German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock said that dialogue between countries is always important, but now there are no platforms for communication with the Russian Federation.
“There should always be dialogue,” she said on Sunday in Berlin following an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers, answering a question.
According to her, NATO, as a transatlantic alliance, stands for a world order based, among other things, on dialogue. But at present, she claims, there are no platforms for communication with the Russian Federation. The last platform was the OSCE format.
Burbock believes that “even this last dialogue platform was liquidated by the Russian side.”
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says that Ukraine is not only significantly expanding its export opportunities, but also continues to integrate as much as possible into European projects.
“We are not only significantly expanding our export opportunities, but also continuing to integrate as much as possible into European projects. This is very important on the way to our full membership in the EU,” Shmyhal said at a government meeting on Friday.
The prime minister said that on May 12, the European Commission announced the creation of “Solidarity Lanes,” a route that would speed up exports and the work of customs between Ukraine and the EU.
“In order to speed up logistics, the European Commission will also create a special platform for simplified border crossings across the solidarity lanes and encourage EU market participants to provide additional trucks and other transportation capacities,” he said.
In addition, Shmyhal said the European Commission had already decided to conclude an agreement with Ukraine and update the map of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
Metinvest, the largest Ukrainian mining and metallurgical holding, in January-March this year reduced the production of total iron ore concentrate (IRC) by 21% compared to the same period last year and by 20% quarter-on-quarter to 6.128 million tons.
According to a press release from parent company Metinvest B.V. on operating results for the first quarter of 2022, the decrease in concentrate output was due to the start of full-scale hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, which, in turn, led to logistical restrictions against the backdrop of blocking Black Sea ports, as well as a sharp decrease in intragroup consumption by Mariupol plants.
According to the results of January-March of the current year, the group reduced the production of marketable iron ore products by 16% compared to the same period last year – to 4.067 million tons, which corresponded to the output in the previous quarter.
During this period, Metinvest reduced the production of pellets by 35% compared to the same period last year, to 1.281 million tons, mainly due to a sharp decrease in intra-group consumption, optimization of the portfolio of orders at the Northern Mining and Processing Plant. However, compared to the previous quarter, their output increased by 34% due to a scheduled overhaul of the roasting machine at the Central Mining and Processing Plant in the 4th quarter of 2021.
Salable concentrate production decreased by 10% to 2.786 million tons, mainly due to lower production at Inguletsky GOK.
In the first quarter of 2022, the total production of coking coal concentrate decreased by 14% to 1.276 million tons as a result of a decrease in production by the Pokrovskaya Coal Group due to a decrease in the number of personnel and disruption of supply chains after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine. By the first quarter of 2021, growth was 29% due to the consolidation of the Pokrovskaya Coal Group.
The production of coal concentrate at the mines of the United Coal Company (USA) in Q1-2022 decreased by 85 thousand tons compared to Q1-2021 due to the deterioration of geological conditions.
As reported, according to the results of 2021, Metinvest increased the total production of iron ore concentrate (IRO) by 3% compared to the previous year – up to 31.341 million tons, pellets by 18% – up to 5.811 million tons and the total production of coking coal concentrate – by 92 %, up to 5.542 million tons.
Metinvest is a vertically integrated mining group of companies that manages assets in every link of the production chain from iron ore and coal mining and coke production to the production of semi-finished products and finished products from steel, pipes and coils, as well as the production of other high value-added products. The group consists of mining and metallurgical enterprises located in Ukraine, Europe and the USA, has a sales network covering all key global markets.
The export of Ukrainian agricultural products through the EU countries, including taking into account deliveries through the Danube river ports, cannot exceed 1.5 million tons per month under any circumstances, while before the blockade of its seaports by the Russian troops, the country could transship more than 5 million tons per month. million tons of agricultural crops per month.
The opinion about the need for Ukraine to work on the launch of new logistics routes and export directions was expressed by First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky during the expert discussion “Blocked trade: can Ukraine increase export capacity” on Friday.
“We preliminary calculated that up to one and a half million tons is still the maximum. Therefore, I think that we can count on this until May, and then only alternative directions,” Vysotsky said.
He clarified that Ukraine has enough agricultural products for export, and Ukrainian farmers can supply as much grain as they need to foreign markets, and the volume of its exports is limited only by logistics.
As reported with reference to the Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solsky, in April 2022 Ukraine exported 1.09 million tons of grain mainly through Romanian ports, which is more than five times higher than in March.
According to him, most of the export deliveries from Ukraine were carried out in April through the river ports of the Danube, since the Ukrainian Black Sea ports are blocked by Russian warships.
At the same time, the logistics of Ukrainian agricultural products through Romania may become more complicated and slow down in June, when a new crop of Romanian, Serbian, Hungarian and Bulgarian winter wheat and barley will begin to arrive at the seaports of this country and will create competition with supplies from Ukraine.
Arms for Ukraine today are the key to world food security, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podoliak said.
“One should understand the cause-and-effect relationships of global processes. Russia threatened the food security of the world by unleashing war in Ukraine. The only way to restore order is to help Ukraine win. Weapons for Ukraine today are the key to the food security of the world,” he wrote in Twitter.
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