All children and caregivers from the orphanage in Vorzel have been evacuated to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv City State Administration said.
“All the children and employees were evacuated from Kyiv city orphanage of Horodetsky, located in Vorzel… They were transferred to one of Kyiv hospitals. Tomorrow the children will be sent to Western Ukraine,” Kyiv City State Administration said in a Telegram on Wednesday.
Kyiv City State Administration said the capital is helping with the evacuation and humanitarian aid to cities located near Kyiv, namely Vorzel, Hostomel, Irpin, Bucha.
According to the statement, some 520 people were evacuated from Puscha-Vodytsia in two days due to the approach of active hostilities. The evacuated people were placed in kindergartens in Kyiv. Part of the inhabitants of Puscha-Vodytsia settled with relatives in other districts of Kyiv.
British American Tobacco (BAT), one of the world’s largest manufacturers of tobacco products in the world, has suspended its work and business operations in Ukraine due to the military invasion of the Russian Federation, while in the Russian Federation the corporation will suspend all planned capital investments and “rationalize its marketing activities”.
The corresponding statement was posted on the corporation’s website on Wednesday.
“In Ukraine, we have suspended all business and manufacturing operations and are providing all the support and assistance we can to our colleagues, including relocation and temporary accommodation. Our businesses bordering Ukraine are providing assistance to the humanitarian relief effort. In Russia, we have a full establishment of our people right across the country, including substantial local manufacturing. Our business in Russia continues to operate. As a key principle we have a duty of care to all our employees at this extremely complicated and uncertain time for them and their families,” it said in the report.
“We are deeply concerned about the conflict in Ukraine. The safety and wellbeing of our people there and across the region is our first priority. We have full local establishments of 1,000 people in Ukraine and 2,500 in Russia. Our thoughts are with them all at this incredibly difficult time,” the report says.
“We have suspended all planned capital investment into Russia and will focus on our portfolio of locally produced tobacco products – including our heated tobacco products. Furthermore, we are scaling our business activities appropriate to the current situation, including rationalizing our marketing activities. This fast-moving and complex situation demands us to constantly assess a wide range of factors and considerations. We are complying, and will continue to comply with, all international sanctions related to this conflict in full,” the company said.
Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) is suspending planned investments in Russia, including new product launches, investments in innovation, as well as commercial and manufacturing activities, the tobacco concern said in a statement.
PMI has also stepped up plans to reduce manufacturing operations in Russia amid supply chain disruptions and changing regulations, the company said.
“Given the situation, the board of directors and management have decided to halt all of our planned investments in Russia and to step up plans to reduce our production operations. We will support our employees in Russia during this period, including by continuing to pay their wages,” PMI CEO Jacek Olczak said in the statement.
PMI’s Russian business in 2021 accounted for nearly 10% of cigarette and heated tobacco sales, and around 6% of PMI’s global revenue.
The company started operating in Russia in 1992, opening a representative office in the country. PMI has more than 3,200 employees in Russia.
PMI owns a tobacco factory in the country’s Leningrad Region, CJSC Philip Morris Izhora; and it owns Philip Morris Sales and Marketing that distributes cigarettes through a branch network in more than 100 Russian cities. Last autumn, PMI decided to close a factory in the Krasnodar Territory amid a shrinking tobacco market.
The brand portfolio includes Marlboro, L&M, Bond Street, Parliament, and others. The company also produces tobacco sticks for its Iqos tobacco heating systems.
PMI’s share in the Russian tobacco market is 31.7% according to data for the fourth quarter 2022.
The war launched by Russia against Ukraine has triggered one of the fastest growing refugee emergencies in the history of UN observations: the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukraine could reach 6.7 million, up from 854,000 before start of the war.
The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) predicts that a military offensive could displace up to 6.7 million people within Ukraine, 4.3 million of whom will need life-saving humanitarian assistance, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on Wednesday.
According to it, prior to the Russian invasion, Ukrainian authorities registered 1.46 million IDPs, of which 854,000 lived in government-controlled areas, in addition to 1.7 million affected by the conflict. Most of them were displaced after the outbreak of hostilities in southeastern Ukraine in 2014.
The office adds that there were also 35,000 stateless persons and 5,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Ukraine, mostly from Afghanistan, whose need for OHCHR assistance is expected to become even more acute as the situation develops.
According to the organization’s estimates, in addition to 6.7 million IDPs, there will also be about 4 million refugees from Ukraine, while before the war there were only 53,000.
In line with an initial request for $270 million in financial support, OHCHR intends to assist 2.1 million IDPs over an initial three-month period (March-May this year).
In addition, the agency has requested $240 million in funding to help 2.4 million refugees in the first six months, which will be distributed to their host countries.
In general, the UN estimates the financial needs for an urgent response to the situation in Ukraine (United Nations Emergency Appeal for the Ukraine Situation) at $1.7 billion, of which $1.1 billion for Ukraine and $550.6 million for countries that have accepted refugees.
OHCHR is calling on the donor community to support people in dire need in Ukraine and neighboring countries at this critical time.
Head of Zaporizhia Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Starukh has said that as of midday on Wednesday, the radiation background in the region remains within the natural range and does not pose a threat to human health.
“Zaporizhia Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine informs that the radiation background in Zaporizhia region remains unchanged and does not pose a threat to the life and health of the population … The gamma background … does not exceed the natural background characteristic of these territories,” Starukh wrote on the Telegram channel.
He listed the level of gamma background in different settlements of the region, it is in the range from 10.2 to 12 microroentgens per hour; in Energodar, where Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant is located – 10.6 microroentgens per hour.
Polish Ambassador to Ukraine Bartosz Cichocki, Turkish Ambassador to Ukraine Yağmur Ahmet Güldere and Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas continue to work in Kyiv, the Polish Ambassador to Ukraine said.
“There are also a nuncio and a Turkish ambassador,” Cichocki said on Twitter on Wednesday.
So he responded to the media’s suggestion that he was the only Western ambassador who did not leave Kyiv.
