Since July 1, Ukraine has significantly increased the import of natural gas into the country, which made it possible to increase the volume of its injection into underground gas storage (UGS) facilities, Head of Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine LLC (OGTSU) Serhiy Makogon has said on his Facebook page.
“Since the beginning of July, gas imports to Ukraine have significantly increased. Now it amounts to 15.8 million cubic meters per day. 91% comes from Hungary, 7% from Slovakia, and 2% from Poland. Additional receipts will allow increasing gas injection into UGS facilities to ensure the passage of the next heating season,” he wrote.
At the beginning of the second decade of June, Makogon said that the average daily gas import to Ukraine reached 3 million cubic meters, which is five times less than the current July import (15.8 million cubic meters).
According to the calculations of Interfax-Ukraine based on the data of JSC Ukrtransgaz, the average daily injection into the UGS facility during June amounted to 19.1 million cubic meters, while on July 1, it increased 1.8 times (by 15.1 million cubic meters), to 34.2 million cubic meters.
Maintaining such rates of injection throughout the current month will allow replenishing storage facilities by more than 1 billion cubic meters of gas and enter in August with reserves of about 17.3 billion cubic meters.
From the end of the season of gas withdrawal from storage facilities on April 29 to July 1, 2021, reserves in Ukrainian UGS facilities expanded by 6.3% (by 958.6 million cubic meters), to 16.249 billion cubic meters.
Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises increased the production of general rolled products, according to recent data, by 6.6% in January-June this year compared to the same period last year, to 9.625 million tonnes.
According to the report of the Ukrmetalurgprom association, in the first five months of the year steel production grew by 7.5%, to 10.859 million tonnes, while cast iron output increased 8.1%, to 10.79 million tonnes.
In June, 1.602 million tonnes of rolled metal, 1.872 million tonnes of steel, and 1.887 million tonnes of cast iron were produced.
As reported, in 2020, Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises increased the production of general rolled products by 0.7% compared to the previous year, to 18.344 million tonnes, reduced steel output by 1.4%, to 20.549 million tonnes and increased cast iron production by 1.5%, to 20.358 million tonnes.
Federal Minister of Finance of the Federal Republic of Germany Olaf Scholz said that Germany will seek the extension of the agreement on gas transit through Ukraine.
“We work very hard to make sure that the gas transit agreement between Ukraine and Russia is prolonged,” Scholz said in an interview with Bloomberg on Friday.
According to the position of Germany, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which runs along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, should be finished, but gas transit through Ukraine should be preserved.
According to Scholz, Germany sees its responsibility to ensure transit through Ukraine in the future, and not only for two or three years, but for decades to come.
The current agreement, according to Government Spokesperson Steffen Seibert, is valid until at least 2024, but the agreement implies that the parties will check the possibility of extending the agreement until 2034.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, whom the U.S. and EU do not recognize as legally elected, instructed the border troops to completely close the border with Ukraine.
He said this on Friday at a solemn meeting to mark the Independence Day, the BelTA state news agency reports.
“A huge amount of weapons is coming from Ukraine to Belarus. Therefore, I instructed the border troops to completely close the border with Ukraine,” Lukashenko said.
He said that terrorist “sleeper” cells, the so-called self-defense formations, had been detected in Belarus.
“Terrorist sleeper cells, so-called self-defense formations have been detected today. These cells intend to overthrow the government at a specified date. They don’t know what date yet: our nation has yet to accept it,” Lukashenko said.
According to him, Germany, Ukraine, the United States, Poland and Lithuania are involved in this.
International European University held an international scientific conference: ‘25th Anniversary of the Constitution of Ukraine: National Tradition and European Standards of Constitutionalism’, involving honored guests, public officials, students, Ph.D. students, young scientists, lawyers and political strategists.
Due to the global epidemiological situation, International European University developed the plan of actions and took care of all participants. At the entrance of the university, our partners, medical professionals from New diagnostics laboratory, carried out PCR testing and provided participants with face masks.
The conference was opened by Alla Navolokina, a co-founder and vice-rector for educational and scientific work and international relations of International European University. Mrs. Alla stressed the importance of the event, as the Constitution of Ukraine secured the right to education. According to the Constitution, the social and cultural right to education provides everyone in Ukraine with the possibility to acquire knowledge, abilities, skills and professional training based on mutual cooperation of various entities of the education sector.
International European University respects the Constitution Day of Ukraine and complies with the Fundamental Law of Ukraine to secure the rights and freedoms of each citizen in this state.
Honored guests of the conference included:
Anatolii Tolstoukhov
Ukrainian public official, policymaker and scientist, first rank civil servant, Ph.D., academician at the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine. Chair of the Council for International European University Development.
Franz-Volodymyr von Habsburg-Lothringen
Descendant of Emperor Franz Joseph. President of International European University.
Mokhammad Faradzhallakh
Editor-in-chief of “Ukraine in Arabic”
Kateryna Odarchenko
Head of National Platform political party, President of the Institute for Democracy and Development “PolitA”, partner of SIC Group Ukraine.
Tamara Marusyk
Vice-rector for research, education and instruction of Chernivtsi National University.
Sam Noshadha
Vice-rector for international relations, responsible for prevention and detection of corruption, of Academy of Labour, Social Relations and Tourism. Judge of the International Commercial Arbitration Court. He is recognized by the best lawyers in Ukrainian commercial law.
Bohdan Kushnir
Attorney, director of Argument Law Firm, founder of International Human Rights Association “National Lawyer”.
Sadaqat Hussain
Representative of foreign students at International European University.
Natalia Kozaeva
Head of the Notary Chamber of Ukraine in Kyiv, member of the Council of National Pedagogical Dragomanov University.
Volodymyr Omelchenko
Director of energy and infrastructure programs at Razumkov Centre.
The conference continued in the format of panel sessions where participants, students and invited guests discussed relevant issues of the development of Ukrainian legal science and practice.
Quite symbolic is the fact that this year, Ukrainians celebrate two significant dates: 25th Anniversary of the Constitution of Ukraine and 30th Anniversary of the declaration of Ukrainian independence.
It is symbolic for International European University because, on the eve of these dates, one has founded the university and started its operations as an institution developing each citizen of the new world order.
To sum up, the conference showed the significance of the dialogue, scientific comprehension and educational issues for both the university community and public officials and society.
Thus, in regard to this great Ukrainian holiday, we wish us to live in the constitutional state that respects the rights and fulfils its obligations, as well as features mutual respect and equality. The state respected and appreciated on the global stage. In the state called Ukraine!
Live broadcasting of the conference is available here.
ALLA NAVOLOKINA, CONFERENCE, CONSTITUTION, INTERNATIONAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY
Only 10% of Ukrainians, who define themselves as believers, regularly visit religious houses. These are the data of a sociological study conducted by the Active Group social research company and the Expert Club analytical center and presented during a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
“Compared to the indicators of 2020, the number of people, who consider themselves rather non-believers, has grown in Ukraine. This figure has increased from 8 to 13% over the year. This may be due to the reverse transition from religious practices to secular ones due to the end of the critical phase of the pandemic in our country,” the co-founder of the Expert Club, political scientist Daniel Bogatyrev said.
“Among people who consider themselves believers, 86% identify themselves as Orthodox Christians, 9% are Catholics, 1.2% are Islam believers, 0.7% Protestantism believers, 0.3% pagans, and 0.2% Judaism believers,” Head of Active Group Oleksandr Pozniy said, summing up the results of the study.
In addition, Pozniy noted the correlation between adherence to Orthodox Christianity and the age of citizens. The study revealed an increase in the number of Orthodox believers among middle-aged and elder people.
According to Editor-in-Chief of the Ukraine in Arabic news portal Mohammad Farajallah, faith should meet the traditions and life of the nation in which it prevails.
“Ukraine has always been a multinational and poly-confessional state, but Orthodoxy has been and will remain the main religion in Ukraine. As for Islam here, the percentage of Muslims has remained generally unchanged thanks to the indigenous people, primarily the Crimean Tatars… Over the 30 years of independence, the number of immigrants professing Islam in Ukraine has not exceeded 50,000-100,000 people, which is not a significant figure,” Farajallah said.
Many people select a particular confession based primarily on political considerations, political scientist and Head of the UP Foundation, Kost Bondarenko, said.
“If one looks at the realities, political engagement does not make it possible to talk about the churching of parishioners of certain confessions. It is one thing to declare the faith, but another thing is churching. This can be observed every year, when at the end of July religious processions are organized in honor of the feast of the Baptism of Rus. At the same time, the processions of the two confessions (UOC and OCU) are different. The number of parishioners of the UOC is usually 200,000-300,000 people who walk with crosses and banners, showing their adherence to Orthodoxy. At the same time, during the processions of the OCU, parishioners mostly go with national flags and portraits of the heroes of the Ukrainian pantheon. This really indicates to two approaches to religiosity in these confessions,” Bondarenko said.
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