As part of the Ukrainian-African renaissance, Ukraine seeks to develop relations of mutual respect and benefit with African countries, in particular offering a number of beneficial areas of cooperation for Nigeria’s new leadership, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said in an interview with the Nigerian edition of The Guardian Nigeria.
“In May, I became the first Ukrainian foreign minister to attend the presidential inauguration ceremony in an African country. It was Nigeria. This fact shows Ukraine’s commitment to developing relations with Nigeria’s new leadership. This way we show other African countries that Ukraine seeks to develop partnership based on mutual respect and shared benefits,” he said, according to the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
According to Kuleba, Ukraine has made steps towards each other in the spirit of mutual respect and now counts on reciprocal steps of the new leadership of Nigeria to develop mutually beneficial relations.
“We propose to increase the volume of trade and consider the possibility of attracting Ukrainian construction companies to projects in Nigeria. Ukraine also has a lot of experience in digitalization. Our “State on Smartphone” program allows citizens to do almost everything online, receive public services. We are ready to share this experience with you. Another promising area of cooperation is cybersecurity. Nigeria is one of the countries that suffer from the highest number of cyber attacks. We know how to counter them effectively,” he said.
Kuleba also stressed that the Peace Formula proposed by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is the only real way to restore a just and sustainable peace in Ukraine.
“Imagine if Nigeria, God forbid, experienced aggression – would you agree to give up part of your territory, allow someone to occupy it and torture your people? You wouldn’t agree to that. Being at the inauguration of your president, I saw your army. I am convinced that your warriors would have fought resolutely for your land. That is what we are doing today. We did not start this war. The hostilities are taking place on our territory, but we know what we are fighting for: the freedom and security of our citizens. And that motivates us to fight against the invaders,” the minister said.
Ukrtransgas PJSC (Kyiv) announced a tender for voluntary motor transport insurance on June 15, the electronic procurement system Prozorro reports.
The expected price of purchasing the respective services is UAH 229.5 thousand.
The deadline to apply for participation is June 23.
“Ukrtranshaz, which is 100% owned by Naftogaz of Ukraine, operates a system of main gas pipelines and 12 underground gas storages in the country.
TAS Insurance Group (Kyiv) has collected UAH 275.8 mln of insurance payments in May 2023, which is 62.2% more than the company’s revenues in the same period of 2022.
According to the message on the insurer’s web-site, UAH 55,24 m of premiums have been attracted due to hull insurance contracts, which makes up 20,03% of the total monthly payments of the company and exceeds the specified indicator for May 2022 by 82%.
The proceeds from MTPL insurance increased by 46.9% up to UAH 96.89 mln, or 35.13% of the total May premiums.
The part of “Green Card” in company’s portfolio was 19.9%, or UAH 54.89mln, which is 37.9% more than in May of the last year.
At the same time, the company collected UAH 15,74 mln of payments according to voluntary health insurance contracts during the reporting period, and UAH 4,69 mln – to property insurance contracts, which is 72,4% more than the corresponding index for the last month of spring 2022.
The amount of receipts of TAS IG on other insurance contracts has reached UAH 48,35 mln according to the results of May.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Romania Florin Barbu intends to ask the European Commission to extend restrictions on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine until the end of the year and expand the list of banned for the import of agricultural products.
“The ban is valid until September 15. I will hold a discussion with my colleagues from other countries, and we will ask for an extension until December 31. In addition to rapeseed, wheat, corn, sunflower, I will try to add up to 10 more products,” Euractiv quoted Barbu as saying in the Romanian Parliament on Wednesday.
He said the list of import bans could include honey and meat, as well as “other Romanian priorities so that farmers can sell local products.”
As reported, the EU ban on imports of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflowers from Ukraine came into force on May 2 and replaced unilateral decisions to ban imports by countries bordering Ukraine, particularly Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia, in violation of the Association Agreement and EU internal regulations as of April 28.
As noted by the EU, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia undertook to cancel unilateral measures on these and all other types of agricultural products originating from Ukraine, as well as to allow free transit.
On June 5, the European Commission extended until September 15 restrictions on imports of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds from Ukraine to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, considering that the problems provoked by such imports have not yet been overcome. The new regulations do not allow these grains and oilseeds to be supplied to the markets of these countries under contracts concluded before May 2.
Romania was the only one of the five frontline countries that did not impose a ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products before the official decision of the European Commission.
JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) in January-May this year carried in communication with the European Union 2.3 times more passengers (786 thousand) compared to the same period of 2022, reported the press service of UZ in Telegram-channel.
In addition, for five months carried 6.4% more passengers than for the same periods of 2016-2019, when in communication with the EU and back by rail was carried a total of 735 thousand people, calculated in the press service.
“In 5 months of 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia carried more passengers in communication with the EU than in the same period cumulatively during the previous four (dokovidnye) years,” said in the message of UZ on Wednesday.
It is specified that in the five months of 2016 was carried 19.8 thousand passengers, 2017 – 98.2 thousand, 2018 – 230.4 thousand, 2019 – 387.2 thousand, 2020 – 171.7 thousand people. Data for January-May 2021 are not given, but in 2022 during this period UZ carried 341.6 thousand passengers in the EU.
The Company notes that there is a clear trend of Ukrainians returning home: the number of people who have left the country since the beginning of 2023 is 369 thousand, and in the opposite direction – to Ukraine – 417 thousand people.
In the UZ also clarified that if in 2016 in communication with the EU were only 8 trains, now their number has increased to 27, of which 15 formed “Ukrzaliznytsia”, and the rest – foreign carriers.
The company recalled that given the increase in demand since last year due to the full-scale invasion of Russia, UZ is expanding connections with other countries, in particular launched seven new trains: № 19/20, № 23/24 “Kiev-Khelm”, № 32/31 “Zaporozhye-Permyshl”, № 53/54, № 89/90 “Kiev-Permyshl”, № 73/74 “Kharkiv-Permyshl” and № 93/94 “Kharkiv-Khelm”.
Ukraine in 2022-23 marketing year (MY) increased sunflower exports by 14% and reduced its processing by 83%, producing its lowest volume since 2009-2010 MY, said oil market analyst at APK-Inform Svetlana Kirichok.
“During the season, there was a record and uncontrolled export of sunflower from Ukraine, which occurred against the background of a decline in oil refining and export of sunflower oil due to the limited work of the ports. The main volume of exports (79%) for September-May came to the EU countries, namely Romania and Bulgaria, which at the expense of Ukrainian raw materials substantially loaded their own enterprises and managed to increase the export of sunflower oil,” – she explained.
According to Kirichok, the imposition of unilateral bans on imports of sunflower to the EU has led to the fact that in April the export of Ukrainian oilseeds fell to its lowest level since April 2022, and a very large amount of sunflower was redirected to the domestic market.
The expert predicts that sunflower exports from Ukraine in 2022-23 MY will reach 2 million tons, which will be a historical maximum for the industry.
“According to our estimate, at the beginning of June, the sunflower balances (conditionally for the whole country) were about 1.6 million tons, which is one of the lowest for many years, and even with minimal export volumes they will not be able to provide full work of processing enterprises in June-August,” – she said.
In general, since the beginning of 2022/23 MY in Ukraine was processed about 10.5 million tons of oilseeds, which was one of the lowest rates over the past seven seasons. Until the end of the current season (in June-August) may be processed about 1.2 million tons – this is the minimum for this period over the past 12 seasons, the expert stated.
Kirichok expects an increase in sunflower production in 2023 due to the expansion of cultivated area to 5.5 million hectares, which is 13% more than a year earlier. At the same time, the total supply of oilseeds will decrease by 10% due to the reduction of carry-over stocks and yield potential, which will happen due to the prolonged sowing season and saving by agrarians of material and technical resources, in particular pesticides.
“If sunflower exports will show rates close to those of 2021/22-2022/23 MY, and exports from deep-sea ports will remain unstable, the country is expected to further reduce processing volumes,” summarized the expert.
