In a few days, Ukraine will start exporting electricity to the synchronous zone of Continental Europe, Volodymyr Kudrytsky, Board Chairman of NPC Ukrenergo, has said on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
“ENTSO-E confirmed on June 27 that Ukrenergo, together with TSOs [Transmission System Operators] of neighboring countries, has successfully met six technical conditions for opening the first 100 MW of electricity exports from Ukraine to Europe. Ukraine can also import this amount of European electricity if necessary,” Kudrytsky wrote.
According to him, today Ukrenergo will hold an open auction for access to the interstate section, at which all electricity producers and other participants will be able to participate.
“This decision finally breaks the ‘aquarium’ of the closed Ukrainian energy market and at the same time brings us closer to full integration into the European energy space,” the head of Ukrenergo stressed.
He noted that in terms of the timing of the opening of exports from the power system newly attached to ENTSO-E, this is an unprecedentedly quick decision. Under the 2017 synchronization agreement, commercial exports from the Ukrainian power grid were to open only one year after the trial synchronization. Ukraine has reached an agreement to open commercial electricity exchanges in three months.
Kudrytsky also saw a certain symbolic coincidence in the date of the ENTSO-E decision on Ukrainian exports.
“Exactly five years ago, Ukrenergo signed the historic agreement with ENTSO-E, thanks to which the Ukrainian energy system is now synchronized with the European one. This agreement set the conditions for future integration with the continental European energy grid, which was to take place in 2023. We achieved the result a year and a half earlier,” the head of Ukrenergo summed up.
Andriy Gerus, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy, Housing and Utility Services, said at a press conference on Tuesday that Ukraine would start exporting electricity to the synchronous zone of Continental Europe from July 1.
At the same time, Minister of Energy Herman Haluschenko specified that the export of electricity would start on June 30.
The same information was posted on its website by ENTSO-E.
“The start of commercial electricity exchange with the Ukraine/Moldova power system is scheduled for June 30 at the Ukraine-Romania connection. It is expected that electricity trading on other connections [Ukraine-Slovakia, Ukraine-Hungary and Moldova-Romania] will start later,” the network said in a release on Tuesday.
According to him, the total trading capacity at the first stage will be set at 100 MW. After this initial phase, a gradual increase in trading capacity will be regularly assessed based on grid stability and security considerations, ENTSO-E explained.
The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine agreed with the proposal of Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) to increase tariffs for the transportation of goods by 70%.
Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov signed the corresponding order No. 441 “On amendments to the coefficients applied to the tariffs of the Collection of tariffs for the carriage of goods by rail within Ukraine and related services” on June 22, and it was registered with the Ministry of Justice on June 24.
Unlike several previous increases last year, this time the coefficients have been increased equally – by 70% – for all 20 types of cargo.
“From July 1, 2022, the Ministry of Infrastructure will carry out a planned indexation of tariffs for freight transportation,” Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of the board of Ukrzaliznytsia, announced in the announcement of a press conference scheduled for June 29.
According to the explanatory note to the draft order, which Interfax-Ukraine got acquainted with, UZ plans to receive an additional over UAH 11 billion by the end of 2022 thanks to this increase in tariffs.
The company indicated that in the first five months of this year, due to the war, cargo transportation fell by 2.9 times – to 27.1 million tons, including in domestic traffic by 2.7 times – to 14.5 million tons, for export – 2.5 times, up to 10.8 million tons, for import – 6.4 times, up to 1.6 million tons, while transit fell almost 10 times – up to 0.3 million tons.
Ukrzaliznytsia also indicated that its estimated cost of restoring war damage would exceed UAH 100 billion.
As reported with reference to the order of the Ministry of Infrastructure of October 29, 2021, since the beginning of 2022, tariffs for the transportation of a group of goods of the 1st tariff class by rail have increased by 9%.
This was preceded by a decision to increase tariffs from August 17, 2021 for cargo transportation of a group of goods of the 1st and 2nd tariff classes by 8%, and from January 2022 – by 20.4% and 6.5%, respectively.
At that time, UZ estimated additional revenues from tariff increases at UAH 2 billion in 2021 and UAH 12.3 billion in 2022.
Ukrzaliznytsia in 2021, according to preliminary data, received UAH 457 million in net profit against a loss of UAH 11.9 billion a year earlier.
Oleksiy Chernyshov, the Minister for the Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, said that the heating season in 2022 will be the most difficult, but tariffs will not increase, the press service of the ministry reported. “The next heating season will start on time, tariffs will not grow and will be stable. It will be the most difficult in the history of Ukraine, but I am sure that we will cope with it. We are working together with local authorities to ensure that the heating season starts on time,” Chernyshov said.
According to him, now the heating industry faces many challenges due to the critical infrastructure destroyed as a result of full-scale Russian aggression in Ukraine. In particular, 331 boiler houses were destroyed or damaged, three heat communal enterprises in the cities of Okhtyrka, Kremenchuk and Chernihiv were destroyed.
“We must restore them before the start of the heating season, and we are determined to do this. Plans have already been developed to restore these enterprises, work is underway,” the minister said.
He also called on Ukrainians to be as careful as possible about keeping warm in their homes this winter.
“We must stop regulating the temperature in the premises by opening windows and prepare “in an adult way” for the next heating season. In particular, by introducing certain household preparation measures with windows, doors, roofs, porches and the like,” he said.
An official online store of Ukrposhta has opened on the American e-commerce platform Amazon, the press service of the national postal operator reported on Tuesday.
Ukrposhta notes that on Amazon you can buy the “Russian warship … Done!” set of stamps, envelope and postcard, as well as branded goods, namely a sweatshirt, a T-shirt or a cap.
The company added that it will transfer $5 from each order with the “Russian warship … Done!” stamp to the account of KSE Foundation. All funds raised will be used to help schools and kindergartens, organizing the logistics of humanitarian cargo, humanitarian aid.
In addition, the new stamp “Ukrainian Dream” is available for ordering in the online store in a set, which is issued on June 28 to the Day of the Constitution of Ukraine.
The development of the store and the launch of the Ukrposhta brand on Amazon was carried out by the Disqover Agency team.
Earlier, Ukrposhta also launched an official online store on eBay. In addition, you can officially buy philatelic products on Rozetka, Prom and Kasta.
Ukraine and Romania have agreed to strengthen cooperation in the Danube region and cooperation in the field of environmental protection, in particular, the countries are preparing to sign a bilateral agreement on the implementation of the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention).
The corresponding decision was made by Minister of Environment Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Ruslan Strelets and Minister of Environment, Water and Forests of Romania Barna Tanczos during an online meeting on June 27, according to the website of the Ukrainian ministry.
The Ukrainian minister also spoke about the harm done to the environment since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, and expressed hope for Romania’s support in recovering damages from the aggressor in the international court.
“About 260 cases of ecocide in the country and more than 2,000 cases of destruction of our ecosystems have already been recorded. The amount of damage exceeds UAH 200 billion. Such a war will definitely leave huge scars on the Ukrainian environment. Ukraine has joined the Life family, and we have great hopes that within the framework of the program, among other things, we will be able to restore our wildlife,” Strelets said.
He also recalled that Ukraine has introduced the EkoZahroza official application of the Ministry of Natural Resources, which allows every inhabitant of the planet to receive data around the clock on all changes in environmental indicators on the Ukrainian territory, including radiation pollution.
The Espoo Convention is an international agreement initiated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe that entered into force in 1997. According to the document, the procedure for assessing the environmental impact of potentially hazardous projects should be carried out not only within the state, but also in neighboring countries that may be affected by the impact of these facilities.
On June 24, Ukraine and the EU signed an agreement on joining the Life international environmental program, the budget of which for 2021-2027 for projects to protect the environment is EUR 5.43 billion.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kyivstar mobile operator has paid UAH 4.246 billion in taxes and fees to the state budget, including UAH 1.682 billion ahead of schedule, the company’s press service said on Tuesday.
According to the operator, today Kyivstar has connected more than 1,200 bomb shelters in different cities of the country to free wired Internet, and also transmitted more than 300 million State Emergency Service messages with vital information to the population.
In addition, the company transferred over UAH 33 million to the humanitarian needs of the military, hospitals, the elderly and those affected by the war. The operator’s subscribers, using short numbers and the Smart Money service, transferred more than UAH 3.2 million for humanitarian needs of hospitals and the military, the press service clarifies.
“More than 90% of the company’s network functions stably and provides subscribers with communication and high-speed Internet services. To do this, in the first quarter of 2022, the operator invested UAH 659 million in the development of communications. During the hostilities, the company built 110 new mobile communication facilities and improved 4G communications in 3,500 settlements,” the report says.
According to the operator, during the war, the company’s subscribers were provided with free services worth UAH 429 million. Subscribers in 30 countries of the world receive communication services at the same tariffs as in Ukraine.
In addition, Kyivstar provides doctors working in risk areas with free mobile communications.
