German authorities intend to send additional air defense systems to Ukraine to protect the country’s grain exports, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing sources.
“They said on condition of anonymity that Berlin will supply an additional IRIS-T air defense system and more than a dozen Gepard systems to provide cover for shipments along Ukraine’s southern coast to Romania,” the agency reports.
These weapons are expected to arrive in Ukraine by the end of the year; Kyiv is to receive more IRIS-Ts as they are produced by Germany.
The sources did not disclose what routes these air defense systems will cover or what other capabilities Berlin may include in the new aid package for Ukraine.
German MP Markus Faber confirmed that Ukraine will receive additional IRIS-T and Gepard systems, as well as ammunition, but did not provide details.
According to Bloomberg, Gepard has a range of 4 km, and IRIS-T – up to 40 km. The air defense systems can be used to protect port infrastructure, the process of loading grain onto ships, and when they are at sea.
As part of the visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Kingdom of Spain, the Head of State had an audience with His Majesty King Philip VI in Granada, the President’s press service reported on Thursday evening.
The President expressed gratitude to King Philip, the royal family of Spain and the entire Spanish people for their continued support for Ukraine.
“We appreciate the assistance provided by Spain from the first days of the full-scale invasion of the aggressor state in Ukraine’s struggle for our common European values,” Zelenskyy emphasized.
He also emphasized the significant humanitarian assistance to the Ukrainian people and the great attention paid to Ukrainians who came to Spain to escape the Russian war.
According to the press service, His Majesty King Philip VI expressed his admiration for the Ukrainian people who are resisting Russian aggression. He emphasized that Spain’s support for Ukraine in this struggle is based on fundamental respect for the sovereignty of countries and the inadmissibility of armed aggression.
The UK will provide a new winter aid package to Ukraine worth more than half a billion dollars, the British government’s website reported on Thursday, October 5.
“The new aid allocations to Ukraine announced today include £34 million (over $41 million) for the UN and charities providing shelter and warm winter clothing,” the statement said.
In addition, 10 million pounds (over $12 million) will be allocated to restore energy supply to household consumers after Russian attacks on Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure.
A fourth UK loan guarantee of $500 million, provided through the World Bank, has also been announced. This funding should ensure that the Ukrainian government can provide vital winterization payments to three million households.
The French-made quadrivalent inactivated influenza vaccine has passed quality control and will be delivered to pharmacies in the near future.
According to the website of the Ministry of Health, 15,100 doses of the vaccine have received a positive conclusion on compliance with the requirements of national and international standards.
Earlier, 114600 doses of the Korean-made vaccine were approved by the State Service.
The agency clarifies that approximately 6 million infectious diseases are registered in Ukraine every year, 98% of which are influenza and ARVI. The increase in the incidence is traditionally expected from the 40th week, that is, from the beginning of October.
The number of registered cases of COVID-19 is growing in Ukraine, Chief Sanitary Doctor and Deputy Minister of Health Ihor Kuzin has said.
“We are seeing a steady increase in the incidence of COVID-19. Over the past week, more than 4 thousand cases have been confirmed. A week earlier, only 2.5 thousand cases were registered,” he said during a national telethon on Thursday.
Kuzin noted that among the negative trends is that children under the age of 17 are more likely to get sick. In particular, the incidence among them has quadrupled in Mykolaiv region, tripled in Vinnytsia region, and almost 2.5 times in Kharkiv region.
At the same time, COVID-19 mortality is also increasing.
“While only isolated cases were registered during the summer, over the past week the mortality rate has increased by almost 2.5 times. Over the past week, we have registered nine fatalities, and all of them were among people aged 65 and older,” he said.
International chain JYSK on Thursday opened a renovated store in the Terminal shopping center in Brovary (Kyiv region), the company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
“We are dynamically implementing a plan to reconstruct our stores into a more modern and attractive format, and this is no less important for us than opening new stores. It is a transformation process that allows us to create better conditions for our employees and make the product range more accessible and the shopping experience more attractive for customers,” said Country Director of JYSK Ukraine Yevhen Ivanitsa.
He clarified that this is the second rebuilt store since the beginning of the financial year, which started in JYSK on September 1, and the second of 10 planned for this fiscal year.
The store has been renovated according to the modern chain concept 3.0. It includes a more attractive and convenient interior, more comfortable product layout and display. The retail space and warehouse area remained unchanged, amounting to 1,020 sqm and 157 sqm respectively. At the same time, the volume of the warehouse has been increased due to the height of the equipment. New track lighting was installed in the store, a mattress studio was set up, and the furniture display was expanded.
The updated format also provides better conditions for employees. In this case, the office space, dining room and locker room were modernized.
As reported, since the beginning of 2023, JYSK has opened five new stores and renovated three existing ones.
Currently, there are 88 JYSK stores and the online store jysk.ua in Ukraine. The company notes that 12 new stores are planned to open in the current financial year. JYSK has more than 800 employees in the country.
JYSK is part of the family-owned Lars Larsen Group with more than 3.2 thousand stores in 48 countries.
JYSK’s revenue in the financial year 2022/23 amounted to EUR 5.2 billion.
