President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced the introduction of a new Ukrainian holiday – the Day of Ukrainian Statehood.
“We are starting to celebrate the Day of Ukrainian Statehood. We consider its starting point the year of the establishment of Kyiv – the capital of Kyivan Rus – Ukraine, which is for a reason called the place where everything begins,” Zelensky said during a speech at the parade in honor of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.
“We will celebrate the birth of our statehood on the day of our statehood flourishing – on the day of the baptism of Kyivan Rus – Ukraine,” he said, adding that “he signs a corresponding decree today, on August 24.”
The President also said that “Ukraine is starting the process of returning to their native land outstanding Ukrainians who lived for Ukraine, fought for Ukraine and were not buried in Ukraine.”
President of the European Council Charles Michel has arrived in Ukraine to take part in the celebrations on the occasion of the Independence Day of Ukraine, as well as in the Crimea Platform summit.
“On behalf of the Government of Ukraine my warmest welcome to President of the European Council Charles Michel arriving to join the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence and the Crimea Platform summit,” Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna said on Twitter.
Another plane has departed from the airport of Kabul (Afghanistan) with more than 100 Ukrainian citizens on board.
The relevant statement was made by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba during the inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform in Kyiv on Monday.
“Now, while we are discussing the issue of Crimea, another Ukrainian plane took off from Kabul. There are more than 100 Ukrainian citizens on board,” Kuleba said.
On the morning of August 22, the Ukrainian military transport aircraft Il-76MD of the Ukrainian Air Force, which took off from the Afghan airport of Kabul the day before, arrived in Boryspil. On board there were 83 passengers, of whom 31 were citizens of Ukraine.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal believes that Ukraine has fulfilled the conditions necessary for the disbursement of the second tranche of macro-financial assistance from the European Union, the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers said on Sunday.
“Indeed, an important step in supporting us will be the allocation of the second tranche of macro-financial assistance before the completion of the current program in September this year. Ukraine has met all the conditions for receiving it,” Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said during a meeting with Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis.
According to the Prime Minister, Ukraine has increased the transparency and efficiency of medical procurement, continued pursuing the reform of tax and customs services, and resumed the competitive procedure for selection for civil service positions.
Shmyhal also noted that the government has taken important steps to improve the anti-corruption infrastructure. Also, the Bureau of Economic Security was created, the functioning of the natural gas market was improved, and the reform of the corporate governance system of state-owned enterprises continues.
For his part, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission noted that the European Union has mobilized unprecedented financial and technical assistance for Ukraine. And the provision of the first tranche of macro-financial assistance in the amount of EUR 600 million in 2020 had been a sign of solidarity between the EU and Ukraine.
“Ukraine has made significant efforts towards implementation of the EU macro-financial assistance conditions and based on the preliminary analysis we can consider conditions as broadly met,” Valdis Dombrovskis said.
In addition, the Prime Minister noted that Ukraine had ensured the implementation of structural “beacons” and within the framework of joint stand-by arrangement with the IMF, which are necessary for the first revision of the program.
Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in Ukraine, more than 5 million people have received one vaccination against COVID-19. Over the past day, more than 147,000 people were immunized, the press service of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine reported.
“More than 5 million Ukrainians received at least one dose of vaccine against COVID-19! Some 147,118 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 per day on August 20, 2021. One dose was received by 60,970 people, 86,148 people were fully immunized,” the Telegram channel of the Ministry said on Saturday morning.
It is reported, that during the day 957 mobile teams, 2,732 vaccination points, 329 vaccination centers worked.
Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, 5,032,722 people have been vaccinated, of which 5,032,720 received one dose and are fully immunized and 3,066,426 people received two doses (two of them received one dose abroad).
“A total of 8,099,146 vaccinations were carried out,” the Ministry of Health said.
Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili arrived in Ukraine.
“A rich program is ahead in Lviv and Kyiv, discussion of security issues, trade, economic, energy, tourism and many other issues,” Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal wrote in his Telegram channel.
It is reported that the Georgian delegation will take part in the constituent summit of the Crimean platform.
