At the moment, it is not known when new negotiations with the Russian Federation will take place, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
“We are ready for negotiations, we are ready for diplomacy, but we are by no means ready to accept any Russian ultimatums. It is unknown at the moment when the new negotiations will take place,” Kuleba said on his Facebook on Wednesday.
He added that the demands of the Russians remain unchanged. “These are the demands that Putin voiced in his address before the start of the war, in fact declaring war on us,” Kuleba said.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says the government is actively developing mechanisms for stable supplies of food, medicine and essential goods throughout the country.
“Now the government is actively developing mechanisms for stable supplies of food, medicine and essential goods throughout the country,” Shmyhal said in a video message on Wednesday afternoon.
According to the prime minister, at the moment the Coordinating Center for the Provision of Food Products, Medicines, Drinking Water and Fuel is operating under the leadership of First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko, and the Humanitarian Aid Coordination Center is also operating under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishina.
The spot price for gas in Europe continues to soar and is already 57% above Tuesday’s closing.
Prices for the nearest, April futures contracts at the TTF hub have broken the $2,000-mark, rising first to $2,011 and then an all-time high of $2,227 per thousand cubic meters on Wednesday afternoon, the previous high being $2,138 on December 21. These contracts closed Tuesday at $1,418, according to ICE Futures exchange data.
But that appears to have been the peak, with prices swinging down on news of a new short-term booking for Yamal-Europe pipeline capacity from 3:00 p.m. Moscow time until the end of the gas day. So far it looks like there will be an additional 0.8 million cubic meters per hour, which is 20% of the pipe’s capacity, in which case an additional 15 mcm of Gazprom gas will be delivered to Europe by morning.
The average TTF price on February was $935.
Apart from the Ukraine crisis, gas prices have risen in Europe due to an abrupt drop in temperatures this week and in wind power generation.
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) currently have the ability to monitor the situation at nuclear facilities on the territory of Ukraine, the organization’s director general Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday.
“Remotely controlled equipment is functioning normally,” he said at a briefing in Vienna.
“We are able to continue security control activities,” Grossi added.
He noted that he expects that in the future it will be possible to send IAEA inspectors directly to facilities in Ukraine.
“I am in contact with all parties. We need to understand how we can provide support,” Grossi said.
He noted that he was “inspired by the willingness of the parties to interact.”
Speaking about whether the events in Ukraine pose a threat to nuclear facilities, the head of the IAEA said: “I proceed from the fact that there will be no such strikes.”
Grossi explained that all countries had previously assured that they considered attacks on nuclear facilities unacceptable.
A team of employees from several Ukrainian retail chains, together with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, developed and launched an online map of grocery stores in the country with information about the status and time schedule of their work.
The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Roman Leschenko wrote about this on Facebook on Wednesday.
“As of March 1, 2022, the map displays information about ATB, KOLO, Silpo, Fora, Novus, Varus, Rukavychka and ECO-market stores. The online resource will be regularly updated on an ongoing basis and add new retail chains and separate stores. The date and time of updating information on a particular store are indicated in the appropriate fields,” the minister wrote in a message.
He clarified that the map of grocery stores indicates the name of the store/retail chain, the opening hours of specific stores in different cities and their addresses, as well as the status of the outlets.
Leschenko called on all retail chains and grocery outlets to join this initiative.
The growth of capital investment in Ukraine in October-December 2021 accelerated to 19.3% compared to the same period in 2020, as a result of which it reached 13% for the year as a whole, the State Statistics Service has reported. According to its data, a total of UAH 528.8 billion of capital investment was disbursed, including UAH 197.1 billion in the fourth quarter compared to UAH 140.5 billion a quarter earlier.
In the sectoral context, the largest growth in capital investments in 2021 was recorded in aviation transport – 3.6 times, logging – 2.5 times, postal and courier activities – more than 2 times, healthcare – by 79.1%, retail trade – by 49.5 times %, fisheries – by 47.4%, land and pipeline transport – by 44.9%, water transport – by 35.6%.
In agriculture, investments increased by 24.9%, construction – by 24.7%, industry – by 10.8%, temporary accommodation and catering – by 10.9%, real estate transactions – by 9.2%.
At the same time, in financial and insurance activities last year there was a decline in capital investment by 28.3%, telecommunications – by 24.3%, education – by 18.7%, public administration and defense – by 4.7%.
The main source of financing for capital investment remained own funds of enterprises and organizations, through which 68.6% of the total volume of all investments was disbursed compared to 66.5% a year earlier.
The share of state budget funds was at the level of 9.2% (in 2020 was 8.7%), local budgets – 8.4% (10.4%), bank loans and other loans – 5% (6.7%), population for housing construction – 5.4% (4.9%), nonresident investors – 0.1% (0.4%).
A significant share of capital investments was invested in machinery, equipment and inventory – 30%, in engineering structures – 28%, in nonresidential and residential buildings – 13.5% and 9.1%, respectively, vehicles – 10.3%.
