Since the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine, Ukrzaliznytsia has evacuated more than 2 million people, Deputy Head of the President’s Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said live on the information marathon.
“This is really a big figure, and many thanks to Ukrzaliznytsia, which carries people to safe regions,” he said.
According to Tymoshenko, about 150,000 more people were taken by buses from the cities where the most active hostilities are taking place.
“This applies to Luhansk region, Donetsk region, Sumy region, Kyiv and Zaporizhia regions. For all the time, 26 humanitarian corridors have been worked out,” he specified.
Separately, Tymoshenko dwelled on the issue of evacuation from Mariupol.
“We have been trying to get to Mariupol for the fourth day already – now a humanitarian convoy is standing 60 km from the city, but they are not letting it through,” he said, adding that on Monday, March 14, it was possible to ensure that people were able to leave at least in private cars.
Those who managed to evacuate from Mariupol were accepted in Zaporizhia region.
The number of refugees from Ukraine to Moldova is gradually declining, the head of the Emergency Situations inspectorate of the Interior Ministry of Moldova, Alexander Oprea, said.
“The number of refugees arriving on the territory of Moldova is gradually decreasing. According to the Border police, the flow of refugees to Moldova began to decline from March 8. At the same time, refugees continue to leave Moldova for the EU countries,” he said.
He said that from March 8 to March 13, some 242 bus trips were made and more than 8,000 people were transported to the border with Romania. Over 4,000 people from Ukraine arrived in Romania by train, including a special trip for refugees organized by the Moldavian Railway.
Oprea added that special trips for refugees have been organized in recent days: several trips have been made to Istanbul, Frankfurt am Main, Tel Aviv. The sky over Moldova remains closed, flights are operated only by special order of the State of Emergency Commission.
“If as of March 8, some 128,759 refugees were staying in Moldova, then as of March 14, there were 102,836 people, of whom 48,405 were children. There are 96 authorized accommodation centers in Moldova, two special centers organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. More than 4,000 places for accommodation remain available,” Oprea said.
In connection with the situation in Ukraine, the Moldovan parliament declared a state of emergency in the country for a period of 60 days, starting from February 24.
The American pharmaceutical company Pfizer will continue humanitarian supplies of medicines to the Russian Federation, all the profits of the Russian branch will be directed to humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
“Pfizer will immediately donate all profits of our Russian subsidiary to causes that provide direct humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine. This will be in addition to all other recently announced donations from Pfizer to Ukraine. In addition, we will no longer initiate new clinical trials in Russia and will cease enrollment of new patients in our ongoing clinical trials in the country,” Pfizer said on its website on Monday.
The company also clarified that it will transfer all current clinical trials to alternative sites outside the Russian Federation, but will continue to provide the necessary medicines to patients already included in clinical trials.
“While Pfizer does not own or operate any manufacturing sites in Russia, we will terminate all planned investments with local suppliers to increase manufacturing capacity in the country,” the company said.
At the same time, the company notes that the voluntary suspension of drug supplies to the Russian Federation “would be a direct violation of the fundamental principle of patient priority.”
Ukraine’s GDP grew 3.4% in 2021 after falling 3.8% in 2020, the State Statistics Service said.
Nominal GDP was UAH 5.46 trillion and per capita GDP was UAH 131,940.
GDP was $200.09 billion at an average exchange rate of UAH 27.29/$1, and per capita GDP was $4,840.
The Q4 2021 GDP growth estimate was raised to 6.1% from the 5.9% given at the start of February.
The Statistics Service raised its Q2 and Q3 2021 estimates for the second time, to 6% from 5.7% and to 2.8% from 2.7%, respectively, the initial estimates being 5.4% and 2.4%. GDP fell 2.2% in Q1 2021.
The European Union coordinated the first MEDEVAC operation for transferring Ukrainian children with chronic diseases from Poland to Italy, the European Commission said in a statement.
“The operation was financially and operationally supported by the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and is part of the European solidarity mechanism for intra-EU medical transfers of refugees and displaced people,” it said.
The operation was carried out by an Italian medical team at the request of and in close cooperation with Poland.
French authorities have the necessary resources to accommodate up to 100,000 refugees from Ukraine on their territory, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday.
“Today, we can host up to 100,000 refugees. This has become possible thanks to the considerable efforts of the state and local authorities,” Le Figaro quoted him as saying.
“We continue to work on scenarios under which we can accept even more people,” the minister said.
The newspaper notes that about 13,500 Ukrainian refugees are currently registered in France.
