About 2 million Kyiv residents have stayed in the Ukrainian capital, every second has left, mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko has said.
“According to the latest data, every second citizen of Kyiv has left the city. Now a little less than 2 million inhabitants are in Kyiv,” Klitschko said on the air of the national marathon of Ukrainian TV channels on Thursday.
According to him, Kyiv has now turned into a fortress.
“Every street, every house… is being fortified, the territorial defense is joining. Even people, who were never going to change their clothes, now are in uniform with machine guns in their hands. These are musicians, and actors, representatives of different professions,” Klitschko said.
He stressed that “the city stood and will stand … And people will not surrender the city, the enemy will not pass!”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the issue of the 24-hour ceasefire, but made no progress on this issue.
“We also discussed the issue of a 24-hour ceasefire to resolve the most urgent humanitarian issues. We have not made any progress on this, because it seems that in Russia, other people make decisions on this issue,” Kuleba said at a press conference following the talks with Foreign Ministers of Russia and Turkey Sergei Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu in Antalya on Thursday.
Content creators who use the YouTube video hosting website will no longer be able to receive income from Russian audiences, the company said in a statement.
YouTube said they would extend the suspension onto all monetization opportunities, including YouTube Premium and Music Premium subscriptions, channel sponsorship, super-chats, super-stickers and merchandise for Russian viewers.
This means YouTube content creators will temporarily be unable to monetize on views in Russia.
YouTube noted that the decision would not apply to earnings from views outside of Russia.
Google and YouTube Ads were shut down in Russia earlier, thus depriving YouTube content creators of the opportunity to make money on ads viewed by Russian users.
Google said earlier that it was suspending payments for Google Play products by Russian users, which prevented them from buying new applications or extending subscriptions to applications in use.
Russian users reported that it is no longer possible to subscribe to YouTube Premium, which allows watching videos without ads.
Meanwhile, the Visa and MasterCard payment systems stopped service for Russian cards on March 10. Cards issued in Russia will continue to work inside the country but will be inactive abroad. Cards issued outside of Russia will not work in the Russian territory.
Kyivstar, a mobile communications operator, has received mobile equipment from foreign partners and will increase its network capacity.
“In addition to restoring the damaged infrastructure, we continue to develop it. We received more mobile equipment from our foreign partners, which will increase the overall network capacity,” the operator said on its Facebook.
Kyivstar network successfully functions and supplies subscribers with communication and Internet services.
“Yesterday, our specialists repaired significant damage along the Kryvy Rih – Kropyvnytsky main line and in Chernihiv region. Thanks to this, a significant part of the base stations were raised, communications in these regions have improved significantly. In total, since the beginning of the military invasion of Russian troops in Ukraine, our specialists have eliminated more than 2,000 breaks in fiber-optic communication lines,” Kyivstar said.
The operator also continues to provide communications in cities where there are intense hostilities, in particular in Mariupol.
“Although the city has great difficulties with the supply of electricity, local authorities and residents help our specialists find fuel for refueling diesel generators,” the operator said.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says that Ukraine expects the first EUR 300 million tranche of macro-financial assistance from the European Union next week, and the second one a week later.
“Next week we expect the first tranche of EUR 300 million of macro-financial assistance from the European Union, which has provided us with EUR 1.2 billion urgently. A week later, the second tranche will be allocated,” Shmyhal said in his address on Wednesday evening.
On Wednesday, March 9, the prices of Ukrainian U.S. dollar-pegged eurobonds rose by another 4.5-10%, and in general since last Friday their growth reached 20-43%.
According to Bloomberg, the price of the shortest bonds maturing in September 2022 at the end of Wednesday was 45.4% of par, which corresponds to a yield to maturity of 270.9% per annum, while at the end of last week the rate reached 362.4%.
Eurobonds maturing in 2023 were quoted at a rate of 86.4% per annum, in 2024 – 68.5% per annum, in 2025 – 50.6% and in 2026 – 43.8%.
Rates on securities maturing in 2027-2028 fell to 39-40% versus 49-51% last Friday, and on longer-term bonds maturing in 2029-2031 they amounted to 32.6-28.1%, while their price was equal to 30% of the nominal versus 21.8% at the end of last week.
Euro-pegged bonds maturing in 2026 were quoted with a yield of 46%, in 2030 – 26.2%.
The rate of VRIs rose by 7.5% on Wednesday, and by 54.5% since Friday, and now stands at about 22.8% of the nominal value.
