Main news of Donbas: About 2 mln children are victims of hostilities in Donbas; Poroshenko promises: No federalization

About 1.7 million children are direct or indirect victims of the armed conflict in the Donbas. It was claimed by Giovanna Barberis, UNICEF representative in Ukraine, at a briefing in Kramatorsk on September 9.  She noted that the level of psychological trauma and stress that children have experienced is immense. “It is difficult to provide any precise data. However, we estimated that about 186,000 displaced children and additionally the children remaining in the territory uncontrolled by Ukraine have suffered from various kinds of psychological and social violence”, said Barberis.

Pavlo Zhebrivsky, Chairman of Donetsk Regional Military and Civil Administration, addressed Japanese government asking them for assistance in promoting IT sphere and biotechnology. He even believes that it is possible to assemble Japanese cars in Ukraine. “I think that peace and quiet are coming to Ukraine; and the first investors in the region development should be representatives of the country which contributes most to its restoration”, said Zhebrivskiy.

According to him, the most demanding spheres are agriculture and heavy industry. “I don’t like that the Donetsk region produces only metal to export. It would be better to produce Japanese cars, then export them and get maximum profit. I would like IT and biotechnology experts to come to the Donbas. It is very important for the Donbas to value brainwork, not only physical one. It is especially important in the region where there are lots of local universities which provide high quality engineering education. We need a shift from industrial to information society”, he added.

At the session of the Regional Development Council, which took place in Kyiv on September 9, Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine, confirmed, that he will not allow to change the unitary state structure. “I would like to emphasize once again that Ukraine is and will remain a unitary state, despite the fact that our enemies would like to change this. We will never agree to this”, said the Head of the state. Poroshenko reminded once again that “decentralization has nothing to do with federlization."

World Powerlifting Cup took place in Astara (Azerbaijan) on August 28-31. Athletes from more than 20 countries took part in it. Olha Ivzhenko, pupil of “Vidrodzhennya” sports school, was a member of Ukrainian team. The age group consisted of athletes under 14 and Olha is only 11, but her results were: 41 kilos in snatch, 48 kilos in clean and jerk, 89 kilos in total. In the course of the competition, Olha broke 5 records of Ukraine and got the fourth place, according to the general results of the competition.