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What did Ukraine's week of 27 May 2019 signal?
Summary
A look back at the reports surrounding 27 May 2019: an early election call, a new spelling code, a captured-soldiers report and a record vessel.
What was Ukraine dealing with by 27 May 2019? The reports from the days just before it point to politics, language, war and industry all moving at once.
On 21 May 2019, President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree ending the powers of the eighth-convocation Verkhovna Rada and called early parliamentary elections for 21 July 2019. That set the political timetable going into 27 May.
On 22 May 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a new edition of the Ukrainian orthography, drawn up by the Ukrainian National Commission on Orthography.
The same day brought a reminder of the war in Donbas. The Ukrainian military reported that eight Ukrainian soldiers had been captured by pro-Russian fighters near the village of Novotroyitske.
On 23 May 2019, the Nibulon shipyard in Mykolaiv launched the self-propelled transshipper of project P-140. It was described as the largest vessel in the history of independent Ukraine.
Taken together, these reports show a country preparing for a new parliamentary vote while the fighting in the east continued.
