People’s deputies have submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a draft resolution on the use in Ukraine of the historical name of the country Georgia – Sakartvelo.
The card of the document under the number 9329 appeared on the website of the parliament.
The authors of the project are a group of people’s deputies, including the head of the parliamentary committee on the integration of Ukraine into the European Union Ivanna Klimpush-Tsintsadze, members of the faction “European Solidarity” Alexei Goncharenko, Irina Gerashchenko, Irina Friz, Vladimir Aryev, Sofia Fedina, Victoria Syumar and others.
“To introduce the use in Ukraine at the official level, official correspondence and communication, as well as in the media of the official and historical name Sakartvelo instead of Georgia. In accordance, the Georgian people (Georgians) shall be called – Kartvels,” – is stated in the text of the draft resolution.
The authors of the bill in an explanatory note notes that the relations between Ukraine and Georgia are deep and multifaceted, but one of the steps of additional rapprochement on the part of Ukraine could be the official use of the historical name of Georgia – Sakartvelo. It is also stressed that for almost fifteen years, official Tbilisi has been persuading its international partners to abandon the name “Georgia,” which is considered russified, and the name itself is Russian.
“Therefore, Georgians are asking to use the historical name of their country – Sakartvelo,” emphasize the authors of the project.
It is also noted that the name “Georgia” is used in the world by about 20 countries, including Ukraine. Most of these countries are post-Soviet countries or those that experienced significant Soviet influence.
“Ukraine, which is a separate subject of international law and historically builds friendly relations with Georgia and which, especially at the present time of Russian aggression, gets rid of everything russified and manifestations of colonial policy, should start using the historical name of the country Georgia – Sakartvelo, and the name of the Georgian people (Georgians) – kartveli”, – think MPs.
For the second week in a row, the flow of those entering Ukraine is roughly equal to the flow of those leaving the country, according to both the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine and the Polish Border Guard Service.
According to the data of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in Facebook, the flow to the exit from Ukraine increased from 252 thousand to 263 thousand people, while the flow to the entrance – from 256 thousand to 262 thousand people.
The number of transport means, crossing the western border of Ukraine, according to the department, in the 21st week of the year increased from 126 thousand to 128 thousand, and the number of vehicles with humanitarian cargoes, from 421 to 503.
Polish Border Guard Service for the last seven days recorded a small net outflow from Ukraine – 2.5 thousand people, whereas a week ago there was the same outflow.
According to the Polish Ministry, the number of people, entering from Ukraine to Poland increased from 164.8 thousand people to 167.2 thousand, whereas the flow back from Poland to Ukraine decreased from 167.3 thousand to 164.9 thousand people.
On the whole, since the beginning of the war, by May 26, 2023, 12,15 million people had arrived from Ukraine to Poland, while 10,35 million people went in the opposite direction.
As it was reported, since May 10, 2022, the outflow of refugees from Ukraine was replaced by an inflow, which lasted until September 23 and amounted to 409 thousand people.
However, from late September, probably under the influence of news about mobilization in Russia and “pseudo-referendums” in the occupied territories, and then massive shelling of the energy infrastructure, a net outflow was recorded. It temporarily stopped in the second half of December – early January for the period of holidays, but from the second week of January it resumed again and cumulatively since late September by the anniversary of the full-scale war reached 223 thousand people.
From that moment up to the present moment 105 thousand more people entered Ukraine than left.
As Deputy Minister of Economy Sergei Sobolev noted in early March, the return of every 100,000 Ukrainians home gives a 0.5% increase in GDP.
According to the UNHCR, the number of Ukrainians registered in Europe with temporary protection status or similar reached 5.14 million as of May 16, increasing by about 15,000 over the week.
Ukraine plans to complete the sowing campaign this year on June 5-10, good weather in May allowed to catch up the lag in April, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy Taras Vysotsky said on the air of a single telethon on Saturday.
“If you look in general, we see that 85%, even closer to 90% of the plan set at 13 million hectares have already been implemented, that is, literally in early June, 5-10 June, the sowing season will be completely completed,” he said.
Vysotsky specified that sowing of early spring crops, such as spring wheat, barley, peas, oats, has already been completed, as well as sowing of sugar beet in the amount greater than last year.
“Sugar will be produced more than enough,” said the first deputy head of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
According to him, sowing of late crops – sunflower, soybean and also, partially, corn – is still going on.
“This year the share of oilseeds, namely soybeans, sunflower and rapeseed has increased. It is connected, first of all, with expensive logistics, respectively, the change of crop rotation for the crops, which have a higher price per ton, per unit of the proceeds,” – explained Vysotsky.
He clarified that at present the sowing season in some places lags behind the average statistical forecast up to one and a half to two weeks, but so far it is not critical.
The first deputy minister said that the first two decades of June will be critical. “Preliminarily colleagues from the Hydrometeorological Center say that such short, but quite intense rains should still fall in this period … We hope that for the growing season the next two decades it will still rain all over Ukraine”, – said Vysotsky.
Friday, May 26, at the Ukrainian Investment Forum in Copenhagen, it was announced the launch of a Danish investment fund social program for Ukraine totaling DKK 1 billion, which is about $133 million, the press service of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine reported.
“Denmark is one of the leaders in financial assistance to Ukraine. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion the total military support amounted to $1.4 billion and the total humanitarian aid, including macrofinancial assistance – $212 million. The Ukrainian government highly appreciates Danish support and looks forward to deepening bilateral cooperation and further involving Danish businesses in the reconstruction projects in Ukraine. Thus, special investment fund, created for Ukraine, will finance projects with the use of the best Danish technologies and innovative solutions and will be available for both public and private sectors”, – noted the First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Sviridenko.
As Deputy Minister of Economy Alexander Griban noted, the main cooperation between Ukraine and Denmark is establishment of mutually beneficial relations, when Ukrainian companies not only import Danish products, but also localize the production of such products in Ukraine.
“We are interested in Danish technologies and we see big prospect in application and localization of Danish companies in Ukraine in priority branches. In particular, these are renewable energy, construction materials, technologies of municipal economy renovation as well as defense and dual-purpose technologies”, he said.
In addition, the forum announced funding approval of two pilot projects in the field of agriculture and agro-processing. The question is about the affected companies of the southern region – “Nibulon”, which will receive a credit of 25 mln Euros, and “Agrofusion” – 15 mln Euros. Also, loans will be granted to agricultural companies located near the front line in Mykolayiv, which will restore the destroyed production facilities, buying equipment from Danish exporters.
According to Griban, the Danish fund will not only provide financial guarantees, but will also directly carry out lending, which puts it on a separate level of financial institutions that have opened their programs for Ukraine. Also, the Danish government plans to significantly increase the limits and expand the financial assistance program for Ukraine.
“We don’t have to wait for the war to stop. We would like to attract Danish business in the early stages of Ukraine’s recovery. We must act and support the Ukrainian economy,” stressed Morten Bedskov, Minister of Entrepreneurship of Denmark.
The YouTube channel of the Kiev analytical center “Club of Experts” has released a new video in which the founder of the project, PhD in Economics Maksim Urakin and the editor-in-chief of the “Ukraine in Arabic” portal Mohammad Farajallah forecast the results of the upcoming second round of presidential elections in Turkey and also analyzed possible developments after the end of the vote.
According to the experts, the incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has much more chances to win than his rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the united opposition. This prediction is due both to the behavior of the top politicians themselves before and after the first round of elections, as well as the position of third-place winner Sinan Ogan, who has already expressed his support for Erdoğan with 5 percent of the vote.
“Erdoğan conducted his election campaign well by not engaging in open polemics with the opposition on earthquake relief, democracy development and the economic situation. Instead, he focused voters’ attention on the themes of security and the “dignity of the nation” as well as Islamic identity. In addition, the increase in wages and the cancellation of utility bills on the eve of the election also played a role “- says Mohammad Farajallah.
According to the expert, these actions also helped Erdoğan win over nationalist forces, whose single candidate, Sinan Oğan, openly supported the incumbent president on the eve of the second round.
“The opposition, on the contrary, started to behave rather nervously after the first round, which was mainly reflected in Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s aggressive rhetoric with regard to the Syrian refugees who received Turkish passports under the social programs initiated by Erdogan,” he stressed.
In his turn, Maksim Urakin noted that Turkish voters were generally disappointed by Kylicdaroglu’s rhetoric as they expected concrete programs of economic and political actions from the opposition alliance after the elections.
“No specifics were heard from the opposition regarding social support for youth, the older generation, support for entrepreneurs and normalization of the situation in the economy,” says Maxim Urakin.
In his opinion, expectations of Kılıçdaroğlu’s victory already in the first round were somewhat “overheated” by a number of opinion polls, which predicted this candidate a serious advantage over Erdoğan (up to 5-7%), but were subsequently not confirmed at the elections themselves.
At the same time, according to experts, there is still a serious split among Turks with regard to the policy of the current president, and Erdoğan, if he wins the elections, will have to work hard to consolidate society within a single national consensus.
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ELECTIONS, ERDOĞAN, EXPERTS_CLUB, MOHAMMAD_FORPJALLAH, TURKEY
An earthquake with a magnitude of 2.7 was recorded in the Poltava region on May 26 at 21:38, the epicenter was in the Reshitilovsky district, the website of the Main Special Control Center of the National System of Seismic Observations reported.
“In the Poltava region recorded an earthquake with a magnitude of 2.7. The epicenter of the earthquake is located in Reshitilovsky district, Poltava region, to the west of Poltava, at a depth of 7 km. According to the classification of earthquakes is classified as barely perceptible. Fluctuations can be felt only by individuals who are in a quiet state inside, especially on the upper floors”, – stated in the message.
It is noted that similar in strength earthquakes in the Poltava region have been previously recorded, in particular, the last of them was on January 14, 2023 with a magnitude of 2.7, and on October 3, 2022 with a magnitude of 3.4.
