Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia Piotr Fiala, Mateusz Morawiecki and Janez Janša, as well as Deputy Prime Minister of Poland Jarosław Kaczyński; will travel to Kyiv on Tuesday to meet with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and present a wide support package for Ukraine and its citizens, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said.
“Together with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczynski and Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša, we travel to Kyiv today as representatives of the Council of Europe to meet with President Zelensky and Prime Minister Shmyhal,” Fiala said on Twitter on Tuesday.
He said the visit was organized in consultation with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“The purpose of the visit is to express the EU’s unconditional support for Ukraine, its freedom and independence. At the same time, during the visit, we will present a broad support package for Ukraine and its citizens. The international community was also informed about this visit by international organizations, including the United Nations,” Fiala said.
The Ukrainian government has agreed on draft decisions to support the Ukrainian economy in an effort to maintain the operation of businesses and employment in places where security permits that, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“First, we are starting tax reform: instead of VAT and the income tax, we are giving a rate of 2% of turnover and simplified accounting. For small businesses – it is the first and second groups of individual entrepreneurs – we are introducing voluntary payments of the unified tax. In other words, pay if you can, but if you cannot, there are no questions,” Zelensky said in a message published in the early hours of Tuesday.
The second main point is maximum deregulation of business, he said.
“We are cancelling all checks for all businesses in order to allow everyone to work normally, in order to enable cities to return to life, in order to allow life to continue in all places where there is no fighting. There is only one condition – you must ensure the normal operation of your business within the framework of Ukrainian legislation,” Zelensky said.
These are just the first two steps of Ukraine’s tax reform, he said. “It will be continued,” Zelensky said.
SIMPLIFIED ACCOUNTING, TAX REFORM, TURNOVER, VOLUNTARY SINGLE TAX
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.
