President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the European Union’s response to Ukraine’s application for membership will show whether Europe has a future.
“Now, of course, is a decisive time. Not only for Ukraine, but also for the European Union, for the entire European continent. Now it is being decided what the future of a united Europe will be like and whether it will be at all. Russia wants to destroy European unity, wants to leave Europe split and weak. All of Europe is a target for Russia, and Ukraine is only the first stage in this aggression, in these plans,” Zelensky said at a briefing with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Kyiv on Saturday.
That is why, according to the head of state, “a positive response of the European Union to the Ukrainian application for EU membership can become a positive answer to the question – does the European project have a future at all.”
Zelensky stressed that the people of Ukraine have already made a great contribution to the protection of freedom and values shared with the European Union.
“Thousands of Ukrainian lives were given to live in Ukraine and all of Europe as a person, to live freely. During such a brutal war, Ukrainians made sure that state and public institutions remain stable. Our people are absolutely integrated into the European space,” he said.
He also noted that polls conducted among the European population showed that people support Ukraine in joining the EU.
“And this is fair. And we are really looking forward to the recognition of this reality at the political level on June 23-24, when the historic meeting of the European Council for us should take place. Its logical decision should be to grant Ukraine the status of an EU candidate country. We really believe in this … The Ukrainian people will do everything necessary for the European integration of Ukraine,” Zelensky stressed, adding that “the European project definitely cannot be completed without Ukraine.”
EU, EUROPE, FUTURE, MEMBERSHIP, ZELENSKY
The number of refugees from Ukraine registered for temporary protection or similar national protection schemes in Europe stood at 3.207 million as of June 9, 2022, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on its website.
Compared to the June 1 data, the increase was almost 0.3 million, and the main contribution was made by the data update for Germany – an additional almost 0.24 million.
According to UNHCR data collected from national governments, Poland has the most refugees with this status – 1 million 152.36 thousand, while 3.865 million arrived in the country from Ukraine, according to the Polish border service, from the beginning of the war to June 9 people, and in the opposite direction departed for Ukraine 1.738 million.
Following are Germany and the Czech Republic, where the number of refugees registered for temporary protection from Ukraine amounted to 565.82 thousand and 366.49 thousand, respectively.
The UN, referring to government data, indicates that in total in Germany, where Ukrainians are allowed to stay without registration until the end of August, 780,000 refugees from Ukraine were recorded. So, based on the data presented, a significant proportion of them have not yet applied for temporary protection status in this country.
In the Czech Republic, the situation, according to UN information, is different: almost all arrivals applied for protection status – 366.49 thousand out of 366.63 thousand.
In the vast majority of other countries, the picture is similar to the Czech Republic: the statistics of registered refugees is completely or almost equal to the statistics of those who applied for protection status, which is probably due to the peculiarity of their registration. An exception, similar to Germany, is only Romania – 37.32 thousand with the status of 89.78 thousand refugees registered in the country, Estonia – 25.69 thousand out of 39.8 thousand and Italy – 97.31 thousand out of 125 .91 thousand
In addition to Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy, more than 50 thousand refugees from Ukraine have also registered for temporary protection status in Spain – 118.12 thousand, Slovakia – 77.14 thousand (out of 270 thousand net inflows across the border since the beginning of the war) , Austria – 69.76 thousand, the Netherlands – 62.97 thousand, Lithuania – 53.89 thousand and Switzerland – 53.12 thousand.
Following are Belgium – 45.3 thousand, France – 43.3 thousand (data from the end of April), Portugal – 41.45 thousand, Sweden – 38 thousand, Great Britain – 37.4 thousand (data from the beginning of May ), Ireland – 33.15 thousand and Denmark – 27.21 thousand, as well as the above-mentioned Romania and Estonia.
From 10 to 25 thousand refugees from Ukraine with the status of temporary protection in Finland – 24.46 thousand, Latvia – 23.38 thousand, Hungary – 24.09 thousand, Norway – 16.71 thousand, Greece – 14, 89 thousand, Croatia – 13.76 thousand and Cyprus – 12.79 thousand.
In addition, the UN statistics on those who received the status of temporary protection include refugees of Ukraine in Slovenia – 7.05 thousand, Luxembourg – 5.3 thousand, Montenegro – 2.53 thousand, Iceland – 1 thousand, in Malta – 0.92 thousand, in Serbia and Kosovo – 0.7 thousand and Liechtenstein – 0.21 thousand.
In addition, the table contains data from Bulgaria, possibly entered with an error: according to them, 78.29 thousand refugees from Ukraine were recorded there, but 113.03 thousand received protection status.
The UN also indicated the countries in which refugees from Ukraine were recorded, but there is no data on their obtaining status: Moldova – 86.25 thousand, Turkey – 145 thousand, Georgia – 20.03 thousand, Azerbaijan – 5.06 thousand. , Albania – 1.48 thousand, North Macedonia – 1.1 thousand, Bosnia and Herzegovina – 0.36 thousand and Armenia – 0.3 thousand.
Separately, it is worth mentioning Russia and Belarus, the Ukrainian border with which, respectively, 1 million 136.24 thousand and 16.65 thousand people crossed. The UN information indicates that in the Russian Federation all those who crossed the border were recorded, while in Belarus – less than half. There is no data on any status of these people, as well as data on crossing the border of Ukraine in the opposite direction.
SoftServe, an IT company with Ukrainian roots, announced the active return of its own specialists from abroad and from western regions.
An average of 10-20 people return home from overseas and western regions every day, the company said in a statement released on Wednesday.
“Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the SoftServe IT company has relocated more than 4,000 employees to the western regions and abroad. However, since May, the company has observed a trend towards the return of IT specialists to their usual locations – now 1082 people have returned home”, – is noted in the message of the company.
According to SoftServe, since May, the dynamics of people returning from abroad has been constant: according to the company’s internal statistics, 10-15 people return to Ukraine every day.
“In May, the most people were outside Ukraine – 1,900 employees. Since then, this figure has steadily decreased, and now 314 employees have arrived in Ukraine. According to surveys, about 170 more are planning to return home as soon as possible. However, we, as a company we go as far as possible towards the decision of employees regarding where to work from.For those who want to stay abroad, we offer the possibility of employment in local branches of the company for a year or even longer in the hub countries: Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Latin America”, – comments Ekaterina Gubareva, VP HR SoftServe.
Most of all, SoftServe IT specialists return to Kyiv: as of the beginning of June, more than 400 people arrived there.
“Our offices in Kyiv have not closed their doors to employees and their families since the beginning of the war and have served as a shelter and place of work. When it became relatively safe, we switched to normal operation. Now two of our offices have co-working spaces, where an average of 10 % of employees, but there is an upward trend. In the summer, we plan to launch a certification center and equip a parking lot with chargers for electric cars,” Elena Lebedeva, director of the Kyiv development center, is quoted in the message.
Slower, but also brass knuckles, the number of people who return to the Dnieper (+38 people since April) and Kharkiv (+10 people since May).
However, 10 workers have left Odessa since May.
In addition, there is a trend towards returning to their usual places of residence of workers who were forced to leave for the western regions of Ukraine.
In total, more than 1,100 SoftServe employees have moved since the beginning of the war in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Uzhgorod – now almost a quarter of them have already left, and this process is dynamic.
Almost half of the people who relocated to the city since the beginning of the war left Ternopil.
Less active workers are leaving Vinnitsa, Khmelnitsky and Rivne.
According to internal surveys, as of today, 99% of SoftServe employees say they are safe. For comparison, in March this figure was 84%.
SoftServe is included in the list of the largest IT service companies in Ukraine. To date, it has about 13.5 thousand employees and 40 offices around the world. The main offices of the company are located in Lviv and Austin (Texas, USA). The company’s development centers are located in Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkov, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Uzhgorod, Ternopil, Odessa, Vinnitsa and Khmelnitsky, as well as in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and Latin America.
Import volumes from Russia to Germany have continued to grow since the beginning of 2022, while trade between Germany and Ukraine has fallen, Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk said.
“This is madness. Despite the Russian aggressive war, in January-April 2022, Germany increased imports from Russia by 60% (!) and transferred almost 6 billion euros more to Moscow. Trade between Ukraine and Germany fell by 11%,” Melnyk wrote on Twitter.
During the sowing campaign-2022, Ukraine sowed 13.4 million hectares of land with the main agricultural crops, which is 93% of the 14.4 million hectares planned for the current season, including 0.22 sown during the week (June 3-9) million hectares, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food announced on Friday.
According to the data published on its website, as of June 9, the area under sunflower crops is 4.69 million hectares (95% of the 4.93 million hectares planned for 2022), corn – 4.63 million hectares (95% of 4.85 million ha), spring barley – 951.2 thousand ha (93% of 1.02 million ha), spring wheat – 191.1 thousand ha (sowing completed), oats – 159.2 thousand ha (97% of 163 .6 thousand ha), peas – 130.6 thousand ha (89% of 145.7 thousand ha).
In addition, the sown area under potatoes is 1.11 million hectares (93% of 1.19 million hectares), soybeans – 1.21 million hectares (97% of 1.25 million hectares), sugar beet – 182.1 thousand hectares. ha (88% of 206.9 thousand ha), spring rapeseed – 33.4 thousand ha (sowing completed), millet – 48.5 thousand ha (78% of 62.3 thousand ha), buckwheat – 74 .9 thousand ha (92% of 81.6 thousand ha).
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy clarified that the area sown this season has already amounted to 81.7% of the indicators of last year, in which 16.92 million hectares were sown.
The ministry stressed that harvesting of winter crops will begin in some regions from next week. They were sown in 2021 on a total area of 7.7 million hectares, including 6.5 million hectares under winter wheat, 1 million hectares under barley, and 0.16 million hectares under rye.
As reported, due to the military aggression of the Russian Federation in Ukraine this season, a reduction in the acreage of high-margin crops (sunflower and corn) is expected while increasing the acreage of crops that are easier to produce, but important in terms of food security – peas, barley and oats.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal announced on April 20 that Ukraine will sow approximately 14.2 million hectares of agricultural land this season, which is 80% of last year’s figure of 16.9 million hectares.
Earlier, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy estimated the sown area under spring crops in 2022 at 13.44 million hectares compared to 16.92 million hectares in 2021.
Rostislav Shurma, Deputy Head of the President’s Office, called the goal of Ukraine in 2022 to harvest at least 70% of last year’s volumes.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said she had arrived in Kyiv and intended to meet with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Good to be back in Kyiv. With President Volodymyr Zelensky I will take stock of the joint work needed for reconstruction and of the progress made by Ukraine on its European path,” she said on Twitter.
