Ukraine has agreed with the Indian manufacturer Serum Institute to increase the supply of vaccines against coronavirus (COVID-19) disease to 15 million doses, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said.
“During negotiations with the owner of the Serum Institute, Mr. Cyrus Poonawalla, an agreement was reached to increase the supply from 10 million to 15 million doses of vaccine,” he said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Stepanov also said that “there is a proposal from the Chinese company Sinovac.”
“We have reached an agreement with them to increase supplies and additional contracting,” he said.
Stepanov said that Ukraine currently has contacts for the supply of 42 million doses, but intends to increase the agreement to 48 million doses in 2021, which will allow 70% of the adult population to be vaccinated.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation between JSC Ukrzaliznytsia and Stadler on May 7 following talks with representatives of the Office of the President of Ukraine, the Ministry of Strategic Industries and the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.
Currently, Stadler will be looking for a site for the construction of a plant for the production of suburban trains and city trams. The next steps will be technology transfer and employee training to ensure product quality that meets the company’s standards. This plant will focus on domestic Ukrainian consumers, participation in tenders, as well as on the export of products to other countries, the President’s Office said on its website on Friday.
“We fully support such investments in our country. Ukraine is interested in such cooperation, and we discussed such opportunities during the official visit of the President of the Swiss Confederation to Ukraine,” Zelensky said at a meeting with Peter Christoph Spuhler, President of the Board of Directors of one of the world’s leading rolling stock manufacturers – the Swiss company Stadler CIS AG, and Alexander Luft, CEO of Stadler CIS AG.
Cooperation with Stadler will also contribute to the implementation of the project of high-quality suburban railway service City Express, the first stage of which is to be implemented in Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv, the message reads.
Metinvest Group, taking into account associated companies and joint ventures, is expected to increase the payment of income tax by more than seven times in January-June 2021, year-over-year, to UAH 10.2 billion, a source in the tax authorities told Interfax-Ukraine.
In turn, Metinvest confirmed to the agency information about a significant increase in income tax payments in the first half of 2021.
“Enterprises of the Metinvest group will pay income tax in the first half of 2021, replenishing the national budget by UAH 10.2 billion (compared to the first half of 2020, the income tax paid was about UAH 1.4 billion). Thus, according to the results of the first half of the year, income tax payments increased by 7.4 times. This unprecedented increase in tax payments during coronavirus pandemic will help support the cities where Metinvest enterprises operate, pay salaries in full and on time communal and medical workers,” the company told the agency.
At the same time, the group said that Metinvest is one of the largest taxpayers in Ukraine. Thus, in 2020, the company increased its tax payments by 5%, to UAH 22.1 billion year-over-year. Earlier, the group said that over 15 years of its work, it transferred UAH 165 billion to the budgets of all levels.
Electricity generation in the Integrated Power System of Ukraine in January-April 2021 increased by 5.8% (by 2.978 billion kWh), year-over-year, to 54.616 billion kWh, according to the Energy Ministry.
According to the calculations of Interfax-Ukraine, nuclear power plants (NPPs) have increased electricity generation by 0.4% in four months, to 29.7 billion kWh. In particular, electricity generation at Zaporizhia NPP amounted to 13.569 billion kWh (more by 22.5% compared to January-April 2020), Yuzhnoukrainsk NPP some 5.810 billion kWh (less by 24.2%), Rivne NPP some 5.32 billion kWh (less by 26.6%), Khmelnytsky NPP some 4.597 billion kWh (more by 39.5%).
Thermal power plants (TPPs), as well as combined heat and power plants (CHPPs) and cogeneration plants increased their output by 9.1%, to 18.39 billion kWh. In particular, TPPs increased generation by 15.9%, to 13.29 billion kWh, while CHPPs and cogeneration plants cut it by 5.2%, to 5.11 billion kWh.
Hydro power plants and pumped storage power plants increased generation by 60.9%, to 3.676 billion kWh, while block stations cut it by 6.5%, to 587 million kWh.
Electricity generation by alternative sources (wind farms, solar power plants, biomass) decreased by 0.1%, to 3.306 billion kWh.
The share of NPPs in the structure of electricity generation was 53.1% (55.9% in January-April 2020), TPPs, CHPPs and cogeneration plants some 33% (32%), hydro power plants and pumped storage power plants some 6.7% (4.4%), block stations some 1.1% (1.2%), alternative sources some 6.1% (6.4%).
In April 2021, electricity generation in Ukraine increased by 11.9% (by 1.342 billion kWh), year-over-year, to 12.607 billion kWh.
In addition, the supply of thermal energy in January-April 2021 increased by14.8% (by 1.608 million Gcal), year-over-year, to 12.450 million Gcal.
Another batch of CoronaVac vaccines was delivered to Ukraine, Health Minister of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov has said.
“The next 500,000 doses of CoronaVac vaccine from Sinovac Biotech have just landed in Boryspil,” Stepanov said on his Facebook page.
According to him, a total of 1.9 million of this vaccine have been contracted in Ukraine, of which 1.215 million have already been received by the country.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky intends to support the provision of humanitarian aid to India due to the difficult epidemic situation in this country in connection with the spread of COVID-19, the website of the head of the Ukrainian state reported on Friday.
“I know that the government is considering the possibility of providing humanitarian aid to India. I confirm that I will sign a corresponding decree in the near future, and we will do everything to really help the people of India. I think that in the coming days, India will definitely receive humanitarian aid from Ukraine,” Zelensky said during a meeting with Cyrus Poonawalla, founder and owner of the Serum Institute of India.
