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Kyiv's mid-March 2018: command, central bank, coins
Summary
A look back at the personnel and policy decisions in Ukraine between 14 and 16 March 2018, from a new military headquarters to a change at the National Bank.
What did Ukraine's leadership change in the space of three days? On 16 March 2018, President Petro Poroshenko appointed Serhiy Nayev as commander of the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, created to replace the ATO Staff. That appointment capped a short run of decisions touching the military, the central bank and everyday finance.
A new command structure
The Joint Staff replaced the ATO Staff, and the 16 March appointment put Nayev at its head. The reports of the day set out the change as a matter of structure and personnel: one headquarters took over from another, with a named commander.
Support for servicemen
A day earlier, on 15 March 2018, Poroshenko signed amendments to the law on the social and legal protection of servicemen and their families. The changes were aimed at removing social unfairness in the right of military personnel to receive cash compensation for renting housing.
A change at the National Bank
Also on 15 March 2018, the Verkhovna Rada dismissed Valeriya Hontareva as head of the National Bank of Ukraine and appointed Yakiv Smolii in her place. On 14 March 2018, the National Bank had presented new 2, 5 and 10 hryvnia coins and announced that it would stop minting small-denomination coins.
Washington's sanctions
Beyond Ukraine, on 15 March 2018 the Trump administration imposed financial sanctions on 19 Russian nationals under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. Twelve of them were among those indicted in the Special Counsel investigation. The law had been passed by the US Senate 98–2 on 27 July 2017, after the House vote of 419–3, and signed on 2 August 2017 by President Donald Trump, who nevertheless believed it to be seriously flawed.
Reading the sequence
Taken together, these items show a country adjusting its military command, its welfare provisions for soldiers and its monetary leadership within days, while Washington used an existing sanctions law against Russian nationals. Each decision was announced separately, and the reports of the time presented them as distinct steps rather than parts of one programme.
