Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has accepted an invitation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit the country on the condition that Kyiv makes significant progress in ceasefire talks with Russia, Israel’s Ynet news reported.
According to the publication, Bennett has already asked the country’s security service to begin preparations for his possible visit to Kyiv.
“In order to advance the negotiations, it is clear that in-person meetings are necessary. And they may happen down the road if negotiations reach a tipping point,” a source involved in the talks with the Ukrainians told Ynet.
“However, some security officials have expressed their misgivings about the risks entailed in the prime minister going into an active war zone, especially after a Russian bombing of the city killed at least eight people on Monday,” the report says.
“According to sources familiar with the matter, Zelensky and Ukrainian government officials have been pursuing a Bennett visit to Kyiv for the past ten days as they believe the visit would help expedite ceasefire talks with Moscow,” according to the edition.
Earlier this month, the Israeli prime minister visited Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
SkyUp Airlines (Kyiv), in cooperation with The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, operated 8 flights from Moldova to Israel from March 6 to March 17, which allowed 1,248 Ukrainians to evacuate to Israel under the repatriation program.
According to the company’s website, 83 pets went to Israel with the passengers.
SkyUp noted that in active cooperation with The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews the company will continue to organize evacuation flights. In particular, flights are already planned for another 1,500 Ukrainians.
“As a conscientious company, we understand that we must continue our operations for the good of the country – in order for Ukraine to have a bright future. I express my deep gratitude to The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Moldova, the esteemed Ambassador Mark Oleksandrovych Shevchenko and personally to Serhiy Mykhailovych Humeniuk, who worked tirelessly to help our compatriots, as well as all those thanks to whom these flights take place. We are honored that our company can become a kind of bridge between Ukrainians and friendly countries, where people can feel security,” SkyUp Airlines CEO Dmytro Seroukhov said.
More than 3.5 million people have left Ukraine since the start of the Russian special operation, the United Nations Refugee Agency reported on its web page.
Over 2 million people have crossed into Poland, over 542,000 into Romania, nearly 368,000 into Moldova, over 317,000 into Hungary, and over 253,000 into Slovakia.
Russia has absorbed 252,000 and Belarus about 4,000 refugees from Ukraine, it said.
The losses of pharmaceutical company Farmak (Kyiv) due to a fire in a warehouse that occurred at the beginning of the war amounted to about UAH 1.5 billion.
“The warehouses of Farmak, where there were ready-made medicines, raw materials for medicines, primary packaging, were burned to the ground by the occupiers in the first days of the war. According to general estimates, the losses amounted to about UAH 1.5 billion,” the company said on its Facebook page.
The company also said that currently 87 of its employees defend Ukraine in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or territorial defense.
From December 2021, Farmak and the Charitable Foundation of Zhebrivskykh Family have donated more than UAH 12 million to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, medical institutions and the civilian population, including about UAH 9 million in medicines.
In addition, the company announces an agreement with its foreign partners on humanitarian supplies of critically important medicines, in which Farmak provides logistics. Some of these deliveries worth EUR 1 million have already been unloaded in Ukraine.
“This is only half of the already confirmed deliveries. This is what makes it possible to fill the warehouses of the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health with everything necessary,” the company said.
Farmak said that the company is currently “working on the issue of reducing the shortage of medicines on the Ukrainian market using internal resources.”
The company said that since the beginning of the open armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, Farmak has not made a single shipment of medicines to Russia and the Republic of Belarus. In particular, on February 24, Farmak donated a truck with medicines worth $200,000, which were preparing for shipment to Belarus, to the needs of Chernihiv.
“We cleared it back and handed it over to the needs of the city of Chernihiv, which was one of the first to be attacked by the Russian military,” the company said.
Farmak recalled that its representative office in the Russian Federation was curtailed back in 2014.
Cheese makers in central and western Ukraine meet the current needs of Ukrainians in cheese, since demand for it is limited due to the departure of consumers from the occupied and frontline territories and abroad, according to the website of the analytical agency Infagro.
“Cheese logistics are getting better, chains have partially resumed direct deliveries to stores, despite the non-working shopping and entertainment centers in many regions. The shelves of working stores have almost been freed from imported assortment. Relatively good sales are in western Ukraine, where migrants have moved,” the message says.
According to the agency, in March prices for Ukrainian cheese did not change compared to February this year.
It is specified that the export of Ukrainian cheese this month will be quite insignificant, only Moldova is available for domestic supplies.
At the same time, cheese imports to Ukraine in February were still significant, 3,600 tonnes were purchased, of which 1,500 tonnes of hard/semi-hard and 600 tonnes of processed cheese.
“Now most of the cheese brought in February has either been sold out or stuck somewhere in distribution warehouses. Most likely, cheese will be brought from Europe as humanitarian aid,” the agency summed up in the message.
From the second half of 2022, Germany is facing a shortage of mustard due to a lack of mustard seeds for its production, the shortage is caused by Russian aggression in Ukraine, since these two countries provide a total of 80% of German imports of this agricultural raw material.
This opinion was expressed by Markus Weck, CEO of the German food industry association Kulinaria Germany, for the German edition Die Welt.
“There is already a shortage of raw materials for mustard. And in the coming weeks and months, the shortage will increase – up to complete supply disruptions. The shocks caused by the coronavirus pandemic are practically nothing compared to what is happening in the markets right now,” the publication quotes the Kulinaria CEO.
According to him, 80% of mustard seeds come to Germany from Ukraine and Russia, and its shortage is already forcing German mustard producers to reduce its production and raise prices for their products. Weck clarified that the prospects for the German mustard market remain uncertain until the end of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Sowing should take place in the next two weeks. However, this is unlikely in Ukraine, given the current situation. But this means that an important supplier of raw materials for mustard producers is lost in the summer. And whether Russia will then export goods is also unknown,” the expert explained.
The Kulinaria CEO stressed that German mustard producers will have enough stocks of raw materials for a period of several weeks to several months.
Mustard consumption in Germany is one of the highest in the world and is used to prepare a large number of German traditional dishes.
