President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and Turkey demonstrate their readiness to become guarantors of Ukraine’s security, but there is still no final answer from anyone
“Today, those who demonstrate that they are ready – we don’t have any signatories yet, but there is a demonstration – from Johnson, from Britain, from the USA, from Italy, from Turkey. I think it will be separate from the European Union,” reports he said, said on Saturday in an interview with the Ukrainian online media outlet Ukrayinska Pravda.
“I spoke separately with Ursula (President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen), separately with Charles Michel (Head of the European Council Charles Michel – UP), France, Germany.
We will do the first circle of conversation in this format for five (Britain, USA, Germany, France, Poland). Then other countries will join,” Zelensky said.
According to the publication, Zelensky believes that Ukraine will not have a problem with weapons or sanctions against the aggressor country, but there will be issues with the military component.
The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation is the most famous Ukrainian charitable organization, according to a survey conducted by Info Sapiens.
“So, 94.3% of the polled Ukrainians named it without prompting. In second place is the International Committee of the Red Cross (70% named it), in third place is the Pinchuk Foundation (45.3%),” Info Sapiens said in a report on the results of the study released on Friday.
Only those organizations that scored more than 1% of spontaneous knowledge about Ukraine in November-December 2021 were included in the list. It is assumed that if the study were conducted now, the Come Back Alive Foundation and other funds that help the Armed Forces of Ukraine would have made the list, but before the war they scored less than 1% in spontaneous knowledge.
In addition, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation is the leader in philanthropy in Ukraine. Almost half of Ukrainians consider the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation the largest charitable organization in Ukraine. 76% of Ukrainians positively assess its activities.
KMZ Industries (Karlovsky Machine-Building Plant, Poltava region), continues to implement contracts for the supply of equipment in the conditions of the armed invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, now the company supplies products for granaries in Vinnytsia, Lviv and Cherkasy regions.
The implementation of existing and conclusion of new contracts in the current season is reported on the Facebook page of KMZ on Friday.
According to the company, silos and transport equipment are currently being delivered for the construction of a granary with a total capacity of 60,500 tonnes in Vinnytsia region.
“In Lviv region, we are completing connection to power lines and commissioning at a farm silo. It will be able to receive 3,000 tonnes of grain. In addition, next week we will complete the shipment of transport equipment with a capacity of 175 tonnes per hour to Cherkasy region,” KMZ Industries added.
KMZ Industries produces silos on a flat base, cone bottom, flour storage silos, mine grain dryers Brice-Baker (British design) and chipboard (Ukrainian design), transport equipment (elevators, chain, belt and screw conveyors), separators for grain cleaning, installs and automates elevator equipment and technological processes at granaries.
As of the fourth quarter of 2021, Dragon Capital Investments Limited (Cyprus), whose ultimate beneficiary is Tomas Fiala, owns 80% of the shares of KMZ Industries, Variant Agro Bud LLC holds 20%.
The amount of charitable assistance received for Ukraine from citizens and corporations from around the world has reached almost $924 million, and the funds continue to flow, according to the website of the Office of the President on Thursday.
“They (funds – IF) go mainly to the accounts of UN agencies and international humanitarian organizations. And they, in turn, send them to help our refugees in different countries,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the President’s Office, head of the Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian and Social Affairs .
Most of the funds came from philanthropists from the UK (47%), the Netherlands (almost 18%), the Czech Republic (11%) and the USA (almost 8%).
Yulia Sokolovskaya, Deputy Head of the Office of the President, noted that 270,000 tons of humanitarian aid were brought into Ukraine in 50 days. Food was purchased from Ukrainian producers and food packages were completed for almost 12 million Ukrainians.
As First Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Sviridenko noted, on the western border with Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, logistics centers were deployed in the first week, where international donors and partners send humanitarian aid.
The Lviv region has become the largest humanitarian aid hub in Ukraine, accepting 51% of the cargoes with help from abroad.
From humanitarian hubs located throughout the country, the cargo is distributed among regional military administrations, charitable organizations, local governments, public organizations and volunteers, said Deputy Head of the President’s Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko.
In addition, according to him, using the help.gov.ua platform, people from all over the world fill out questionnaires every day and send help to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s international reserves currently stand at $27.4 billion, representatives of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said at a meeting with the European Business Association (EBA) and the American Chamber of Commerce on April 15.
“The country’s foreign exchange reserves amount to $27.4 billion, which became possible thanks to the support of international partners – the IMF, the EU (which provided the first tranche of 600 million euros), the EBRD, etc. The total amount of assistance received from international partners is $3.8 billion “, – is noted in the release of the EBA following the meeting.
Earlier, the NBU reported that Ukraine’s international reserves as of April 1, 2022 amounted to $28.1 billion, which is 2% more than at the beginning of March ($27.5 billion).
Representatives of the National Bank at the meeting also pointed out that in general, since the beginning of the war, the volume of net sales of foreign currency by the NBU amounted to $ 2 billion, and recently there has been a tendency for currency supply to prevail over demand for it.
As one of the meeting participants specified to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, Deputy Head of the National Bank Yuriy Heletiy said that the supply of foreign currency in April began to exceed the demand for it in the non-cash market from legal entities. According to him, the growth was caused by the gradual resumption of the work of enterprises of the mining and metallurgical complex, companies from the IT services sector.
Representatives of the National Bank also indicated that they do not yet see the need to introduce a mandatory sale of foreign currency.
Speaking about possible future steps to remove currency restrictions, the regulator admitted the possibility of certain relaxations in areas related to trade finance: settlements on export-import guarantees, letters of credit, while the return of other foreign loans will remain prohibited.
Federal Minister of Digital Technologies and Transport of Germany Volker Wissing says that the flow of refugees from Ukraine has significantly decreased and stressed that the German state does not intend to impose any restrictions on the admission of Ukrainian refugees.
“The number of refugees traveling to Germany by train has dropped significantly from its peak at the beginning of the war, from around 8,200 to the current around 2,500 people a day. However, we maintain logistical and transport structures because we cannot predict the course of the war at any moment may face an increase in the number of refugees. We must expect further escalation and be prepared. Those in need in Ukraine should be able to find asylum in Germany,” Wissing said in an interview with the German Editorial Network (RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, RND).
When asked if there is an upper limit for accepting refugees from Ukraine, the minister replied: “This question does not arise. Germany cannot and will not reject refugees from Ukraine.”
He also noted that Germany is working on accepting Ukrainian refugees who were previously settled in the EU countries neighboring Ukraine, and is also working to ensure that other EU countries are involved in this, recalling that a number of Polish cities have reached the limit of their capacity to accommodate Ukrainians.
“We quickly became convinced that people traveling from Ukraine could be transported from Poland to Germany. There are distribution centers in Hannover, Cottbus and Berlin…. If there is a threat of congestion in neighboring Ukrainian countries, we must again campaign for their distribution throughout the EU .I am in constant contact with my European colleagues,” Wissing said.
Asked about his attitude to the energy embargo against Russia, the minister noted that Germany “very quickly launched a comprehensive package of sanctions together with its European partner countries and the United States, but the impact on our society must also be taken into account when deciding on sanctions.” “Nothing would be more beneficial to Mr. Putin than if we took action that would lead to a quarrel and ultimately divide our society,” he stressed.
“Germany is very aware of its role and acts responsibly. We avoid acting alone and act in close coordination with our European partners,” Wissing concluded.
