Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) has decided to stop flying through Afghan airspace on flights to Delhi (India) as crisis in this country has aggravated.
“Back on [last] Friday, the airline conducted its own assessment of the risks of flying above the territory of Afghanistan in connection with the current situation in the country. Taking into account the identified increase in the level of threat to flights, UIA decided to changed course and exited Afghanistan’s airspace on flights to Delhi to ensure an adequate security of flights,” the airline told Interfax-Ukraine.
UIA said that these flights were operated under the Air Bubbles agreement on Tuesdays and Sundays; due to the charge of the course, the flight time will increase by about two hours. Previously, it was about seven hours.
To date, a number of international airlines have already decided to reroute flights out of the airspace of Afghanistan.
Kabul International Airport on Sunday suspended servicing commercial flights, the Associated Press reported on the evening of the same day, citing representatives of the U.S. forces.
At the same time, the evacuation from Kabul secured by the U.S. forces continues.
Ukraine expects to start free trade negotiations with the United States during the visit of President Volodymyr Zelensky to the United States, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Oleksiy Liubchenko has said.
“During the president’s visit to the United States, we want to reach an agreement to start free trade negotiations with the United States,” Liubchenko said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
In addition, Ukraine has carried out preliminary work to expand the free trade area (FTA) with Canada.
“I hope this year we will complete negotiations on expanding the FTA to include services and mutual protection of investments,” the first deputy prime minister said.
He added that Canada is interested in this, since it has great investment potential, concentrated in private pension funds.
Spokesperson of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Andriy Demchenko has said that some of the citizens of Afghanistan, evacuated from this country to Ukraine, asked to be granted refugee status.
“If we talk about foreigners, those citizens who had the proper passport documents were immediately registered to enter Ukraine, in particular, some of the citizens of Afghanistan had a residence permit in Ukraine. Some of the foreigners, again citizens of Afghanistan, applied for protection to be granted refugee status in Ukraine,” Demchenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.
According to him, many of the citizens of Afghanistan later went to other countries, in particular, to France, Turkey and several other countries of the world.
“Some of those who still need protection or stay and have nowhere to go, have now been transferred to representatives of the State Migration Service, who will deal with them in the future,” Demchenko explained.
He indicated that the placement of such citizens would be handled by the State Migration Service of Ukraine.
Also, the spokesperson of the State Border Guard Service noted that citizens who arrived in Ukraine underwent all preliminary checks, since their departure from Afghanistan took place with the cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. He clarified that other state bodies, including law enforcement agencies, were involved in such checks.
As reported, the Ukrainian plane, which was in Afghanistan, evacuated eight Ukrainian citizens from Kabul, and also evacuated another 71 people, including citizens of the Netherlands, Croatia, Belarus, and Afghanistan. According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, up to 50 Ukrainian citizens continue to stay in Afghanistan.
In January-June 2021, the KSG Agro agricultural holding increased its net profit 48 times, year-over-year, to $13.7 million, of which the group of companies received $12.86 million through the sale of a number of its assets.
According to the holding’s statement on the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Sunday, its revenue for the specified period decreased by 12%, to $6.81 million.
“In May 2021, the group sold its subsidiaries Soyuz-3 LLC, Agrofirma Vesna LLC, UAIH Trading House LLC. Agrofirma Vesna LLC and UAIH Trading House LLC are inactive organizations. Soyuz-3 LLC is a production organization engaged in crop production, but acquired with large commitments and remains outside the group’s ownership structure until such obligations are settled,” the company said in a statement.
It is specified that proceeds from the disposal of the subsidiary company Soyuz-3 LLC (Novopokrovka, Dnipropetrovsk region) from the agricultural holding amounted to $6.5 million, UAIH Trading House LLC some $4.27 million, Agrofirma Vesna LLC some $2.01 million.
KSG Agro for the reporting period reduced gross profit by 27%, to $2.48 million, operating profit by 28%, to $1.89 million, its EBITDA decreased by 22%, to $2.69 million.
According to the statement, the company in the first half of the year reduced profit in the crop segment by 37%, to $1.46 million, in the livestock segment by 19.4%, to $ 700,000, while in the segment “other operations” (production of fuel pellets and heat energy) increased by almost 44.5%, to $310,000.
“In 2021, the group started a project to gradually renew the sow population in Ukraine to increase the birth rate of piglets. To this end, the group is negotiating with Suisag, a Swiss pig genetics company, and Genesus, a Canadian genetic company. As of the date of these financial statements, the group expects to receive first batches of sows from Genesus,” the company said in the statement.
The agricultural holding said in the report that it is considering an international investment project with several partners to build a breeding pig farm in Kazakhstan for 50,000 pigs with an estimated total cost of EUR 30 million.
At the same time, KSG Agro said the total debt of the group of companies in U.S. dollars as of June 30, 2021 decreased by almost 44.5%, year-over-year, to $15.3 million, while it increased from UAH 82,000 to UAH 14.8 million
“In 2020, the group has already managed to increase its net current assets from negative $23.5 million as of January 1, 2020 to negative $6.3 million as of December 31, 2020. The group plans to complete the second phase of the process by the end of 2021, bringing net current assets to a positive value. As of June 30, 2021, the total balance of ‘other financial liabilities’ compared to December 31, 2020 decreased even more,” the group said.
According to the report, the majority shareholder and head of the board of directors of the agricultural holding KSG Agro Serhiy Kasianov, who owns it through Olbis Investments Ltd. (Panama), on August 2, sold 1 million shares (6.66%) of the group of companies to two legal entities with Polish jurisdiction, after the transaction, the share of Olbis Investments Ltd. amounted to 57.96% of the charter capital.
The vertically integrated holding KSG Agro is engaged in pig breeding, as well as in the production, storage, processing and sale of grain and oilseeds. Its land bank is about 21,000 hectares.
According to the agricultural holding itself, it is one of the top five pork producers in Ukraine.
Youth and Sports Minister of Ukraine Vadym Gutzeit hopes that Ukraine will be among the top three at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. “I believe that there will be many medals, and the athletes will perform at a high level. The only thing that can interfere is the situation with COVID-19,” Gutzeit said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
When asked whether the Ukrainian team will be in the top three, the minister said that he hoped for it.
Regarding the significant differences in the results of Ukraine at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Gutzeit said that it is impossible to compare Olympic and Paralympic sports.
“There are completely different approaches here. If the Olympic movement is developing all over the world and for all countries the Olympics is the most important event in sports, then the Paralympic movement is really developing only in ten countries of the world. And Ukraine is in this top ten,” he added.
The minister believes that Ukraine’s success at the Paralympics is associated with good funding and the construction of appropriate sports facilities.
“All conditions are being created so that the Paralympians feel that they are normal people, that they go in for sports and fight for their awards,” he said.
Also, the minister called the presence of a large number of veterans who go in for sports as a factor in the success of the Ukrainian Paralympic team.
“For example, we have recently hosted the Warrior Games. This is the largest competition among military personnel and veterans who were injured, wounded and are ill as a result of their official duties in the combat zone. According to the results of the competition, the National Team of Ukraine was formed from 40 participants, which will represent our country for the first time at the international competitions Warrior Games in Orlando (U.S.) in September 2021, in which more than 500 combatants from eight countries of the world (U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Georgia, Denmark, Ukraine) will take part,” Gutzeit said.
As reported, the Paralympic Games will be held in Tokyo from August 24 to September 6. The Paralympics will be attended by 143 Ukrainian athletes who will compete in 15 sports. In Tokyo, 540 sets of awards will be awarded among representatives of 168 countries.
Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine Vadym Gutzeit says that Ukraine is counting on and working to host the Summer and Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2030 and 2032.
“We are not considering the Summer Olympics yet. We are counting on and working on the Winter Youth Olympics, Summer Youth Olympics and Winter Olympics: these are 2030 and 2032,” Gutzeit said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
When asked whether the estimates for the budget and the necessary infrastructure facilities are already ready in the context of the possible holding of the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Ukraine, the minister noted that they could be held in Western Ukraine, in particular in Bukovel, and also involve some other cities, but calculations have not been made yet.
“And above all, now we are talking about the Youth Olympic Games as test ones. This is a smaller budget and not as difficult as the adult Olympic Games. They can be held in Kyiv, because the infrastructure allows,” he added.
In addition, the minister is confident that Ukraine will be able to independently host the Big Winter Olympics.
“It is difficult, but possible. It all depends on the built sports infrastructure. It is impossible to do everything at once when it has been abandoned for decades,” he said.
When asked if Ukraine is considering the possibility of holding one of the future Olympics together with one of its neighbors, Gutzeit gave a negative answer.
“There is no such thing to be able to jointly hold the Olympic Games. This is not being considered,” he stressed.
As reported, in 2020, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that for Ukraine an ambitious sporting goal is to host the Olympic Games.
