The Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection should be divided and the Ministry of Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development should be created, Chairwoman of the NGO All-Ukrainian Ecological League Tetiana Tymochko.
“The merger of the Environmental Protection ministry with the Energy Ministry, the enterprises under management of which are biggest polluters of environment, initially put the conflict of interest behind this and created the basis for abuse,” Tymochko said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
She said that since the merger of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources in September last year with the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry, very little attention has been paid to environmental issues.
“Only 10% of the employees of the merged ministry have their functional responsibilities of being involved in preserving wildlife,” the expert said.
At the same time, she drew attention to the fact that since the merger, most of the nearly three dozen directives on environmental obligations to the European Union were not considered by the ministry, and no draft legislative act was proposed regarding the preservation of the environment.
According to Tymochko, it is also alarming that in the report of the government on its activities submitted to the Parliament, in the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection section, only six out of 28 pages relate to environmental issues, the rest concern energy.
“The activities of the ministry in the direction of environmental protection are paralyzed,” Tymochko said.
The head of the environmental league pointed out the need to adopt a project to reform the environmental industry, developed by the environmentally interested public.
“This project was developed back in 2014, and is transferred to each new minister, prime minister and president. But the environmental sector is not being reformed at all, although the issue of its reform is very urgent. The basis for reform should be the separation of functions in all public bodies that are represented in the industry,” Tymochko said.
At the same time, according to another participant in the press conference, Chairman of the National Ecological Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Chystiakov, the environmental situation in the country is disastrous, and Ukraine currently occupies the fourth place in the world in terms of mortality from poor ecology.
According to him, for example, only a third of the effluents discharged into the water bodies of Ukraine last year were treated.
“Given the level of pollution of water bodies, the World Bank put Ukraine in 125th place in the world in terms of freshwater per capita,” Chystiakov said, quoting the data.
At the same time, he criticized the imposition of a moratorium on environmental audits of the business, which, he believes, contributes to the pollution of water by industrial effluents and the appearance of unauthorized landfills.
“There are already 35,000 illegal landfills in Ukraine, covering an area of over 14,000 square kilometers. This is more than the territory of Zakarpattia region,” the expert said.
Mykhailo Zakharchenko, the head of the public council at the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine participating in the press conference, for his part drew attention to the inadmissibility of the fact that the head of the State Environmental Inspectorate has not been appointed based on the results of the competition for several months.
“The State Environmental Inspectorate has not been fulfilling its functions for more than four months, five candidates were selected for the post of head of the inspectorate at the competition, but so far no one has been appointed,” Zakharchenko said.
Mykhailo Romanyshyn, who entered into the Guinness Book of Records as a swimmer-record holder of the #Vplavdnipro project, who sailed 985 km along the Ukrainian part of the Dnipro River from the border with Belarus to the Black Sea, in particular, to draw attention to the state of the Dnipro River waters, believes that the issue of this river pollution requires very quick and competent response, otherwise the consequences will be devastating.
In addition, the participants in the press conference criticized the E-40 project (the project to create a shipping lane of more than 2,000 km long along the Vistula, Pripyat and Dnipro rivers to connect the Baltic and Black seas), as well as the fact that the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection did not oppose the government’s implementation of these plans. According to Chystiakov, the dredging of Prypiat will raise large volumes of radioactive substances, which are buried under a 60-80 cm layer of mud in the riverbed, and will entail serious pollution.
Tymochko also drew attention to the fact that the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection does not monitor the impact of military operations on the environment in the Donbas and does not state any position regarding the flooding of coalmines closed in Ukrainian areas that are not under the control of the Ukrainian government and the consequences of this for the country’s underground waters.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, PUBLIC DEMANDS, UKRAINIAN GOVT
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has set a task to Energy and Environment Protection Minister Oleksiy Orzhel to reduce coal and electricity imports.
“What kind of import can we talk about when the countries from which we import do not allow us to enter their markets?” the president said at the meeting of the workers of coal industry in Kyiv on Tuesday.
He said that import is possible exclusively regarding definite brands of coal, which are not extracted inside the country.
“Therefore, our coal, our miners, our electricity comes first,” Zelensky said, adding that there is no place for coal imports in the Ukrainian coal industry.
The main priorities for the Ukrainian government are establishment of the rule of law and combating corruption, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Matti Maasikas said. During a “Reform Forum: On the Way to Vilnius”, he said many challenges are ahead, but the rule of law, its establishment and combating corruption will remain priority ones.
The diplomat stressed that after lustration of the bank sector further efforts to restore confidence in the financial sector are needed.
“Many reforms are still ongoing. Land reform, labor market reform, education reform. If implemented, they will make Ukraine a much more efficient country,” he said.
Among the achievements of the reforms in Ukraine, Maasikas mentioned that the macroeconomic situation has stabilized, the banking sector has been largely purified, the Naftogaz Ukrainy has been unbundled, and the government is improving access to various services for citizens.
The EU Ambassador stated that the EU was ready to support the government and people of Ukraine, and is ready to accompany the process of implementation of the Association Agreement and the agreement on the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area between Ukraine and the EU.
The RDS road construction group invested almost UAH 170 million in the upgrade of its machinery fleet in 2019 and ready to enter the road construction markets of Poland and Romania, the co-owner of the group, Yuriy Shumakher, has said.
“The acquisition of modern machines, mechanisms and vehicles cost the company UAH 167.16 million. For several years now, we have been investing annually about $8 million in the renewal of our fleet of road machines,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, in 2019 the company’s fleet was expanded with 114 units of road machines and equipment.
Shumakher said that RDS uses its own funds, funds borrowed from Ukrainian banks and leasing companies to upgrade its fleet. Also, part of the equipment is bought through financing of manufacturing companies such as Wirtgen and Zeppelin.
The co-owner of the group said that RDS purchases mainly foreign equipment from leaders in modern engineering.
“We have ambitions to participate in tenders abroad,” Shumakher said.
According to him, unlike Ukraine, tenders in Europe have very strict criteria and a mandatory requirement, in particular, is experience in the European Union for at least three to five years.
The aviation authorities of Ukraine and Turkey have agreed to significantly expand regular flights, Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure has said.
“Based on the results of successful negotiations at the level of the aviation authorities of Ukraine and Turkey, regular flights with the Republic of Turkey were substantially expanded. The weekly frequency for passenger transportation on most routes was almost doubled. The limit on the number of flights was removed for the Odesa-Istanbul route. Cargo transportation is also without restrictions,” Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy said.
According to him, now 11 cities of Ukraine have the opportunity of direct air communication with Turkey, namely Kyiv, Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Chernivtsi, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Zaporizhia.
“This is an impetus for the development of regional airports. Thanks to the State Aviation Administration for a good work. We are not resting on our laurels. We are confidently stepping west towards the Open Sky,” the minister said.
The minister also emphasized that the expansion of regular international and domestic flights to/from Ukrainian cities is an important part of the integrated development of the aviation industry in Ukraine.
“We liberalize international air transportation, modernize regional airports, create equal conditions for airlines to enter and develop a transparent and competitive market for passenger and cargo transportation by air,” Krykliy said.
If you are tired of the gloomy winter and waiting very much for the spring sun come to the «Kyivan Rus Park» to the biggest celebration of Maslenitsa in Ukraine on February, 29 and March, 1 2020.
The horse performances, ancient rites, burning large scarecrows, tasty pancakes with different fillings and various dishes prepared on open fire, gifts on the Maslenitsa`s post, traditional Slavic round dances and amusements, horse riding, master-classes, extreme rides, museums and expositions will be waiting here for the guests. In the evening – a spectacular fire program with shooting fire balls from the enormous Trebuchet and on Saturday – also a fire show.
And all of this in a real, live medieval city!
Ancient Kyiv opens at 10:00, the program starts at 13:30.
The ticket price: a full adult ticket – 250 UAH, for pensioners and students – 150 UAH, for schoolchildren – 80 UAH, for preschool children – for free.
Ancient Kyiv opens at 10:00. The program starts at 13:30.
Ancient Kyiv in the «Kyivan Rus Park» is located in Kyiv region, Obukhiv district, the vill. Kopachiv.
Route taxis leave from Kyiv from the «Vydubychi» metro station.
Details on the website www.parkkyivrus.com
The Interfax subscribers can save money with the “openbusiness-20” promo code for a 20%-discount for a full price adult ticket to the Principality of Kyivan Rus:
– by previous order by tel.: +38 044 461-99-37, +38 050 385-20-35
– or at the cash desk at the entrance to the «Kyivan Rus Park».
