, Chernivtsi – 720 thousand, Ivano-Frankivsk – 500 thousand hryvnyas.

“We expect that all the oil products produced will be supplied to the agro-industrial complex at a 10% return,” she said. Yulia Tymoshenko noted that this supply will last from June to November, inclusively. According to Tymoshenko, the government expects this will prevent speculators from raising prices on diesel fuel higher than the current price for A-98 petrol.

Tymoshenko stressed that the Black Sea shelf “can provide Ukraine will the gas it needs” “The reserves have been confirmed. This is simply a colossal national treasure,” she noted. “The government is working consistently. All the illegal licenses have been annulled. On the basis of a unilateral government decision, Ukraine got out of, what were in my opinion, illegal and corrupt agreements. Wherever our team is – is government or opposition – we will not allow Ukraine’s resources to be taken advantage of so corruptly,” she said.