Daily Digest: Top news of Monday, Aug. 6 - Aug. 07, 2018

Here’s one of many reasons why Ukraine is struggling financially and dependent on Western loans: Its government is losing $4.8 billion a year due to corruption in the customs service alone, according to a report by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung published on Aug.6.
Ukraine takes golds at first European Championships. As of Aug. 6, Ukraine had a haul of 13 medals – four golds, eight silvers, and one bronze.
Ukrainian Oleksandr Kostenko, arrested by Kremlin authorities in Russian-occupied Crimea in 2015, was released on Aug. 3 and returned to Ukraine on Aug.6, according to an Aug. 6 Facebook post by Iryna Gerashchenko, the vice chairwoman of Ukrainian parliament and Ukraine’s representative in the Minsk, Belarus, negotiations process.
Ukraine’s first racket Elina Svitolina has retained her top-5 place at the world ranking of the Women’s Tennis Association.
Ukraine’s economy has shrunk 17.8 percent in last 10 years.
Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air will launch flights from Lviv to Vilnius and Bratislava, and from Kharkiv to Gdansk and Wroclaw starting from October.
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan says Ukrainian authorities could terminate railway connection with Russia.
Donating to a charity in Ukraine is now as easy as sending a text from a cellphone – literally. A service that allows users to send Hr 5, 10 or 20 to Ukrainian charities via SMS was launched on Aug. 1.
More than 10,000 Ukrainian citizens have been detained, convicted or sentenced throughout the world as of late June this year, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andriy Zayats has said.
The Technical Swimming Committee of the European Swimming League has decided to hold the 2019 European Diving Championships in Ukraine.
Kherson City Court ruled on Aug. 6 that Mykola Novikov, a suspect in the acid attack on Kherson city council official Kateryna Gandziuk, be kept in custody for two months in the city’s pre-trial detention center. Police suspect that Novikov, a 40-year-old resident of Kherson on July 31 attacked Gandziuk pouring acid on her head and back, the charges he denies.

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