The U.S. will fully resume the work of its embassy in Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said.
“We will fully resume the work of the U.S. Embassy and fully resume the work of its staff,” Brink said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.
American University Kyiv (AUK, American University Kyiv) with a planned investment of $33 million, which announced the start of work in Kyiv a few weeks before the start of the war, confirmed the fall enrollment of students for bachelor’s and master’s programs.
“Realizing the challenges of the brutal Russian war and the need for many Ukrainians to leave their homes, AUC is launching autumn training programs in an online format. Moreover, AUC is offering guaranteed scholarships of 60-75% to all enrolled (in 2022) students…”, – according to a press release from the university on Thursday.
As the agency “Interfax-Ukraine” was specified in the AUC, the first enrollment for bachelor’s programs will be 100, and for master’s programs – 60 students.
The scholarship for a two-year bachelor’s program will be 75%, for a one-year master’s program – 60%, with tuition fees of $8,000 and $9,000 per year, respectively.
“Education is the foundation of Ukraine’s future prosperity… Our unprecedented wartime scholarships are AUC’s contribution to Ukraine’s victory and future revival,” University President Rick Shengrove said in the release.
According to him, we are talking about three bachelor’s programs – Business Management, Global Management and Software Engineering and two master’s programs – Global Management and Software Engineering.
As reported, at a presentation in early February this year, AUC announced plans to increase the number of students to 3.8 thousand in 5 years, and to 7.2 thousand in 10 years. The university entered into a 25-year license agreement with Arizona State University ( ASU) is one of the largest universities in the US with over 135,000 students.
In February, the acceptance of documents began in order to launch the master’s programs in business management and IT Global Management and Software Engineering from March, and from April – lifelong learning programs. It was supposed that this year there will be 370 students in AUC. Undergraduate and graduate studies will be conducted in English. The university will offer a double degree – Ukrainian and American, for which it will be necessary to study at ASU full-time or online for three or four years of undergraduate or master’s degree at AUC.
Of the planned investments of $33 million, $6 million will be invested by ASC in the renovation of the building of the capital’s River Port with an area of 7.75 thousand square meters. m, which the university leased for 10 years with the right to renew.
In Ukraine, the AUC’s founding partners are: EPAM Systems, BGV Group Management, DTEK Academy, Brain, Channel Georgian Consulting, Georgian American University.
The Club of Experts YouTube channel has released a new video dedicated to the prospects for the development of the volunteer movement in Ukraine after the start of the war and solving the main problems that our citizens may face when bringing humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
According to Maxim Urakin, the founder of the Club of Experts, the humanitarian situation that arose in Ukraine after the outbreak of hostilities forced tens of thousands of people to volunteer.
“At the same time, many people faced with the incomprehensibility of the processes of crossing the border and importing certain goods into the country,” the expert emphasized.
In his commentary, the head of the International Technology Transfer Association (ITTA), Artem Goncharenko, noted that when organizing volunteer assistance, one should understand what needs the recipients of volunteer assistance have. At the same time, in his opinion, individual and general requests of both military and ordinary citizens should be distributed.
“It is important to understand that we cannot offer a single universal solution. Need a personal approach (…). At the same time, different volunteer organizations should unite to improve the coordination of work,” he said.
In turn, Evgenia Litvinova, Chair of the Ukrainian Exporters’ Club, analyzed the latest legislative changes that have greatly simplified the delivery of international humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
In their presentation, the experts provided a detailed explanation on the following problematic issues:
– Who has the right to bring humanitarian aid to Ukraine?
– On the basis of what documents can humanitarian aid be imported?
– What changes have been introduced when filling out customs declarations?
– What shipping documents do you need to have when crossing the border?
For more details, see the video on the YouTube channel “Expert Club” at the link:
EXPERT CLUB, GONCHARENKO, HUMANITARIAN AID, IMPORT, LITVINOVA, URAKIN
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), in line with market expectations, raised the discount rate by 1,500 basis points to 25% per annum from the current 10%, which is the highest level since the end of August 2015, according to the NBU website.
38% of Ukrainians declare their negative attitude towards LGBT people, relatively indifferent attitude prevails (45%), 13% declared a positive attitude, according to the results of the study “Perception of LGBT people and their rights in Ukraine”, conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) May 13-18, 2022.
If among people aged 70+ only 30% have a positive or indifferent attitude towards LGBT people, then among 18-29-year-olds there are already 83%. Among respondents with higher education, 66% have a positive or indifferent attitude towards LGBT people, and only 49% among respondents with complete secondary education or lower. In terms of income, the proportion of those who have a positive/indifferent attitude is growing from 47% among the poorest respondents to 66.5% among the richest.
At the same time, there is no significant regional difference: in the west of Ukraine, 56% have an indifferent or positive attitude, in the center – 60%, in the south – 57%, in the east – 56%.
Only 11% expressed a negative attitude towards the participation of LGBT people in the defense of Ukraine from Russian aggression, 66% of respondents expressed their approval.
64% of respondents are of the opinion that LGBT residents of Ukraine should have the same rights as other citizens of the country. Only 26% are in favor of some restrictions.
Among those who have a positive or indifferent attitude towards LGBT people, the vast majority (87.5% and 78% respectively) believe that they should have the same rights. Even among those who generally have a negative attitude towards LGBT people, 42% are in favor of equality (48% are for restrictions). Younger, more educated and more affluent respondents, as well as residents of large cities, are more supportive of equality.
“The inconsistency of respondents on LGBT rights is manifested in the issue of registered partnerships for same-sex couples without the right to joint adoption. Even for this format, support is 24%, while 42% do not support such an initiative. At the same time, for another 27% this issue indifferent… Among those who have a positive attitude towards LGBT people, 58% support the idea of a registered partnership, 20% do not support it… Among those who have a negative attitude, the majority (71.5%) are against such an idea, although 10% support it,” the KIIS press release says.
During the study, 2,000 respondents were interviewed by computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) in all regions of Ukraine controlled by the government until February 24, 2022. The statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) does not exceed 2.4% for indicators close to 50% and 1.1% for indicators close to 5%, but under conditions war, an additional systematic deviation is added, which does not prevent the results obtained from maintaining a high representativeness.
Pope Francis has called for the unblocking of grain exports from Ukraine, stopped due to the blockade of its seaports by Russian warships, since the lives of millions of people depend on food supplies, and it cannot be used as a weapon.
He made the corresponding appeal at a general audience on June 1, according to the website of the VaticanNews agency.
“The blockade of grain exports from Ukraine, on which the lives of millions of people depend, especially in the poorest countries, is a cause for great concern. I warmly appeal to do everything possible to solve this problem and guarantee the universal right to food. Please do not use grain, a staple food product as a weapon in war!” he urged.
As reported, on the eve of the leaders of the European Union called on Russia to lift the blockade of Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea, allowing the export of food, as well as the EU countries to facilitate the transportation of Ukrainian agricultural exports.
