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What did Ukraine's emergency declaration signal?
Summary
A look back at the measures and the arrest reported in Ukraine on 25 March 2020, as seen from 26 March 2020.
What did Ukraine's government do as the coronavirus spread, and what else was in the news? On 26 March 2020, the country was a day into a nationwide emergency regime.
On 25 March 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers introduced a state of emergency for 30 days across the whole of the country, citing the spread of coronavirus disease. The decision applied everywhere in Ukraine, not just to selected regions.
The same day, security forces arrested Leonid Kozhara, a former Ukrainian foreign minister. He was charged with the murder of advertising mogul Sergiy Starytsky.
The two reports were unrelated, but both were part of the news record as of 26 March 2020. The emergency regime set a 30-day period for the measures. The Kozhara arrest placed a criminal case involving a former senior official in the headlines at the same time.
As a retrospective, the day shows how a public-health emergency and a criminal case could share the same news cycle.
