The European Commission will insist on granting Ukraine the status of a candidate member of the EU, the final decision rests with the European Council, Politico reported.
“The European Commission will recommend granting Ukraine formal EU candidate status, according to several officials familiar with discussions that took place during a debate among commission members on Monday,” the statement said on Tuesday night.
The debate in the College of Commissioners followed a visit on Saturday by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Kyiv, where she discussed Ukraine’s membership bid with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelenskiy and other Ukrainian officials have pushed for formal recognition as an EU candidate country, saying the appointment would provide an invaluable morale boost during the war. “They repeatedly noted that after the 2013-2014 Maidan revolution, the citizens of Ukraine repeatedly risked their lives – and indeed, thousands have now died – fighting for a free, democratic future in the EU,” the publication stressed.
“The Commission does not forget that Ukraine is the only country in Europe where people died, where people were shot because they were on the streets with EU flags. Now we cannot tell them: “Sorry guys, you were waving the wrong flag” , – quotes his source Politico.
It is noted that supporters of Ukraine’s bid said that any delay in granting candidate status would be deeply demoralizing for Ukraine, as invading Russian troops temporarily occupy large swaths of the south and east of the country and seek to capture the entire eastern region of Donbass.
During discussions about the status of the candidates for Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, many EU officials and diplomats noted the sensitivity, given the slow pace of accession of the Western Balkans, which was declared a candidate country more than 10 years ago.
“Monday’s debate among commissioners raised broader questions about what an enlarged EU might look like in the future, including whether there would still be one commissioner per member state. The discussion also touched on the possibility that the upcoming summit, some EU leaders may try to impose conditions on Ukraine’s candidacy or return to the idea of granting some new status that does not correspond to the official candidacy.
According to the information from the representative of the Elysee Palace, the status of the candidate, if it is granted, will be only the beginning of a much longer process.
“Once Ukraine potentially gets candidate status, we also have to see when negotiations start. And you know that the EU membership methodology provides for chapter-by-chapter negotiations and reversible negotiations depending on how the country develops. So there are requirements that are in line with EU standards. , and in any case they will be very demanding of Ukraine,” the spokesman said.
In Kyiv, Igor Zhovkva, deputy head of Ukrainian President Zelensky’s office, said there was no alternative to nominating a candidate. “We will not accept any alternatives, nor compromises, as some leaders tell us, nor deviations from this candidate status,” Zhovkva was quoted as saying by the publication.
Buckwheat groats have disappeared from the shelves of some Ukrainian stores due to the boom in demand for groats caused by the desire of the population to stock up on food supplies in the face of a full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, while after the harvest of buckwheat in Ukraine, the supply of buckwheat groats and its cost will stabilize at the level 65-70 UAH/kg.
The corresponding forecast was published on the website of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine on Monday.
According to her, the demand for buckwheat is caused by the panic of the population, which stocked up large volumes of all types of cereals during the war with the Russian Federation, while retail chains were unable to provide a corresponding increase in supply, as a result of which buckwheat temporarily disappeared from the shelves of some stores.
In addition, Ukrainians consume 3-4 kg of buckwheat per year, which is several times higher than the world average of 1.5 kg per year.
“Our harvest (2022 – IF) will provide up to 2.5 kg of buckwheat per citizen. This is not a critical situation, but we will have to wait for a new harvest. Starting from September, there will be price stability – at the level of 65-70 UAH per kilogram of buckwheat. This is if there are problems with imports. And if we provide enough imported cereals, the price of buckwheat can decrease to UAH 50 per kilogram, perhaps even less,” the NAAN website says.
According to him, in the conditions of a difficult sowing campaign during the war, Ukrainian farmers sowed enough buckwheat, and its harvest will approximately correspond to last year, perhaps by 10-15% less. However, this will be quite enough for the needs of Ukraine.
NAAN stressed that before harvesting its own harvest, Ukraine is forced to buy foreign buckwheat, which it now imports from Poland or Lithuania instead of Russian and Kazakh ones. At the same time, the price of imported cereals will be high due to expensive fuel, since it is imported to Ukraine mainly by road.
As reported, 74.9 thousand hectares have already been sown with buckwheat this season, which is 92% of the previously planned 81.6 thousand hectares.
The issue of the right of Ukrainians to own weapons for their own defense should be resolved after taking into account all the weapons that they now have – to think through everything step by step to avoid complicating the crime situation, said the head of the National Police Igor Klymenko.
In an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the results of the survey, which showed the demand of Ukrainians for possession of weapons to protect themselves and their families, Klymenko emphasized the need to “separate military operations and peaceful life.”
“When the full-scale war of the Russian Federation in Ukraine began, the right, in my opinion, decision was made to arm our citizens. This made it possible to stop the enemy and be in relative safety for those who were at some distance from the line of military clashes,” the head said. National Police.
At the same time, he added that Ukrainians are returning to the de-occupied territories, the country is trying to return to peaceful life.
“Since the beginning of hostilities, only criminal investigation officers have seized more than a thousand firearms, more than 100 grenade launchers and 350 thousand ammunition from illegal circulation. Thousands of weapons in their hands can pose a threat to the lives of peaceful and law-abiding citizens,” the head of the National Police stressed.
“So, everything must first be returned to the warehouses, taken into account or blown up, as explosive experts do, and then we return to the issue of weapons possession. That is, first of all, we must take into account all the weapons that our citizens currently have” , – expressed the opinion of Klimenko.
According to him, the police in the first days of the invasion issued about 18 thousand weapons, they were taken into account, and the military also took into account the weapons they issued. “But there are a lot of captured weapons, of unknown origin, ammunition,” the head of the National Police added.
Klymenko also pointed out that the criminal world, which “quieted a little” at the beginning of the war, will be active again, and crime will rise to the level of peacetime.
He summed up: “Therefore, there should be a step by step: first, a register to understand how many weapons are on hand, who has them. And only after that we can talk about what weapons, what caliber and what class should be in the hands of our citizens – be it a machine gun, a carbine or a pistol.”
Interest in electric vehicles in Ukraine in May (according to users’ responses to announcements) against the backdrop of a shortage of gasoline and diesel grew 7 times compared to May last year, for electric scooters and gyro scooters – three times, for the purchase of electric scooters – 4.7 times, according to the press service of the online service OLX.
“In April, Ukrainians faced a shortage of gasoline and diesel, and since then they have been increasingly asking for “green” modes of transport,” the company said in a press release on Monday.
The supply also increased – if at the end of April sellers offered 226 electric cars and 114 hybrids, then in May the number of such ads increased by almost 3.6 and 4.7 times, respectively.
According to the response to one ad in May, Ukrainians were most interested in Opel – almost 11 potential buyers per electric car, Renault and Nissan received an average of eight responses.
A jump in demand, according to OLX Auto, for motorcycles, scooters and scooters was noted from May 23 to May 29, and the most interested in offers were in Kyiv, Odessa and Lviv regions.
At the same time, 127.6 thousand times responded to advertisements for the sale of an electric scooter or gyro scooter in May (4.7 times more than for electric scooters and 46.5 times for electric motorcycles), the leader in demand is the Kyiv region, followed by Lviv and Odessa.
Earlier, the association “Ukravtoprom” in its telegram channel reported that in May, against the backdrop of the fuel crisis, the Ukrainian fleet of electric vehicles (passenger cars and commercial vehicles) grew by 63% by May 2021 – up to 1016 cars (the best figure since the beginning of the year), with the share of new ones rose to 28% against 11% in May last year.
Of the registered 984 units. new passenger electric cars amounted to 287 units. – 67% more than in May last year, and among 32 units. there were no commercial new ones.
In total, in January-May, 3,090 electric vehicles were registered in Ukraine for the first time, which is 2.5% more than a year earlier (the share of new ones is 20%), and Nissan Leaf remains the most popular (567 cars).
TESLA Model 3 is in second place (263 units), Volkswagen e-Golf is third (156 units).
The RENAULT Kangoo Z.E remains the market leader in commercial electric vehicles. – 77 registrations.
Grain harvest in Ukraine in 2022 will be approximately 65 million tons, including up to 50 million tons of grains and 15-15.3 million tons of oilseeds, which is less than the record previous year, but comparable to the harvests harvested in the country in the current decade.
“Maybe about 48-50 million tons of grain in total. Of course, this is less than in previous years, when we are used to 60-75-85 million tons, but if we take a ten-year history, when we had 40-45 million , then this is not critical,” First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky said on the air of the national UA-marathon on Monday.
He specified that this season’s corn harvest is expected to be about 24 million tons, 18-20 million tons of wheat, and about 5 million tons of barley.
According to Vysotsky, it is also expected to produce about 10 million tons of sunflower, 2.5-2.8 million tons of soybeans and about 2.5 million tons of winter rapeseed.
“These are average indicators, looking at the average statistical indicators of previous years, and we will correct them upon the fact of harvesting,” the deputy minister specified.
As reported, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in a report published last week for June, raised its forecast for Ukrainian corn crop this year by 5 million tons compared to a month ago forecast – up to 25 million tons, while maintaining export estimates at 9 million tons.
In early June, the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) increased the forecast for grain and oilseeds harvest in Ukraine this season by 5.2% compared to the April forecast of 63 million tons – up to 66.5 million tons.
According to UGA forecasts, in 2022, a wheat harvest is expected at the level of 19.2 million tons (+5.2% compared to the April forecast of the organization); 26.1 million tons of corn (+13%); 6.6 million tons of barley (+6%); 9 million tons of sunflower (-8.8%); 2.1 million tons of soybeans (+16.6%); 1.5 million tons of rapeseed (forecast kept).
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its report for June published on Friday increased the forecast for Ukrainian corn crop for trade year (TY) 2022/23 by 5 million tonnes compared to the forecast a month ago, to 25 million tonnes, while keeping the export estimate at the level of 9 million tonnes.
U.S. experts increased the forecast for carryovers for 2022/23 TY by 4 million tonnes, to 12.07 million tonnes compared to 6.77 million tonnes for 2021/22 TY.
In addition, USDA raised the estimate of domestic consumption in 2022/23 TY by 1.5 million tonnes, to 10.7 million tonnes.
According to the report, in general, the forecast for the feed grain harvest in Ukraine for 2022/23 TY has been increased by 5.2 million tonnes, to 31.76 million tonnes, although at the same time, the export estimate has been reduced by 0.2 million tonnes, to 10.83 million tonnes.
U.S. experts have increased the forecast of feed grain carryovers following the results of 2022/23 TY by 3.9 million tonnes, to 13.06 million tonnes compared to 7.77 million tonnes at its beginning.
In addition, USDA raised the estimate of domestic consumption of feed grains in 2022/23 TY by 1.5 million tonnes, to 15.65 million tonnes.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recalled that in 2020/21 TY, the wheat harvest in Ukraine amounted to 25.42 million tonnes, and exports reached 16.85 million tonnes. According to its estimates, in 2021/22 TY, with a crop that has grown to 33.01 million tonnes, exports will increase to 19 million tonnes, and carryovers – from 1.51 to 5.61 million tonnes. In addition, U.S. experts expect domestic wheat consumption in Ukraine to grow to 10 million tonnes in 2021/22 TY from 8.7 million tonnes in the previous TY due to livestock.
As for corn, according to the report, in the past 2020/21 TY, its harvest in Ukraine was 30.3 million tonnes, and exports – 23.86 million tonnes. According to USDA estimates, in this ending trade year, with a corn crop that has grown to 42.13 million tonnes, its exports will decrease to 23 million tonnes, and carryovers will jump from 0.83 to 6.77 million tonnes. In addition, U.S. experts expect domestic corn consumption in Ukraine to grow to 13.2 million tonnes in 2021/22 TY from 7.1 million tonnes in the previous TY, also due to livestock.
In general, the feed grain harvest in Ukraine in 2020/21 TY, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was 39.59 million tonnes, and exports were 28.15 million tonnes. According to USDA estimates, in this ending TY, with a coarse grain harvest that has grown to 53.51 million tonnes, it will increase only to 29.06 million tonnes, and carryovers will jump from 1.65 to 7.77 million tonnes. In addition, the experts expect in 2021/22 TY an increase in domestic consumption of coarse grains in Ukraine to 18.37 million tonnes from 12.41 million tonnes in the previous TY, also due to livestock.
