Export of fish and other aquatic biological resources by Ukraine in January-April amounted to 3,650 tonnes, revenue from their sales abroad increased by 28% compared to the same period in 2020, to $13.9 million, the State Agency for Land Reclamation and Fisheries reported on its website on Friday.
According to the ministry, in the first four months of this year, the largest buyers of Ukrainian fish products in monetary terms were Germany, which exported products worth $4.18 million (603 tonnes), Moldova – $1.99 million (876 tonnes) and Denmark – $1.98 million (420 tonnes). Significant deliveries were made to Lithuania – $1.01 million (377 tonnes), Israel – $0.83 million (100 tonnes), the Netherlands – $0.54 million (91 tonnes), Azerbaijan – $0.54 million (215 tonnes) and the United States – $0.51 million (130 tonnes).
The State Fisheries Agency said that since the beginning of the year Ukraine had exported most of the finished or canned fish – 1,180 tonnes, fillets of fish and other fish meat (including minced meat) – 1,020 tonnes, live fish – 320 tonnes and molluscs – 290 tonnes.
Since July 1, Ukraine has significantly increased the import of natural gas into the country, which made it possible to increase the volume of its injection into underground gas storage (UGS) facilities, Head of Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine LLC (OGTSU) Serhiy Makogon has said on his Facebook page.
“Since the beginning of July, gas imports to Ukraine have significantly increased. Now it amounts to 15.8 million cubic meters per day. 91% comes from Hungary, 7% from Slovakia, and 2% from Poland. Additional receipts will allow increasing gas injection into UGS facilities to ensure the passage of the next heating season,” he wrote.
At the beginning of the second decade of June, Makogon said that the average daily gas import to Ukraine reached 3 million cubic meters, which is five times less than the current July import (15.8 million cubic meters).
According to the calculations of Interfax-Ukraine based on the data of JSC Ukrtransgaz, the average daily injection into the UGS facility during June amounted to 19.1 million cubic meters, while on July 1, it increased 1.8 times (by 15.1 million cubic meters), to 34.2 million cubic meters.
Maintaining such rates of injection throughout the current month will allow replenishing storage facilities by more than 1 billion cubic meters of gas and enter in August with reserves of about 17.3 billion cubic meters.
From the end of the season of gas withdrawal from storage facilities on April 29 to July 1, 2021, reserves in Ukrainian UGS facilities expanded by 6.3% (by 958.6 million cubic meters), to 16.249 billion cubic meters.
Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises increased the production of general rolled products, according to recent data, by 6.6% in January-June this year compared to the same period last year, to 9.625 million tonnes.
According to the report of the Ukrmetalurgprom association, in the first five months of the year steel production grew by 7.5%, to 10.859 million tonnes, while cast iron output increased 8.1%, to 10.79 million tonnes.
In June, 1.602 million tonnes of rolled metal, 1.872 million tonnes of steel, and 1.887 million tonnes of cast iron were produced.
As reported, in 2020, Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises increased the production of general rolled products by 0.7% compared to the previous year, to 18.344 million tonnes, reduced steel output by 1.4%, to 20.549 million tonnes and increased cast iron production by 1.5%, to 20.358 million tonnes.
A citizen of Paraguay intends to acquire 100% of the charter capital of PrJSC Wild Orchid, Ukraine, the lingerie manufacturer (Lubny, Poltava region), according to the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission. According to the report, Rocio Esther Guerrero Lopez, registered in Paraguay, announced its intention to independently acquire 1,424 common registered shares of Wild Orchid, Ukraine (100% of the charter capital), while as of June 25 of this year, she and the persons affiliated with her did not own the shares of the company.
According to the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, in the first quarter of this year, 100% of the shares of the joint-stock company belonged to Irina Meier, registered in Malta, and until December 2019, this package belonged to Russian businessman Vyacheslav Balabaev.
As reported, PrJSC Wild Orchid, Ukraine (then it was CJSC) was founded in 2005 as a chain of luxury lingerie stores and was a subsidiary of the Moscow-based lingerie retailer Wild Orchid Group.
According to the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, in 2014, Russia’s Etamin LLC became the owner of 100% of the shares of the Ukrainian company instead of CJSC Wild Orchid Group, and already in 2015 an individual from Ukraine, who was replaced by Balabaev in the second quarter of 2017, was the owner.
Federal Minister of Finance of the Federal Republic of Germany Olaf Scholz said that Germany will seek the extension of the agreement on gas transit through Ukraine.
“We work very hard to make sure that the gas transit agreement between Ukraine and Russia is prolonged,” Scholz said in an interview with Bloomberg on Friday.
According to the position of Germany, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which runs along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, should be finished, but gas transit through Ukraine should be preserved.
According to Scholz, Germany sees its responsibility to ensure transit through Ukraine in the future, and not only for two or three years, but for decades to come.
The current agreement, according to Government Spokesperson Steffen Seibert, is valid until at least 2024, but the agreement implies that the parties will check the possibility of extending the agreement until 2034.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, whom the U.S. and EU do not recognize as legally elected, instructed the border troops to completely close the border with Ukraine.
He said this on Friday at a solemn meeting to mark the Independence Day, the BelTA state news agency reports.
“A huge amount of weapons is coming from Ukraine to Belarus. Therefore, I instructed the border troops to completely close the border with Ukraine,” Lukashenko said.
He said that terrorist “sleeper” cells, the so-called self-defense formations, had been detected in Belarus.
“Terrorist sleeper cells, so-called self-defense formations have been detected today. These cells intend to overthrow the government at a specified date. They don’t know what date yet: our nation has yet to accept it,” Lukashenko said.
According to him, Germany, Ukraine, the United States, Poland and Lithuania are involved in this.
