More than one million Ukrainians have received winter assistance from the UN Refugee Agency, the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine reports.
“In recent months, one of the priorities of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is to support Ukrainians during the winter period. First of all, the assistance is aimed at internally displaced persons and other vulnerable categories of the population affected by the war,” the press service of the agency said.
The support program provides temporary housing, materials for repairs and insulation of houses, as well as provision of heaters, blankets, warm clothes and other basic necessities during the cold season. The agency also pays an allowance to cover winter needs.
According to the report, the winter assistance program has already covered more than 1 million people in Ukraine. In particular, more than 800 thousand people received basic necessities (plaids, thermoses, heaters, clothing), almost 300 thousand people received cash payments and more than 12 thousand people received materials for repairs and insulation of houses.
In addition, 55 generators were delivered to critical facilities in 12 regions.
Fifty-two new heating points equipped with generators and other necessary equipment have opened in the capital’s Goloseevsky, Dneprovsky, Obolonsky and Svyatoshinsky districts, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a telegraph feed on Friday.
“We opened 52 new points where people can get warm, recharge their gadgets, get up-to-date information in case of a prolonged lack of electricity and heat in their homes, in Goloseevsky, Dneprovsky, Obolonsky and Svyatoshinsky districts,” he wrote in Telegram.
According to the mayor of the capital, now in Kiev “there are 532 heating points, which the city has prepared (50 of them – equipped tents SES). The business is also involved: more than 100 additional points are provided by entrepreneurs.
As Klitschko noted, the situation with electricity remains difficult. “Recently, we received humanitarian aid from the city of Riga – 49 generators and heat guns, which, in particular, were used to equip additional heating points. Also we received 9 powerful generators from the Danish twin city of Odense. We will install them in the boiler rooms of the capital”, – the mayor reminded.
Switzerland organized another batch of humanitarian aid for the population of Ukraine in the form of 40 heaters and the same number of generators, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.
“The materials were collected in Switzerland by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), which also organizes transport. The possibility of sending additional relief materials is being considered,” the report said.
The agency reported that trucks with this equipment left for Ukraine on December 23. The shipment is part of a broader action plan to help the people of Ukraine survive this winter.
It is noted that Switzerland already delivered thirty generators last week.
Import of goods in Jan-Sep 2022 in most important positions and in relation to same period in 2021
SSC of Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that ten African states where Ukraine will open new embassies next year have already been determined.
“We are resetting relations with dozens of African countries. Next year we have to strengthen it. Ten states where new Ukrainian embassies in Africa will be opened have already been determined. We have also developed the concept of the Ukraine-Africa Trading House with the opening of its representative offices in the capitals of the continent’s most promising countries,” Zelensky said at the Ukrainian ambassadors’ conference “War and New Horizons in the World” on Friday.
The President stressed that “in addition to the existing representation of Ukraine in ten countries in Africa, together with new embassies and trading houses, it is necessary to achieve representation in thirty countries of the African continent.”
At the same time, the head of state noted that global growth is impossible without relations with other parts of the Global South as well.
“Latin America, India, other Asian countries, including China and Southeast Asia, the entire Indian and Pacific island region. Ukraine must find a format for its leadership in strategic processes in each of these regions, and the role of Ukraine’s diplomatic corps will be decisive,” Zelensky said.
Auction house Christie’s summed up the results of the year and said that he was able to achieve the best annual turnover in its entire 256-year history – $ 8.4 billion. It is 17% higher than last year’s result and more than its main competitor – home Sotheby’s, which also showed a record sales of $ 8 billion.
Auctions brought Christie’s $7.2 billion, another $1.2 billion was earned on private sales. The auction house, headed by CEO Guillaume Cerrutti, was able to achieve these outstanding results, despite the difficult macroeconomic situation in the world caused by rising inflation and instability on the world political stage.
Cerutti referred to the “stability of the art and luxury markets, the extraordinary success of some of the major collections, including the unforgettable sale of Paul Allen, and the expertise and hard work of the entire auction house team. Allen was one of the co-founders of Microsoft on a par with Bill Gates. In 2009, he signed a “Giving Pledge,” according to which most of his fortune would go to charities upon his death. Allen passed away in 2018, and his art collection, which included masterpieces from Botticelli to Van Gogh, sold for a record $1.7 billion in 2022.
Among the best deals of the year was the record sale of the Shot Sage Blue Marilyn portrait of Marilyn Monroe by American pop art classic Andy Warhol. It went under the hammer for $195 million and set a record as the most expensive work of any artist sold at auction.
The number of buyers from North and South America increased this year at Christie’s auction, while Asian collectors bought less frequently.
Nevertheless, according to French billionaire François Pinault, whose holding company Artemis owns the Christie’s house, Asian buyers played a “decisive role” in the overall success of record sales of the Allen collection.
