The Reform Support Team of the State Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) is designing a project on road pricing for foreign trucks with the maximum loaded weight of 12 tonnes and more.
An expert of the Reform Support Team at Ukravtodor told Interfax-Ukraine, they plan to charge fees only on vehicles of foreign carriers with the maximum loaded weight of 12 tonnes or more, which carry out transit traffic through Ukraine.
The project is planned to be implemented on the basis of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS).
According to the calculations of the Ukravtodor’s Reform Support Team, the implementation of the GNSS system on international roads will make it possible to receive additional revenues of UAH 8.9 billion to the Road Fund annually.
The payback of the project will be about one year, and profitability will be about 80%.
The launch of GNSS on international roads will make it possible to implement complete control over passenger traffic and special equipment (garbage trucks), as well as the transportation of dangerous, valuable or special cargoes.
With the help of this system, it is possible to levy fares for crossing bridges, tunnels and cities, parking; control movement and automatic formation of the route for large-size vehicles, as well as bring the transportation market to the transparent plane.
This will also help implement Directive 1999/62/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 1999 on the charging of heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures.
Minister of Health of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov claims that protective suits for medical workers have been delivered to the country and the process of their delivery to the regions will begin on Wednesday.
“Of course, the suits have arrived. Tomorrow, the process of their delivery to the regions will start, namely to those medical institutions that need it … First of all, it is western Ukraine,” Stepanov said on Tuesday night on Ukraine 24 television channel, commenting statements by deputies that the purchased suits for the protection of Ukrainian doctors from COVID-19 had not been delivered to Ukraine.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that a trend in number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the country is optimistic, however one should not be careless about the infection. The president’s press service said that on Tuesday, during a regular meeting on the prevention of the spread of COVID-19 in Ukraine, the head of state was informed that the number of new COVID-19 cases in Ukraine in the past 24 hours was 260 and 356 patients have recovered.
“The coronavirus epidemic has forced us all to make new decisions and accept new living conditions. All countries in the world have revised their approaches. Today’s trend in the number of those who fell ill and those who recovered inspires hope that we have passed the first challenges with dignity. However, this does not mean that we should be careless with coronavirus infection. We will do everything to guarantee the safety of Ukrainians,” Zelensky said.
Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine Oleksiy Chernyshov informed the president that so far almost all regions have paid 300% bonuses to medical workers who worked with COVID-19 patients in March. Three regions will resolve this issue in the coming days.
Also, some regions have already started paying bonuses for April, and by the end of the week the Cabinet of Ministers expects a significant increase in the number of agreements with the National Health Service, which is necessary to make these payments.
Main reasons for mortality of the Ukraine’s population in Jan-Feb 2020
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister for Judicial Reform, Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zakharieva agreed to step up bilateral cooperation, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
“The two focused on urgent issues of the development of Ukrainian-Bulgarian relations in the political, economic and consular spheres, as well as the problems of protecting national minorities,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on its website on Tuesday.
Kuleba and Zakharieva also discussed measures taken by the governments of both countries to counter the spread of coronavirus. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine thanked the Bulgarian counterpart for the decision made by the Bulgarian government to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the form of protective equipment for Ukrainian doctors.
The foreign ministers exchanged invitations to pay bilateral visits.
Ukrainian MP Andriy Derkach has made public audio materials that may indicate the influence of ex-Vice President of the United States Joseph Biden on the fifth President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. “We will unveil recordings of telephone conversations with voices similar to those of Petro Poroshenko and Joseph Biden, testifying to the facts of international corruption and state treason at the highest state level,” Derkach said during an online conference at Interfax-Ukraine agency on Tuesday.
According to Derkach, he received the recordings from investigative journalists, and Poroshenko personally did the recording of the conversations.
The first topic of the recordings, the deputy noted, concerns the receipt of “$1 billion in exchange for maintaining Burisma schemes and international corruption.” The records, as Derkach notes, date back to 2015-2016, in particular, they refer to the need to dismiss Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin at that time, “who was investigating the Burisma case and tapped into Biden at that time.”
“Biden leaves for Kyiv to put pressure on Petro Oleksiyovych regarding Shokin. There’s a powerful argument … in Biden’s pocket … a $1 billion loan guarantees … such was a price to save Biden from prison,” Derkach said.
The deputy claims that the $1 billion received was used to get military government orders by enterprises related to Poroshenko.
The second topic of the recordings, according to Derkach, concerns the collapse of the parliamentary coalition and the upcoming elections in February 2016. “Poroshenko admits that there is no coalition … instead of fulfilling the requirements of the Constitution and declaring a re-election, Petro Oleksiyovych held to the promises given to Biden personally and blocked the Cabinet’s dismissal,” Derkach explained.
“These conversations clearly show … Biden ruled Ukraine,” the deputy said.
Also, according to him, the audio recordings say about Biden’s influence through the supervisory boards of large state enterprises.
“We handed over all the hours-long records we have at our disposal together with a statement about high treason, as well as of facts of international corruption to the Prosecutor General’s Office … for registering criminal proceedings,” Derkach summed up.
He also added that, in his opinion, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov “blocks the creation of the inquiry commission … which is a violation of the law on regulations.” “Such a commission could effectively investigate the facts of international corruption,” Derkach said.
Former prosecutor Kostiantyn Kulyk, who was present at the press conference, added that Ruslan Riaboshapka, when he was the prosecutor general, “completely stopped the investigation of economic crimes of the Yanukovych regime and stopped the $6 billion budget confiscation planned for 2019.”
“A report has been prepared on this fact that Riaboshapka had committed the crimes pursuant to Articles 349, 364 and 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine … it is about interference with the activities of a law enforcement officer, abuse of power, exceeding of the limits of authority and disclosure of the secrets of pretrial investigation. I hope that the monitoring over the investigation will be organized by Ukrainian parliamentarians … I consider it necessary to initiate the creation of a temporary investigative commission of the Verkhovna Rada to investigate opposition to the investigation of economic criminal cases of the Yanukovych regime,” Kulyk said.
