KYIV. April 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian authorities are hoping that after the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga the European Union will recognize Kyiv’s prospects for European integration and will agree to cancel visa requirements from January 1, 2016, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko said.
“We must get (answers to) two main questions. First: recognition of the European prospect for Ukraine. Second: support for the Ukrainian bid to secure visa-free travel from January 1, 2016,” Poroshenko said after talks with his Polish counterpart Bronislaw Komorowski in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The Eastern Partnership summit is due to be held in Riga on May 21-22.
For his part, the Polish president said that he thinks it possible to grant Ukraine visa-free travel at the May summit.
“On this issue, the Polish position is definitely pro-Ukrainian, and we are certain that there is a possibility to secure such a regime and there is a possibility to secure the same position from the whole of the EU that will be making a political decision on the matter,” Komorowski said.
KYIV. April 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ireland’s low-cost airline Ryanair is potentially ready to enter Ukraine, in particular, Lviv airport, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Andriy Pyvovarsky told reporters on Wednesday.
“Ryanair is potentially ready, and other low-cost airlines are potentially ready, but Easy Jet – unlikely. This potentially means that they are to study and analyze. This is only economy and they are interested in the sums that can earn. Various conditions could be, and my task and the task of my deputies, the State Aviation Service is to at least contact them and say “welcome,” give their vision and on what conditions they are ready to enter, and we will see if we can provide any conditions to them,” he said.
He said that Ukraine is ready to provide various preferences to airlines at Lviv airport.
As reported, in May 2012 Infrastructure Minister Borys Kolesnikov said that Ryanair had said that it was ready to enter Ukraine. Aviation market experts subsequently said that it is unlikely that the airline will come to Ukraine
KYIV. April 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Japanese government has confirmed it plans to provide a JPY 108 billion loan to reconstruct the Bortnychi aeration station in Kyiv, Kyivvodokanal Board Chairman and Director General Andriy Bilyk said at a roundtable talk in Kyiv on Wednesday, with reference to tentative information from the Japanese Embassy in Ukraine.
“This is the official confirmation of plans of the Japanese government to support the financing of the project on the reconstruction of the Bortnychi aeration station in the amount of JPY 108 billion,” he said.
Bilyk said that the agreement is an important stage in the project to reconstruct the Bortnychi aeration station. It precedes the signing of the intergovernmental credit agreement.
“It would pass no more than two months from the approval and publication of the pledge to the signing of the intergovernmental credit agreement,” he said.
He said that the provision of funds by Japan to Kyivvodokanal would not affect tariffs for water supplies and sewage services for Kyiv residents.
“This credit is the largest credit in the utilities sector in Eastern Europe. It would not affect the tariff in the near future, as the financial conditions are unique and we have 10 years of vacation period,” he said.
KYIV. April 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Hadz horticultural business (Ternopil region) plans to build a fruit storage, sorting and packaging complex worth some EUR 10 million.
“We’ll invest in refrigerators, packaging line, logistics to orient not only to the domestic market, but the foreign one… Investment will total around EUR 10 million. This year we start building [the complex]… Next year equipment will be brought,” the owner of the business Petro Hadz said at the fifth financial agribusiness forum “Situation in 2015: Where to Take Money?”
He said that the facilities will be commissioned in 2016. The complex will be located in Buchach (Ternopil region).
Over the past three years the business planted a garden on 600 hectares where apples, pears and plums are growing. In three years Hadz plans to harvest 40,000-50,000 tonnes of fruit.
In 2016, Hadz plans to start exporting apples.
The deployment of an EU police mission or a UN peacekeeping force to Ukraine is the exclusive prerogative of the Ukrainian state, Petro Poroshenko stated.
“This is the territory of Ukraine. And we hate the idea that any other state will decide if the United Nations’ peacekeepers should be there or not. And we are very much interested, that it should be also a possibility for the European Union police mission – or in the United Nations Security Council, peacekeeping mission would be mostly represented by the European Union. We trust them, these are our partners. And we think this is a very effective way to solve the question,” Poroshenko told Euronews in an interview.
As the peacekeeping mission decision may be vetoed at the UN Security Council, Poroshenko suggested: “And that’s why we would need to have that discussion the same way that we have in Minsk, that would be a unanimous decision, to have peacekeepers.”
“Yes we have support, we have a confirmation” from the European Union and NATO, Poroshenko continued.
“Where do we need these peacekeepers? First, on our border, because the border is a key element of the sovereignty and we need peacekeepers to close these borders to stop supplying troops, ammunition and weapons to Ukrainian territory, very simple. And second, the peacekeepers alongside the buffer zone, with the touch line which was set here just to guarantee peace and stability,” he said in conclusion.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has said that the international financial aid for Ukraine will total $40 billion.
“With aid from the World Bank, international financial institutions, the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, and Turkey, the total sum, including funds from the IMF (International Monday Fund) will amount to $40 billion,” Poroshenko said. He recalled that recently the IMF has approved a new $17.5 billion aid program for Ukraine.
“We have already held the first stage of reforms, and made a decision about the legislation to ensure implementation of our memorandum with the IMF, and I want to say that as a result of very difficult talks with the IMF we managed to defend our key positions on support, including social protection, and to prevent our poorest social groups from being increasingly worse off,” the Ukrainian president said.
