U.S. President Joe Biden will announce about $2 billion in aid to Ukraine on Wednesday, the White House said.
“President Biden will announce a significant new aid package to Ukraine of approximately $2 billion,” the White House said in a statement.
As part of the package, the U.S. will reportedly provide Ukraine with a battery of Patriot SAMs, “which will be an important asset to protect the Ukrainian people from barbaric Russian attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure.”
“We will train the Ukrainian military on how to operate a Patriot missile battery in a third country. It will take some time, but the Ukrainian military will return after training to their own country to operate that battery,” a senior White House official stressed.
The U.S. will also continue to prioritize other forms of air defense support, including NASAMS, HAWKs, Stingers, and anti-drone equipment.
In addition, the official said the visit will also be an opportunity to note work with Congress to pass a significant supplemental funding package for Ukraine for 2023.
“And we expect a bipartisan package of more than $40 billion in funding for Ukraine,” he said.
Zelensky said earlier that he had traveled to the United States to strengthen Ukraine’s resilience and defense capabilities. “In particular, with Joe Biden will discuss cooperation between Ukraine and the United States. I will also speak in Congress and hold a number of bilateral meetings,” he wrote on Twitter.
This is the first visit of the President of Ukraine abroad since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia.
For its part, Politico reported on Wednesday, citing sources, that the Ukrainian delegation during the visit to the USA will ask for ATACMS missiles, as well as drones Gray Eagle and Reaper.
The profit of Ukrainian banks in January-November 2022 amounted to UAH 19.429 billion, which is 3.4 times less than in the same period of 2021 (UAH 65.728 billion), the press service of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said.
According to the report, the profit of Ukrainian banks in November amounted to UAH 8.451 billion, which is 2.3 times more than a month earlier (UAH 3.6 billion).
The regulator noted that the income of banks in November increased by 12.2%, while expenses increased by 9.7%.
According to the regulator, the income of banks in January-November increased by 32% against the same period last year – up to 322 billion UAH.
At the same time fee and commission income for 11 months decreased by 8.4% – to UAH 76.46 billion (while during the same period last year it increased by 32.6%).
At that the result from revaluation and from sale-purchase operations was positive and made UAH 42.3 billion, while it was negative and amounted to UAH 2.7 billion for the same period last year.
At the same time expenses of banking system for January-November 2022 increased by 1.7 times compared with this index in 2021 – up to UAH 302.6 billion, including deductions to reserves – 13.6 times, up to UAH 113 billion. At the same time, the commission expenses increased by 1.6% up to UAH 31.99 billion,
As reported, the Ukrainian banks in 2021 doubled the net profit – up to 77.5 billion UAH, compared with 41.3 billion UAH in 2020.
Oil prices are virtually unchanged on Wednesday morning after rising the day before.
The price of February futures for Brent on London’s ICE Futures Exchange at 8:05 a.m. Moscow time is $79.94 per barrel, which is $0.05 (0.06%) lower than at the close of the previous session. Those contracts rose by 19 cents (0.2%) to $79.99 a barrel at the close of trading on Tuesday.
The price of WTI futures for February at electronic trades on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is $76.17 per barrel by that time, which is $0.06 (0.08%) below the final value of the previous session. The contract rose by $0.85 (1.1%) to $76.23 per barrel at the end of last session.
The previous day oil quotations were supported by decline of the US dollar rate, which increased the attractiveness of oil as an object for investments of holders of other currencies.
In addition, investors are following the situation with the coronavirus in China. The removal of quarantine restrictions and government stimulus measures are believed to be positive factors for fuel demand in the long term. At the same time, rising COVID-19 infections are dampening the market’s optimism, MarketWatch notes.
“After a long period of liquidating long positions, the market has become more balanced, and a bullish mood is gradually returning to oil traders,” SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes wrote. – Despite all concerns about the recession in the economy, there are still those who want to buy oil after a decrease in its quotations. This demonstrates that oil is one of the most needed commodities in the world.
At the same time, reduced liquidity in the market, which is traditionally observed at the end of the year, puts pressure on quotations, the expert added.
The U.S. dollar is strengthening moderately against major world currencies on Wednesday morning after a sharp decline the day before, caused by the decisions of the Bank of Japan.
The index calculated by ICE, which shows the U.S. dollar dynamics against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and the Swedish krona) is rising by 0.13% after a 0.6% decline on Tuesday.
The euro/dollar pair is trading at $1.0616 by 9:04 a.m. Moscow time, versus $1.0625 at the close of Tuesday’s session; the euro is down about 0.1%.
The dollar/yen exchange rate rose 0.3 percent to 132.15 yen from 131.70 yen at the end of last session.
The day before the yen soared against the dollar by more than 3% after the Bank of Japan on the results of the December meeting unexpectedly decided to expand the corridor within which the yield of ten-year government bonds may fluctuate to plus/minus 0.5% from plus/minus 0.25% previously.
Many economists saw this move as laying the groundwork for an exit from the long-standing ultra-soft monetary policy (TFP).
The pound is losing 0.2% and is trading at $1.2164 versus $1.2184 at the end of last week.
Ports of Greater Odessa on Tuesday shipped 129 thousand tons of agricultural products as part of the “Grain Initiative”, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine reported.
“Today a caravan of four ships left the ports of Greater Odessa, which will deliver 129 thousand tons of agricultural products to Africa, Asia and Europe. In particular, the bulk carrier Ince Atlantic with 44 thousand tons of Ukrainian wheat for Kenya”, – indicated the Ministry.
According to him, in the ports involved in the “Grain Initiative”, 27 ships are under the processing, they are loaded with 1 million tons of Ukrainian agricultural products.
Also in the “grain corridor” there are two vessels with the loading of 63 thousand tons of agricultural products.
A total of 569 vessels have left the ports of Greater Odessa since August 1, exporting 14.3 million tons of Ukrainian foodstuffs to Asia, Europe and Africa.
The Cabinet of Ministers postponed for another year the implementation of the resolution adopted in July 2019 to increase teachers’ salaries by 20-70%.
According to the representative of the Cabinet in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnichuk in the telegram channel, the relevant decision was made at the government meeting on Tuesday.
In particular, stopped until December 31, 2023, the Cabinet resolution of June 10, 2019 № 822 “On remuneration of pedagogical, scientific-pedagogical and scientific employees of educational and scientific institutions”.
As reported, on July 10, 2019, the Cabinet approved a reform of teacher pay with an increase to four subsistence minimum wage by 2023. The plan was for teacher pay to be 2.5 living wages in 2020, 3 living wages in 2021, 3.5 living wages in 2022 and 4 living wages beginning in January 2023. Later, due to lack of funds for the reform implementation in the state and local budgets, the decree was suspended until December 31, 2020. Its implementation was also postponed in subsequent years.
