Number of refugees from Ukraine in selected countries as of 23.05.2023
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
The European Union has extended by another year the cancellation of import duties on Ukrainian exports. This decision will become effective from 6 June 2023 and will be effective until 5 June 2024, inclusive.
The regulation of the European Parliament and the European Council of May 31 on extending for another year the abolition of import duties on Ukrainian exports was published in the EU official Journal on Monday.
The moratorium on duties imposed in 2022 will expire on June 5, 2023.
In order to prevent fraud in the preferential mechanisms established by the regulation, Ukraine must comply with a number of rules, including refraining from introducing new duties or charges and new quantitative restrictions or measures with equivalent effect, from increasing existing duties and charges, and from imposing any other restrictions in trade with the EU, unless clearly justified, the document says.
According to the regulation, if Ukraine fails to comply with any of these conditions, the EU may suspend the preferential mechanisms.
Registrations in Ukraine in May of new commercial vehicles (trucks and special) amounted to 955 units, which is 2.6% more than in April this year and twice as much as in May 2022, “Ukravtoprom” informs in Telegram-channel.
“This is the best result in the last 15 months,” the report states.
At the same time, compared with the pre-war May 2021 registrations of commercial cars decreased by 11%.
Leadership remains Renault with 327 registered cars in May, the second place by a wide margin with Volkswagen (81 units), which in April was the fifth in the ranking, the third – with Mercedes-Benz (66 units), the same number of cars registered brand Citroen. Peugeot (52 cars) is in the end of TOP-5.
According to Ukravtoprom in January-May, Ukrainian park of trucks and special-purpose vehicles was added with 4122 new cars, which is 1.5 times more than during the same period last year.
As was reported with reference to Ukravtoprom, 6.9 thousand new cars will fill in the market of new commercial vehicles in 2022, which is 2.3 times less than in 2021.
At that, in May – 2022 there were 461 registered cars (57% less than in May – 2021), and the leaders were Renault (109 units), Citroen (91 units) and MAN (54 units).
JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) in May this year transported 11.49 million tons of cargo, which is 19.2% more than in May last year.
According to the press-service of UZ, the average daily load also has positive dynamics: the growth is 15,7% – up to 352,8 thousand tons.
Domestic freight traffic in May increased by 36.5% – to 7.17 million tons, export – decreased by 2%. This is due to Russia’s blocking of the sea “grain corridor”. As a result, the volume of grain transportation for export decreased by 29% – down to 806.9 thousand tons. Imports of goods in May increased by 7% – up to 483.4 thousand tons, transit – 47 thousand tons, the company specified.
The leader of the general cargo transportation in May was building materials – 2.5 million tons, coal – 2.22 million tons, iron and manganese ore – 1.96 million tons, grain and milling products – 1.83 million tons, ferrous metals – 816.3 thousand tons. It is noted that the biggest growth is recorded in transportation of construction materials – more than 70%.
The volume of electricity imports from Slovakia rose 27.3 percent on Sunday compared to Saturday to 4,427 MWh per day, according to data on the website of Continental Europe Transmission System Operators Network ENTSO-E.
According to the site, imports came in 16 hours a day from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. at capacities of 10-350 MW. The maximum allowed cross-sectional capacity for imports in the Slovak direction is 350 MW, and on Sunday it was at that capacity for three hours. A total of 10 hours recorded capacity in excess of 300 MW.
At the same time, imports for Monday dropped almost 10 times to 476 MWh per day.
At the same time, according to ENTSO-E data, power exports to Poland, after Monday’s weekend absence, were carried out for nine night and day hours at a capacity of 200 MW – a total of 1,800 MWh per day.
For Moldova, no data on both imports and exports have been available since early June.
As previously reported, electricity supplies from Slovakia were planned at 7.1 thousand MWh per day on June 3 and 7.5 thousand MWh per day on June 4. For comparison, during the first two days of June just under 1.5 thou. MWh was received. A record number of traders participated in the auctions to allocate cross-section capacity on those days – 16 and 17 traders, respectively. Nevertheless, on Saturday, traders absorbed only half of the redeemed cross-section, supplying 3,477 MWh of electric power per day.
Vitaliy Butenko, head of the Energy Company of Ukraine (EKU), commented on the traders’ activity over the weekend: “At the weekend, prices in Slovakia are significantly lower than electricity prices in Ukraine. This trend has been observed for several weeks in a row, which makes it possible to provide additional amounts of electricity to support the Ukrainian energy system.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, whom the Pope has entrusted with a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, will visit Kyiv on June 5-6, the Holy See press office said.
“Referring to previous communications from the Holy See, we report that Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, will visit Kiev on June 5-6, 2023, as an envoy of His Holiness Pope Francis,” the statement said.
It is stressed that “the main goal of the initiative is to listen carefully to the Ukrainian authorities about possible ways to achieve a just peace and to support humane gestures that contribute to easing tensions.”
On May 13, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Afterwards, the Vatican reported that “Pope Francis instructed Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, to lead a mission, agreed with the Secretariat of State, that would help ease tensions in the Ukrainian conflict.
