Ukraine is planning to open refugee return centers in several European countries, Denik N reported on Friday.
“After almost three years of full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine is preparing plans to return some of the millions of refugees to their homeland. Therefore, it intends to open centers in several European countries to facilitate their return,” Denik N reports.
Last week, Ukraine opened its first center in Berlin in cooperation with Germany. Ukraine has also discussed this project with Poland. Another similar center may be established in the Czech Republic. According to Denik N, a meeting of officials from the two countries to discuss the creation of a similar center is scheduled for next week in Prague.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyy said that this year in Ukraine should again work several airports, because “there are technical and other opportunities for this,” however, did not specify which airports we are talking about, reports Lviv media hub “Your Misto”.
“It is unambiguous that this year in Ukraine will start working several airports. There are technical and other opportunities for this. There must be a political decision. Apparently, it will be,” – said in an interview Sadovy.
Sadovyi added that “if a country is present on the aviation map, it is in principle present on the map of the world. This is a matter of security of our state.”
The mayor cited the example of Israel, where “once made a political decision that during the war the airport of Tel Aviv began to work – it was the only bridge connecting Tel Aviv with the world.”
As reported in November 2024, Marsh McLennan senior partner Crispin Ellison said at the 10th Kiev International Forum (KMEF) that flights at one of Ukraine’s airports – Lviv or Boryspil – will resume by the end of January 2025.
Earlier it was reported that the Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories with the support of the US Embassy has developed a roadmap for opening the airspace of Ukraine under martial law.
Since the beginning of 2024-2025 marketing year (July-June) and as of January 24, Ukraine exported 24.475 mln tonnes of grains and pulses, of which 2.514 mln tonnes were shipped this month, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported, citing the data of the State Customs Service of Ukraine.
According to the report, as of the same date last year, the total shipments amounted to 22.246 mln tons, including 3.682 mln tons in January.
In terms of crops, since the beginning of the current season, the country has exported 10.563 mln tonnes of wheat (650 thsd tonnes in January), 2.035 mln tonnes of barley (36 thsd tonnes), 10.8 thsd tonnes of rye (0), and 11.729 mln tonnes of corn (1.82 mln tonnes).
Thus, the volume of wheat exports for 2024/2025 MY agreed by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and grain market participants at 16.2 mln tonnes has already been exhausted by 65%.
The total exports of Ukrainian flour since the beginning of the season as of January 24 are estimated at 41.6 thsd tonnes (4 thsd tonnes in January), including 38.2 thsd tonnes of wheat (3.7 thsd tonnes).
The possibility of submitting documents for the contest for the post of the new head of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BES) has been closed, the head of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy, Danylo Hetmantsev, has said.
“I do not see the whole list of applicants, but I know that there are worthy among them. I am very glad that veterans and military men applied. People who sacrificed their lives for the country will be able to defend its interests in the rear,” Getmantsev noted in his telegram channel on Saturday.
As his first deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak added, more than 40 applications were submitted for the contest, but the final results will be made public on Monday, January 27.
According to him, the next steps will be to check the compliance of submitted documents and six stages of the competition, including: testing of general skills, testing for knowledge of legislation, practical tasks, assessment of personal competencies, testing for integrity, as well as the final interview.
Up to 60 candidates with the highest scores will be admitted to the stage of general skills testing, while fewer applicants – up to 40 – will be able to pass practical tasks. Up to 20 candidates with the highest scores will be admitted to the final interview.
“Compare this approach in our law, to the profanation of how the OP usually in a couple of hours appoints their loyalists to positions they learn about from the news,” – summarized Zheleznyak.
As reported, on October 4, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the composition of the commission on the competition for the position of Director of the BEB, which included: Deputy Chief Academic Secretary – Head of the Department of Strategic Development of the National Academy of Legal Sciences Oleg Hilyaka, Professor of the Department of Financial and Tax Law of the State Tax University Tatyana Matzelik, Head of the Department of Criminal Law of the National Law University named after Yaroslav the Wise Yuri Ponomarenko.
In addition, the commission on proposals from international and foreign organizations included: founder and executive director of the Foundation for Integrity and Asylum, founder and executive director/senior consultant of The Wasserstrorri Group James Wasserstrom, head of the Lithuanian Police Liaison Office at the European Police Force, corruption prevention expert of the EU4IBMResilience project, Donatas Malaskevicius, founder and executive director of the Expert Forum (EFOR), an international expert on the prevention of corruption in Ukraine.
This competition is held within the framework of the Law No. 10439 adopted by the Rada on June 29, 2024 on the reset of the Office, which provides for a competitive selection of the new director with the participation of experts delegated by international partners, as well as certification of the Office’s employees within one year after the appointment of the new director.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has suspended programs that allowed immigrants to temporarily settle in the United States, including a key initiative that provides entry for Ukrainians, The New York Times reported on Friday.
“The directive, contained in an email sent by a senior U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official on Thursday and obtained by The New York Times, calls for an immediate halt to ‘final decisions’ on applications related to these programs while the administration reviews them and decides whether to terminate them,” The New York Times writes.
The affected programs include the “Unite for Ukraine” initiative, a Biden-era initiative that allowed Ukrainian immigrants to temporarily enter the United States if they had financial sponsors. According to the government, as of September 2023, more than 150,000 Ukrainians had entered under this program.
Metinvest Group’s Kametstal plant, which was built at the facilities of Dnipro Metallurgical Plant (DMK, Kamenskoye, Dnipro Oblast), put a T-8 power transformer into operation at the DRZ-10 substation, the main consumer of which is the BOF shop, after a major overhaul in December.
According to the press release, a systematic approach to the renewal of electrical equipment is an effective component of the stable operation of the main production equipment. The power engineers of the Grids and Substations Shop carried out an overhaul and implemented an investment project under the 2024 Program aimed at improving the reliability of the steelmaking process.
The full range of repair measures made it possible to restore all electrical characteristics of the transformer and ensure its stable and uninterrupted operation during the overhaul period. The service life of the equipment has been extended.
An important investment project was also implemented at the filter-compensating device substation – FCD-35 kV, which is consumed by the out-of-furnace steel treatment section of the BOF Shop, namely two ladle furnaces. Its main task was to modernize the switchgear cells with improved insulation characteristics, which largely determine the trouble-free operation of electrical equipment.
“Kametstal was created on the basis of PJSC Dneprovsky Coke and Chemical Plant (DKKhZ) and Centralized Steel Works of PJSC Dneprovsky Metallurgical Plant (DMK).
According to the 2020 report of Metinvest Group’s parent company, Metinvest B.V. (Netherlands) owned 100% of the shares in DCCP.
