President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky instructed the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), the Antimonopoly Committee and the President’s Office to draft a law on oligarchs, NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said and added that NSDC confidently classifies 13 persons as oligarchs.
“At the last meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, the President the NSDC, the Antimonopoly Committee, and the President’s Office to draft a law on oligarchs who today have a very large impact on our economy, our domestic and foreign political processes,” Danilov said, speaking at the Ukraine 30. National Security forum in Kyiv on Tuesday.
According to Danilov, “the NSDC considers 13 persons who can be confidently classified as oligarchs according to the NSDC criteria.” At the same time, he did not specify who he was talking about.
As reported, on April 15, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, following a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, announced an initiative to draft a bill on oligarchs in order to limit their influence on politics and the adoption of laws in Ukraine.
Manufacturers of vaccines against coronavirus (COVID-19) disease have begun to “cancel debts” on contacts for supplies, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said.
“Now the situation has begun to level out and manufacturing companies have begun to cancel the debts they owe us,” he said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Stepanov said that “in the last ten days alone, we have received 1 million doses of vaccines from the Chinese company Sinovac, deliveries have begun under the COVAX initiative – 367,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and 117,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine, and in total we expect 1.4 million doses under COVAX by the end of May.”
Stepanov also expressed hope for the resumption of vaccine supplies from India.
“We expect that the embargo on the export of vaccines in India will be lifted, and that debt of 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines that we have contracted will be closed to us,” he said.
Stepanov said that by the end of the second quarter, Ukraine expects first 500,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine, the main deliveries through this contact will begin in July, in particular, 4.5 million doses are expected in the third quarter.
Ukraine has agreed with the Indian manufacturer Serum Institute to increase the supply of vaccines against coronavirus (COVID-19) disease to 15 million doses, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said.
“During negotiations with the owner of the Serum Institute, Mr. Cyrus Poonawalla, an agreement was reached to increase the supply from 10 million to 15 million doses of vaccine,” he said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Stepanov also said that “there is a proposal from the Chinese company Sinovac.”
“We have reached an agreement with them to increase supplies and additional contracting,” he said.
Stepanov said that Ukraine currently has contacts for the supply of 42 million doses, but intends to increase the agreement to 48 million doses in 2021, which will allow 70% of the adult population to be vaccinated.
Metinvest Group, taking into account associated companies and joint ventures, is expected to increase the payment of income tax by more than seven times in January-June 2021, year-over-year, to UAH 10.2 billion, a source in the tax authorities told Interfax-Ukraine.
In turn, Metinvest confirmed to the agency information about a significant increase in income tax payments in the first half of 2021.
“Enterprises of the Metinvest group will pay income tax in the first half of 2021, replenishing the national budget by UAH 10.2 billion (compared to the first half of 2020, the income tax paid was about UAH 1.4 billion). Thus, according to the results of the first half of the year, income tax payments increased by 7.4 times. This unprecedented increase in tax payments during coronavirus pandemic will help support the cities where Metinvest enterprises operate, pay salaries in full and on time communal and medical workers,” the company told the agency.
At the same time, the group said that Metinvest is one of the largest taxpayers in Ukraine. Thus, in 2020, the company increased its tax payments by 5%, to UAH 22.1 billion year-over-year. Earlier, the group said that over 15 years of its work, it transferred UAH 165 billion to the budgets of all levels.
Electricity generation in the Integrated Power System of Ukraine in January-April 2021 increased by 5.8% (by 2.978 billion kWh), year-over-year, to 54.616 billion kWh, according to the Energy Ministry.
According to the calculations of Interfax-Ukraine, nuclear power plants (NPPs) have increased electricity generation by 0.4% in four months, to 29.7 billion kWh. In particular, electricity generation at Zaporizhia NPP amounted to 13.569 billion kWh (more by 22.5% compared to January-April 2020), Yuzhnoukrainsk NPP some 5.810 billion kWh (less by 24.2%), Rivne NPP some 5.32 billion kWh (less by 26.6%), Khmelnytsky NPP some 4.597 billion kWh (more by 39.5%).
Thermal power plants (TPPs), as well as combined heat and power plants (CHPPs) and cogeneration plants increased their output by 9.1%, to 18.39 billion kWh. In particular, TPPs increased generation by 15.9%, to 13.29 billion kWh, while CHPPs and cogeneration plants cut it by 5.2%, to 5.11 billion kWh.
Hydro power plants and pumped storage power plants increased generation by 60.9%, to 3.676 billion kWh, while block stations cut it by 6.5%, to 587 million kWh.
Electricity generation by alternative sources (wind farms, solar power plants, biomass) decreased by 0.1%, to 3.306 billion kWh.
The share of NPPs in the structure of electricity generation was 53.1% (55.9% in January-April 2020), TPPs, CHPPs and cogeneration plants some 33% (32%), hydro power plants and pumped storage power plants some 6.7% (4.4%), block stations some 1.1% (1.2%), alternative sources some 6.1% (6.4%).
In April 2021, electricity generation in Ukraine increased by 11.9% (by 1.342 billion kWh), year-over-year, to 12.607 billion kWh.
In addition, the supply of thermal energy in January-April 2021 increased by14.8% (by 1.608 million Gcal), year-over-year, to 12.450 million Gcal.
Another batch of CoronaVac vaccines was delivered to Ukraine, Health Minister of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov has said.
“The next 500,000 doses of CoronaVac vaccine from Sinovac Biotech have just landed in Boryspil,” Stepanov said on his Facebook page.
According to him, a total of 1.9 million of this vaccine have been contracted in Ukraine, of which 1.215 million have already been received by the country.
