As of March 22, 2022, Ukrposhta delivered almost 80% of pensions (UAH 8.4 billion), delivery is carried out in all regions.
As the press service of the national postal operator reported on Wednesday, in most regions the rate of pension payments fluctuates between 93-99%. So far, it has not been possible to fully pay pensions in zones where active hostilities are taking place.
So, in Chernihiv region 16% was paid, in Zaporizhia region – 48%, Kharkiv region – 50%, in Kherson region – 57%, in Sumy region – 60% of pensions.
Ukrposhta noted that as soon as green corridors to cities temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation or under shelling are formed, the company will immediately deliver payments. In addition, the percentage of pension payments is lower than usual at present, partly due to the fact that many Ukrainians have changed their place of residence due to hostilities and have not yet completed the redirection.
“For three weeks in a row, together with our colleagues, we have been constantly in touch with the Ukrainian military, rebuilding routes, looking for strong-willed and creative solutions to bypass enemy checkpoints, find cash in a surrounded city or region, and provide people with basic necessities. Unfortunately, there are still separate areas where we cannot reach, but our defenders are doing their job every day, retaking our cities and villages from the invaders, and we at Ukrposhta are already starting cars to quickly do our job after,” the Ukrposhta general director Igor Smelyansky said.
The national postal operator notes that the majority of Ukrainians who received pensions for February received them locally – at Ukrposhta offices in the city or by targeted delivery. Also, Ukrposhta received about 22,000 applications for redirecting payments.
Nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereschuk said.
“Nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed, Donetsk region from Mariupol to Zaporizhia… Berdiansk – Zaporizhia. Some 24 buses are now at the entrance to Berdiansk. From 10 o’clock they will be brought to start the evacuation,” Vereschuk said at a briefing on Wednesday.
According to her, humanitarian corridors are also planned in Zaporizhia region: Polohy – Zaporizhia, Huliaipole – Zaporizhia;
in Kyiv region: Velyka Dymerka – Brovary, Bohdanivka – Brovary, Borodianka – Bila Tserkva, Svitylnia- Brovary;
in Luhansk region: Rubizhne – Bakhmut, Nyzhnie – Bakhmut.
“These routes will also pass through other cities, where stops will be made to collect people, Lysychansk, Severodonetsk…,” Vereschuk said.
More than 3.5 million people have left Ukraine since the start of the Russian special operation, the United Nations Refugee Agency reported on its web page.
Over 2 million people have crossed into Poland, over 542,000 into Romania, nearly 368,000 into Moldova, over 317,000 into Hungary, and over 253,000 into Slovakia.
Russia has absorbed 252,000 and Belarus about 4,000 refugees from Ukraine, it said.
The losses of pharmaceutical company Farmak (Kyiv) due to a fire in a warehouse that occurred at the beginning of the war amounted to about UAH 1.5 billion.
“The warehouses of Farmak, where there were ready-made medicines, raw materials for medicines, primary packaging, were burned to the ground by the occupiers in the first days of the war. According to general estimates, the losses amounted to about UAH 1.5 billion,” the company said on its Facebook page.
The company also said that currently 87 of its employees defend Ukraine in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or territorial defense.
From December 2021, Farmak and the Charitable Foundation of Zhebrivskykh Family have donated more than UAH 12 million to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, medical institutions and the civilian population, including about UAH 9 million in medicines.
In addition, the company announces an agreement with its foreign partners on humanitarian supplies of critically important medicines, in which Farmak provides logistics. Some of these deliveries worth EUR 1 million have already been unloaded in Ukraine.
“This is only half of the already confirmed deliveries. This is what makes it possible to fill the warehouses of the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health with everything necessary,” the company said.
Farmak said that the company is currently “working on the issue of reducing the shortage of medicines on the Ukrainian market using internal resources.”
The company said that since the beginning of the open armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, Farmak has not made a single shipment of medicines to Russia and the Republic of Belarus. In particular, on February 24, Farmak donated a truck with medicines worth $200,000, which were preparing for shipment to Belarus, to the needs of Chernihiv.
“We cleared it back and handed it over to the needs of the city of Chernihiv, which was one of the first to be attacked by the Russian military,” the company said.
Farmak recalled that its representative office in the Russian Federation was curtailed back in 2014.
Cheese makers in central and western Ukraine meet the current needs of Ukrainians in cheese, since demand for it is limited due to the departure of consumers from the occupied and frontline territories and abroad, according to the website of the analytical agency Infagro.
“Cheese logistics are getting better, chains have partially resumed direct deliveries to stores, despite the non-working shopping and entertainment centers in many regions. The shelves of working stores have almost been freed from imported assortment. Relatively good sales are in western Ukraine, where migrants have moved,” the message says.
According to the agency, in March prices for Ukrainian cheese did not change compared to February this year.
It is specified that the export of Ukrainian cheese this month will be quite insignificant, only Moldova is available for domestic supplies.
At the same time, cheese imports to Ukraine in February were still significant, 3,600 tonnes were purchased, of which 1,500 tonnes of hard/semi-hard and 600 tonnes of processed cheese.
“Now most of the cheese brought in February has either been sold out or stuck somewhere in distribution warehouses. Most likely, cheese will be brought from Europe as humanitarian aid,” the agency summed up in the message.
On Tuesday, Israel will open a field hospital in the city of Mostyska, Lviv region, Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky said.
“Israel will become the first country to open a field hospital in Ukraine. The official opening ceremony will take place today in the city of Mostyka, Lviv region,” Brodsky said on Twitter on Tuesday.
