Today, on March 17, 2022, a presentation of the book “I am here. We are here. We all are Ukraine. The phenomenon of Vladimir Zelensky.”
“On January 25, 2022, the Ukrainian president did not celebrate his forty-fourth birthday because he spent it at work… Zelensky has been criticized for populism since the beginning of his presidency. But not this time,” the book says.
The book was published in the Ukrainian language by the publishing center “Academia”. Its author is a Polish journalist, translator and diplomat Natalia Brizhko-Zapur. She took up the study of the phenomenon of President Zelenski only because she is well versed in the history of Poland and Ukraine, in the struggle of the two neighboring countries for European values, as well as in political movements and personalities.
After gaining invaluable experience in the 1980s in the anti-communist opposition movement, Natalia spent more than 30 years devoting herself to journalism and later to diplomacy. In the early 2000s she was an advisor at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Kiev.
As Vasyl Teremko, the head of projects of the All-Ukrainian Center “Academia”, notes, it was interesting for the publisher to publish this book in Ukraine, because it truthfully traced the phenomenal phenomenon of unity of Ukrainians around their President. Who is the current leader of Ukraine as a person, a citizen and President?
Who are his friends and team, opponents and enemies? Why did Ukraine and Russia choose different paths after the collapse of the USSR? This is the observational and analytical story of a Polish journalist.
“So Zelensky’s strength in influencing world public opinion lies in the content of his speeches, which directly relate to feelings and universal human values, which have been somewhat devalued in recent years due to the flow of political PR…. This book neither assesses nor summarizes. It reviews current events, reminiscent of treading on thin ice. World history knows many publications in which the analysis presented often turns out to be erroneous, and the predictions are inaccurate. After all, time must be merciless to premature conclusions. Therefore, what I offer the reader today is only a reflection of the moment, “- says the author in the book.
The book is published in a modern and convenient format. It tells about periods in the life of Vladimir Zelenski, in particular before the full-scale invasion of Russia and during the war.
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UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Inger Andersen expects her team to be present in Ukraine for at least four years to help the Ukrainian government overcome the negative consequences of the war.
“So far, UNEP has not been present in Ukraine. But now we are. What we have done so far has been to support from afar, whereas now we will work closely with the Ministry of Environment to help them get the skills they need to deal with a catastrophic situation. From an environmental point of view,” Andersen said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to her, UNEP expects to “stay here for at least four years and be able to provide all the technical support the Ukrainian government needs to ensure a solid and sustainable recovery.
The director also said it is important that reconstruction and construction take place in a cleaner and greener way, because this can ensure that the pollution that existed before the war will be reduced and disappear afterwards.
“So there is a lot of work to be done. And this is an area that we will definitely support,” she said.
For now, Andersen said, the first priority is to train inspectors across the country to assess environmental damage.
“In October, we sent the first group of 25 people to Switzerland to be trained. And now the team is already coming here to continue the training,” UNEP said.
“Hundreds of inspectors are expected to work across the country.”
Andersen also stressed that before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine played an active role in Europe on environmental issues and signed most of the important environmental agreements.
“But that’s not a priority now, the priority is people and people’s health and well-being, of course,” Andersen added.
The full text of the interview with the executive director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) will be published on the Interfax-Ukraine website.
The dollar is getting cheaper against the euro, the yen and the pound sterling in trading on Friday due to improvement in traders’ mood and a decrease in demand for safe haven assets amid waning fears about the growing problems in the U.S. banking sector.
Earlier it became known that the American First Republic Bank, faced with the outflow of investors’ funds from deposits due to the situation with Silicon Valley Bank, received $30 billion in aid from 11 major U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (SPB: JPM), Bank of America Corp. (SPB: BAC), Citigroup Inc. (SPB: C) and Wells Fargo & Co.
Moreover, the financial institutions said they have confidence “in banks of all sizes” and are willing to help them if necessary.
The news supported stock markets and other risky assets and helped weaken the U.S. dollar, Trading Economics noted.
The ICE-calculated index showing the dynamics of the dollar against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and Swedish krona) lost 0.34% in trading, while the broader WSJ Dollar Index lost 0.36%.
The euro/dollar pair is trading at $1.0650 as of 8:15 a.m., up from $1.0612 at market close on Thursday.
The day before, the European Central Bank (ECB) raised all three key interest rates by 50 basis points (bps), as planned, despite turbulence in the financial sector.
The ECB raised the benchmark lending rate to 3.5%, the deposit rate to 3% and the marginal lending rate to 3.75%.
In addition, the regulator lowered inflation forecasts in the eurozone for 2023-2025, and improved its GDP growth forecast for the current year.
ECB President Christine Lagarde said in a press conference after the meeting that the central bank has not abandoned its commitment to fighting high inflation, but in the current situation can’t talk about how key interest rates will change in the future.
The Federal Reserve (Fed) will hold its next meeting next week. Traders expect it to raise the rate by a maximum of 25 basis points, notes Bloomberg.
The cost of American currency in pair with yen fell to 133 yen during Friday’s trading against 133.75 yen by the end of the previous session.
Exchange rate of the pound to the dollar is $1.2157, compared to $1.2110 the day before.
Ukraine may eventually become a supplier of nuclear fuel based on the technology of American Westinghouse to European countries, Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko said during a visit to a Ukrainian enterprise where it is planned to assemble nuclear fuel (fuel assemblies (FAs) – IFU) for Russian-made VVER-1000 and VVER-440 reactors on March 16.
“Ukraine, having rejected Russian nuclear fuel, has switched its nuclear power units to nuclear fuel from the American manufacturer Westinghouse. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland and Bulgaria have also expressed their desire to make such a transition. Ukraine may become a supplier of nuclear fuel for these countries in the future,” he said.
According to the Minister, during the first stage of setting up production of fuel assemblies of Westinghouse technology at the Ukrainian company, we are going to produce their components within two years. In particular, it is planned to finish licensing and to start commercial production of shanks in 2023 and fuel cassettes’ heads in 2024. These components will be used to produce nuclear fuel for Energoatom’s needs at Westinghouse’s facility in Vesteros in Sweden.
As Peter Kotin, president of NAEK Energoatom, complemented the minister, the company plans to establish its own nuclear fuel production line in three years in general.
“It is planned that in three years we will reach the full cycle of nuclear fuel production in Ukraine. 2026 is the date when we will be able to fully produce our Ukrainian fuel from components made here. And the elements which we cannot produce we will buy from our partners,” explained Kotin.
He also noted the importance of production of nuclear fuel for VVER-440 type reactors which used to be produced only by Russia.
Currently there are 17 VVER-440 reactors functioning in Europe, which have no alternative to Russian fuel so far, and after setting up production of fuel assemblies for VVER-1000 reactors Ukraine will start to produce fuel for VVER-440 reactors as well.
Energoatom CEO emphasized that together with its strategic partner Westinghouse the company may then become an alternative supplier of nuclear fuel for other European countries which use Soviet-type reactors, such as Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland and Bulgaria.
In turn, according to Galushchenko, Ukraine is one of the world leaders in nuclear power engineering and currently Ukrainian nuclear specialists together with their American partners are working to oust Russia from the world market of nuclear technologies.
As the NAEK informed, cooperation between Energoatom and Westinghouse on nuclear fuel production began in August 2018 when the American partner began qualifying one of NAEK’s separate divisions as a supplier of TVS-WR heads and liners. During 2019-2020, work was organized to produce them for Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB fuel assemblies.
In April 2022, the first batch of head components was manufactured and shipped to Westinghouse for qualification.
As reported, in March 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Energoatom completely abandoned the purchase of Russian nuclear fuel.
“Energoatom and Westinghouse signed an agreement on June 2, 2022 to supply nuclear fuel to all Ukrainian nuclear power plants with 15 power units.
Oil prices rise on Friday, but end the week with a significant decline amid a general decline in risk appetite in global markets due to the situation in the U.S. banking sector.
May Brent crude futures on London’s ICE Futures exchange are at $75.5 a barrel by 7:05 a.m. Q, up $0.8 (1.07%) from the previous session’s closing price. Those contracts rose $1.01 (1.4%) to $74.7 a barrel on Thursday.
The price of WTI crude futures for April at electronic trades of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rose by $0.75 (1.1%) by that time to $69.1 per barrel. The contract value grew by $0.74 (1.1%) to $68.35 per barrel at the end of previous session.
Both Brent and WTI have fallen more than 10% since the beginning of this week, which is the worst weekly dynamics for the market since the beginning of this year.
Traders are keeping a close eye on OPEC+, believing the cartel countries may take action in response to the market drop, Bloomberg noted.
“External factors continue to dictate conditions to the oil market,” said Warren Patterson, who is responsible for strategy in commodity markets at ING Groep NV. – The downturn in the market is probably a concern for OPEC+, but it is unlikely to act quickly. OPEC+ is more likely to wait for the situation to calm down.”
Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak on Thursday affirmed their countries’ commitment to the October 2022 OPEC+ decision to cut oil production by 2 million bpd by the end of 2023.
A day earlier, the Saudi prince told Energy Intelligence that the oil market is subject to very high uncertainty, so OPEC+ does not intend to change the parameters of the deal adopted last October.
Structure of approved Ukrainian state budget expenditures for 2023
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
