Western countries will continue to support Ukraine and will continue to provide their assistance to our country to quickly overcome the consequences of the Chornobyl disaster. The corresponding statement was made by the Ambassadors of Germany and Great Britain in Ukraine, as well as the Deputy Head of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine during an online discussion of Kyiv Security Forum, organized by Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s Open Ukraine Foundation, the forum’s press service reported on Monday.
Thus, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany to Ukraine Anka Feldhusen noted that Germany continues to provide assistance to Ukraine even 35 years after the accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant.
She also stressed that the most famous international project on safety at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant is the construction of a new safe shelter over the old sarcophagus of the fourth power unit.
“This unique masterpiece of modern technology should protect the environment from the radioactive remnants of a destroyed reactor for at least a hundred years. Germany has directly contributed about EUR 100 million to the project, the total cost of which is more than EUR 2 billion. All these assistance measures can only try to slightly reduce the harm caused and alleviate the terrible suffering,” said Feldhusen.
In turn, British Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine Melinda Simmons said that it is impossible to fully assess all the losses and negative consequences for humanity that were caused by the Chornobyl accident even 35 years after the accident.
The diplomat noted that today British engineers are involved in projects that guarantee the safety and stability of the Chornobyl zone, including a new safe shelter.
Simmons said that the total cost of the shelter is EUR 2.1 billion which is the largest international nuclear safety cooperation project supported by 40 countries, including Britain. This example of international cooperation in the field of nuclear safety shows that we have come a long way since 1986, and this gives us the hope for the future that such a tragedy will never happen again, said Simmons.
The United States also reminded of its support for Ukraine. Thus, deputy head of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, Joseph Pennington, said that the transformation of Chornobyl remains a long-term challenge, but Ukraine will not have to cope with it on its own.
He stressed that the United States, along with the rest of the international community, will continue to support Ukraine to ensure the future energy and nuclear security of not only this place, but Ukraine as a whole.
The diplomat noted that no other nuclear accident in history has been more serious in terms of costs and casualties like the Chornobyl accident and clarified that thanks to cooperation between Ukraine and the United States, significant success has been achieved in overcoming the consequences of the disaster.
According to Pennington, the United States is proud to become the largest donor to the New Safe Shelter project, which covers the site of the disaster of the reactor of the fourth Chornobyl power unit.
The highest “red” level of epidemiological danger was registered in Kiev and 10 out of 24 regions of Ukraine, as of Sunday, which provides for the most stringent quarantine restrictions.
The table of indicator values on regions with a significant spread of coronavirus infection COVID-19 as of April 25 published on the website of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine says.
According to the Ministry of Health, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhia, Kiev, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Khmelnytsky, Chernihiv regions are placed in the “red zone”.
The “orange zone” includes 9 regions out of 24: Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kirovohrad, Luhansk, Rivne, Ternopil and Cherkasy regions.
The “yellow zone” includes five regions: Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa, Kherson and Chernivtsi. The yellow level of epidemiological danger is basic at the national level.
Over the past two weeks, compared to April 11, Zakarpattia, Odesa and Chernivtsi regions have moved from the “red” to the “yellow” zones, that is, the epidemic situation in them has significantly improved, at the same time, Poltava region has moved from the “orange” to “red” zone – the situationhas become worse there.
The Ukrainian naval forces took part in the initial planning conference for the training of the Turkish Navy Dogu Akdeniz 2021 (Eastern Mediterranean – 2021), which is to be held in the Western Mediterranean at the end of the year, the press service of the Ministry of Defense reported.
According to the command of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the participants of the event considered the issues of defining the general concept of training, agreeing on the previous composition of the forces, it is planned to involve. Representatives of the Ukrainian Navy discussed the format of the participation of the Ukrainian side, in particular, the involvement of officers of the Ukrainian Navy in the multinational headquarters of the exercises, as well as the training of officers onboard the Turkish Navy corvettes of the ADA class (MILGEM) during their training.
In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, an inception planning conference for the aforementioned training took place online.
The European Union (EU) has invested EUR 1 billion in vaccine research and EUR 2.9 billion in expanding production capacity, the press service of the German Embassy in Kyiv said. “The study now needs support to protect the world from new strains of viruses. At the same time, Germany is also helping within the EU. The EU has already invested EUR 1 billion in vaccine research and EUR 2.9 billion in expanding production capacity,” the message reads.
The press service noted that the rapid development of vaccines against COVID-19 became possible thanks to international scientific cooperation.
“One example is the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, which was the first to be registered in the EU. The German married couple of researchers Ozlem Tureci and Professor Ugur Sahin and their team developed a vaccine in Germany in a very short time with funding from the federal government,” the press service said.
Euroins Ukraine insurance company (Kyiv) in January-March 2021 attracted about UAH 165 million in insurance premiums, which is 88% more than in the same period in 2020.
According to the insurer’s press release, the main areas of the company’s work, as in 2020, remain car insurance and voluntary medical insurance – the most popular and demanded services on the conventional insurance market of Ukraine.
According to the company, premiums collected on compulsory motor third party liability insurance (OSAGO) for the first quarter amounted to UAH 47.4 million, which is 45% more than in the same period a year earlier, voluntary car insurance (KASKO) – UAH 23.2 million (a rise of 47%), and voluntary medical insurance – UAH 34 million (2.5 times more).
In addition, the company was able to ensure a high dynamics of premiums in other areas of activity. Thus, property insurance increased 4.6 times, insurance against fire risks – 2.5 times, against accidents – 2 times, third party liability insurance grew by 52%.
During the first quarter of this year, Euroins Ukraine paid out more than UAH 37 million to customers, which is 42% higher than in the first quarter of 2020. On average, the company pays its clients UAH 400,000 in compensations every day.
“In 2021, Euroins continues growing dynamically, strengthening its market positions. Our mid-term goal is to enter the top 10 of the leading insurance companies in Ukraine, and we are confidently moving towards this. To implement such ambitious plans, we are actively building up our team in all regions of Ukraine. We are developing digital insurance channels and partnership projects,” Board Chairman of Euroins Ukraine Yanko Nikolov said.
PJSC Euroins Ukraine has been operating in the Ukrainian market since 1992. It is a part of Euroins Insurance Group AD (Bulgaria).
The company has 22 licenses: 14 for voluntary and eight for compulsory types of insurance. The company specializes in motor, medical, property and cargo insurance for private and corporate clients. It has 19 offices throughout Ukraine. The company is a member of MTIBU.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in the first quarter has improved its forecast for growth in the unemployment rate this year to 9.1% compared to 10% in the January forecast, according to the central bank’s inflation report posted on its website on Thursday evening.
“This year, unemployment will decrease and on average per year it will be 9.1%. On the one hand, the recovery in economic activity will help normalize the indicator, on the other hand, the decline will be hampered by a significant increase in business costs for wages,” the NBU said in the report.
According to the National Bank, in 2022 the unemployment rate will drop to 8.5% and will remain at this level until the end of 2023.
The regulator expects that in 2021, nominal wages will grow by 17.8%, in 2022 – by 9.7%, and real wages next year will rise by 8.6%, in 2022 – by 3.9%.
