Spain will donate two medical armored vehicles to Ukraine to provide medical assistance and evacuate patients, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) reports.
“Spain’s humanitarian aid to Ukraine over the past two years has exceeded 466 million euros, the largest emergency response for a single country,” AECID said in a statement.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares inspected the armored ambulances that will be transferred to Ukraine.
“Spain will continue to support Ukraine in its defense of peace and freedom for as long as it takes,” the foreign minister wrote in a statement.
In 2023, registrations of new and used electric vehicles in Ukraine increased 2.8 times compared to 2022 – up to 37.6 thousand, in particular, the share of new ones increased to almost 20% from 17%, Ukravtoprom reported on its Telegram channel.
According to the association, out of the total number of registered electric cars, passenger cars accounted for more than 36.8 thousand, and commercial cars – 770.
Volkswagen ID.4 (2,655 thousand units) became the leader in the market of new battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), Dong Feng / Honda M-NV (559 units) took the second place with a large gap from the leader, and Volkswagen ID.6 was third – 491 units.
Honda eNS1 took the fourth position (327 units), and BYD Song rounded out the top five with 189 units registered.
In the used segment, the Nissan Leaf is confidently leading with 5.19 thousand units, followed by the Tesla Model 3 – 3.282 thousand units; Volkswagen e-Golf – 3.273 thousand units; Tesla Model Y – 2.171 thousand units and Volkswagen ID.4 – 1.74 thousand units.
“Ukravtoprom notes that in December last year, more than 4.6 thousand electric cars were added to the Ukrainian fleet, almost three times more than a year earlier, including more than 4.5 thousand cars and 78 commercial vehicles.
As reported, in 2022, according to Ukravtoprom, the electric vehicle market grew 1.5 times by 2021, to 13.6 thousand units, while the share of new cars increased to 17% compared to 14%, and the most popular car was also the used Nissan Leaf with 2,349 thousand units registered.
Nova Poshta Group of Companies has changed its name to Nova, but Nova Poshta, a logistics and postal operator operating in the Ukrainian market, will retain its brand, the group’s press service said on Tuesday.
“We are already much more than a post office, so we are removing this word in the name of the group of companies and leaving a broad, unbounded name – NOVA,” the release cites the rebranding rationale.
“The main goal of the NOVA group is to provide easy delivery of anything for life and business. So far, these are parcels, money and technology, but we are not going to stop there,” said Vyacheslav Klimov, co-owner of the group.
According to the release, the NOVA group of companies includes six companies: “Nova Poshta, Nova Post Europe, NovaPay, Nova Global, Supernova Airlines and Nova Digital.
It is noted that Nova Poshta provides delivery services, as well as freight transportation and fulfillment, and its network currently includes 11.4 thousand branches and 15.5 thousand post offices in Ukraine.
Nova Post Europe delivers documents, parcels and cargo across Europe and between the EU and Ukraine. The company has representative offices and 83 own branches in 11 countries: Moldova, Poland, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Romania, Germany, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, and Italy, and operates through 35 thousand service points.
According to the release, NovaPay is a non-bank financial institution that develops its own international payment system and provides financial services to private clients and businesses, currently servicing 2.6 million transactions per day. At the end of last year, the company released an application that allows customers to open current accounts.
It is noted that Nova Global, a member of the group, focuses on the global e-commerce market and cooperation with international marketplaces. The company offers Ukrainian small and medium-sized businesses services to enter new markets and develop exports.
Supernova Airlines, according to the release, has already operated dozens of flights between European countries and will soon start transcontinental flights with cargo planes.
IT company Nova Digital, a part of Nova Group, creates and maintains web applications and software products for Nova Poshta and other companies of the group, which, according to the release, has a total of 32 million private and corporate clients.
The cumulative damage to the global economy from natural disasters last year amounted to about $250 billion, which is the same as in 2022, according to preliminary data from Germany’s Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance company. Meanwhile, insured losses in 2023 fell to $95 billion from $125 billion a year earlier. The average for the past five years is $105 billion and for the ten years is $90 billion.
More than 74,000 natural disasters were recorded last year, compared with the five-year average of 10,000. Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria were the most significant humanitarian catastrophe of the year.
Thunderstorms in North America and Europe in 2023 have never been more devastating, the annual report said. In North America, about $66 billion worth of property was destroyed (of which $50 billion was insured), while in Europe the amount totaled €9.1 billion (€7.3 billion).
In general, the damage from natural disasters in Europe last year is estimated at 77 billion euros, the bulk of which came from earthquakes in Turkey. In North America, the total losses amounted to about $100 billion, in Asia-Pacific and Africa – $64 billion.
The Government of Ukraine has canceled the ban on the termination of housing and communal services to the population in case of non-payment or incomplete payment, as well as the ban on the accrual and collection of fines and penalties, inflationary charges on debts for non-payment of such services, introduced at the beginning of the full-scale aggression.
According to the Cabinet of Ministers’ Decision No. 1405 of December 29, 2023, published on the government’s website, such moratorium is maintained only for the territories where hostilities are taking place according to the list of the Ministry of Reintegration.
In addition, in the rules for the provision of housing and communal services, this decree introduced a norm on the need to provide utility providers with a statement and documentary evidence in electronic or paper form of the temporary absence in the residential premises of the consumer and other persons for more than 30 calendar days. It is specified that this may be certificates from the place of temporary residence, work, treatment, education, military service (including those received in a foreign country), serving a sentence, traveling abroad.
It is also established that such confirmation must be updated every six months.
As reported, the government, by its decision of March 5, 2022, introduced a ban on the termination of housing and communal services to the population in case of non-payment or underpayment, as well as a ban on the accrual and collection of fines and penalties. At that time, its term was set until the termination or cancellation of martial law in Ukraine and it was applied from the first day of the invasion of the Russian Federation – from February 24, 2022.
Due to new cases of COVID-19 infection, Kyiv residents are advised to wear masks again to reduce the risk of infection, the press service of the Kyiv City State Administration reported.
“This issue is also relevant in Kyiv. After all, new cases of coronavirus are recorded every week. Among the hospitalized patients, there are serious patients,” the press service of the Kyiv City State Administration quoted the first deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration Mykola Povoroznyk as saying.
He emphasized that it is advisable for Kyiv residents to return to the mask regime in crowded places to reduce the risk of infection.
“This is primarily about your health, which needs to be protected. In particular, in case of deterioration and the first symptoms of the disease, you should definitely consult your family doctor and, if necessary, be tested for COVID-19 in time,” he stressed, reminding that vaccination is a reliable protection against severe coronavirus disease.
As reported, the World Health Organization (WHO) urges to continue to observe the mask regime and social distancing to avoid contracting COVID-19, these recommendations are related to the growing trend in many countries where cases of coronavirus disease are observed, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
