The fare on the roads of Bulgaria is not charged for any car with a Ukrainian registration number (electronic vignette for cars weighing up to 3.5 tons and a tariff for trucks and buses over 3.5 tons) when using the national road network, according to the Motorny website ( Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTSBU).
The corresponding decision adopted by the Council of Ministers of Bulgaria came into force on February 24, 2022 and will be valid until the need for humanitarian and medical assistance is eliminated.
All violations in the electronic system of vehicles generated for cars with Ukrainian registration after February 24, 2022 are closed. Thus, cars with Ukrainian registration can freely leave the territory of Bulgaria even if they violate traffic rules.
The National Service (BGTOLL) has a customer service hotline that operates daily from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm. By calling 0700 10 876 or by e-mail info@bgtoll.bg all persons, including Ukrainians, can receive the necessary information.
The report also notes that in Poland, travel on toll roads for cars with Ukrainian numbers is also now free. In Slovakia, cars from Ukraine can move without purchasing an online vignette. In Germany, the autobahns are free for all cars.
Dynamics of changes in population of ukraine from 1991-2022
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he would visit Ukraine to get an idea of the situation on the ground and talk about further assistance.
“I spoke with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky by phone yesterday. We discussed that I would go to Ukraine to get an idea of the situation on the ground and talk about further assistance,” Nehammer tweeted on Tuesday.
The task of the European Union is to protect children who are fleeing the war that Russia unleashed against Ukraine and to keep them from becoming the object of human trafficking.
As Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography Dubravka Szuica said on Tuesday in Strasbourg, speaking at the plenary session of the European Parliament, about 2.5 million children in Ukraine were forced to leave their homes, about 2 million children crossed the border with the EU, many of them arrived without parents. “Our priority is to urgently respond to their needs … Legal guardians must be appointed as soon as possible, potential foster families confirmed, so that children do not end up in homes where violence is used,” she said.
Schuitz called education a key task. “Member States help children go to school to return to normal life, the integration system, together with social, psychological assistance, cultural and sports activities, will help overcome trauma, cultural and language barriers,” the Vice President of the European Commission detailed.
Ylva Johansson, European Commissioner for Home Affairs, also said that many of these children face a new danger – the danger of human trafficking. “Lithuanian authorities are investigating the possible trafficking of 43 children for adoption. There are no confirmed cases yet, but we know from bitter experience that the danger is real. Children are at the very top of our agenda. Our goal is to protect children from the war zone by providing them with safe homes,” the Commissioner said.
According to her, working on the prevention of human trafficking, starting with crossing the EU border, where 282 Frontex employees help identify people who are at risk of trafficking, and Europol collects data, coordinates police cooperation, monitors the online activities of potential traffickers. “Europol has set up a dedicated anti-trafficking unit, working with the police in Ukraine and the EU countries bordering Ukraine. Many Member States have been warned of the danger. Our priority right now is registration, registration, registration. We need to know where these children are – all 2 million. Not a single child can be lost,” Johansson stressed.
“Our main challenge is still before us – how long this war will continue, there will always be a risk for children. Imagine that you are a Ukrainian mother with three children and have to make a very difficult decision – stay here with the children in danger or send them with your friend who will soon go with his two children on a potentially also dangerous journey to the EU and know that there is a risk that this may be the last time you see your children. Many parents have been forced to make this difficult decision. And they want us to keep their children safe. They are counting on us. Let’s show that they can rely on us,” she concluded her speech.
On Tuesday, the EU will consider a new package of sanctions against Russia due to the situation around Ukraine, said the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
“Today we intend to approve a new package of sanctions, but we are still discussing what to do with energy,” Borrell said on Tuesday in an interview with Spanish radio station COPE.
According to him, in particular, there is no unanimity in the EU on the problem of refusing Russian gas. “It is not possible to make a unanimous decision, because there is such a country – Hungary, which has announced that it will veto it,” Borrell said.
“It’s easy to give up what you don’t have, but it’s very difficult for countries that are seriously dependent on Russian gas supplies,” he added.
Of the 39 domestic cardboard and paper enterprises that have installed paper or cardboard machines, 23 have completely stopped their production, the rest are not working at full capacity, the UkrPapir Association told Interfax-Ukraine.
“Due to well-known circumstances, industry enterprises in the Lugansk, Kherson, Chernigov, Donetsk regions, where hostilities are taking place, as well as in the Crimea, do not work today. Enterprises that continue their production activities in difficult conditions are located in Kiev, Lvov, Volyn, Dnepropetrovsk, Khmelnitsky, Rivne, Odessa regions,” the association noted, without naming the specific names of the enterprises.
According to the interlocutor of the agency, the association continues to communicate with leading European and world companies whose activities are related to the pulp and paper industry, urging them to condemn the barbaric actions of “Putin’s bandits” in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and stop all business contacts with the aggressor countries – Russia and Belarus.
“Certain results have been achieved – some foreign manufacturers of cardboard and paper products and chemical components have already terminated contracts with consumers of their products in the country of the aggressors. Sanctions are already in effect. pulp and paper, which are inferior to the quality of the previously manufactured products of the plant, while losing nominal profit. There was a shortage of cut paper for office equipment in the retail chains of the Russian Federation, its cost increased while the quality decreased,” the source said.
Among the companies that supported Ukraine in its fight against the aggressor, the association named well-known world manufacturers Kemira, Stora Enso, UPM Kymmene.
Association “UkrPapir” today unites 33 enterprises and companies, in particular 19 manufacturers of cardboard and paper products, including notebooks, paper wallpapers and printing enterprises, as well as 12 distributors and 2 suppliers and suppliers of waste paper.
