Tymoshenko stressed that it is impossible to reform the country without uniting research and the executive power. She reminded that during the meeting of the National Academy, at which representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers were present, the government Action Program “Ukrainian Breakthrough: for the People, not Politicians” received reliable support from researchers. The Prime Minister promised that including researchers in the Collegium of Ministries won’t be “a sort of decorative step,” expressing her expectation that these people will be involved in the defining the direction of the government’s Action Program at the level of each ministry.

The selfless work of the specialists in all the subdivisions ensures that the level of control increases. It is pleasant to note that there is a new generation of professionals knowledgeable in the positive domestic and foreign experience of control. I am confident that the socioeconomic, humanitarian, and political reforms proposed by the new government won’t leave a single citizen of Ukraine indifferent. I am convinced that the workers of the State Control and Revision Service will do their best in successfully conducting an anti-corruption audit.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was unable to attend today’s meeting between President Viktor Yushchenko and leaders of the main political forces because she has not fully recovered from her illness. This announcement was made by the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Maryna Soroka. “Yulia Tymoshenko continues to have a high temperature and remains at home,” announced Soroka.

Svitlana Zaytseva died from tuberculosis which she caught in prison, where she had been illegally held due to a legal mistake that found her guilty of a murder she didn’t commit. Only after the real killer was caught was she acquitted. However, it was already too late: during her imprisonment, tuberculosis destroyed her body and the innocent women died in April 2006, leaving behind three children and an invalid mother. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko commissioned the Ministry of Finance to urgently cancel the appeal and ensure that the decision of the Vroshylivsky Raion Court of the city of Donetsk be carried out in full and that appropriate payments be made to the family of deceased Svitlana Zaytseva.

On Tuesday, January 22, at 10 am, President Viktor Yushchenko will meet with leaders of the main political forces. The following individuals have been invited: Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Vasyunyk, heads of political factions in the Verkhovna Rada: Viktor Yanukovych (Party of Regions), Ivan Kyrylenko (BYuT), Vyacheslav Kyrylenko (OU-PSD), Petro Symonenko (KPU), and Volodymyr Lytvyn (Lytvyn Block).

Yulia Tymoshenko will visit the Russian Federation in the second decade of February. This agreement was reached during the weekly meeting between President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko returned to work on Monday after being sick. “She’s at work,” reported the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Maryna Soroka. On Monday Tymoshenko has a meeting planned with Viktor Yushchenko at the Presidential Secretariat.

Due to Yulia Tymoshenko’s severe cold, the Ukrainian delegation to the presidential inauguration in Georgia will be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Hryhoriy Nemyrya The respective order was signed by President Viktor Yushchenko. As announced by the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Maryna Soroka, Yulia Tymoshenko continues to have a high temperature above 39 C.

The Premier reminds that such an approach to building relations with NATO was “long ago and openly” written into the coalition agreement between the BYuT and OU-PSD factions, and correspondingly in the draft government action program “Ukrainian Breakthrough.” Tymoshenko notes that “the integrity of the country, the unity of the people, peace and harmony is above everything else. Therefore, people should know that the government won’t make a decision as important as joining NATO without consulting with them, and when this issue comes up on the agenda, the people will have their final say in an all-Ukrainian referendum.”

Yulia Tymoshenko plans to visit Brussels on January 28-29. During her trip to Brussels, the Prime Minister plans to meet with the EU Commissioner for Trade Peter Mandelson.

Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Viktor Zubkov has invited Yulia Tymoshenko to visit Moscow on January 23. The visit is being planned in order to prepare for the second meeting of the Russian-Ukrainian Interstate Commission, headed by the countries’ presidents. Negotiations will include a package of issues related to trade and economic cooperation between Russia and Ukraine.

Hryhoriy Surkiv, Head of the Ukrainian Football Federation, and Yevhen Chervonenko, Head of the National Agency for Preparation and Holding of Euro-2012, were named deputy heads of the committee. The committee also includes representatives of oblast state administrations and city mayors. The Cabinet of Ministers also approved the plan of top priority measures. They also passed a resolution on the personal responsibility for the preparations for Euro-2012.