The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food and grain market participants in addenda to the memorandum of understanding fixed in 2024/2025 marketing year the limit for export volume of 16.2 million tons of wheat and a mixture of wheat and rye (meslin) according to the code UKT VED 1001, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy reported.
“The purpose of signing the memorandum and its annex is to ensure food security, predictable, anticipated, flexible and stable grain export regime and sustainable functioning of the grain market in Ukraine,” the press service quoted Acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky as saying.
The parties also agreed on monthly monitoring of the volume of grain exports and, if necessary, adjustment of the limit export volume in January 2025.
As reported, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and grain market participants in July 2024 signed a memorandum of understanding for 2024/25 MY. The parties agreed to cooperate on coordination of balance characteristics of the grain market of Ukraine to ensure food security, stabilization of the grain market, projected grain exports and receipt of foreign exchange earnings.
Agrarians in all regions of Ukraine have started sowing winter crops for grain and are actively sowing rapeseed. As of the beginning of September, 484.1 thou hectares of winter crops have been sown, including 446.2 thou hectares of rapeseed and 37.9 thou hectares of grain, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.
According to the report, winter wheat has already been sown on 27.7 thousand hectares, winter barley – on 2.2 thousand hectares, winter rye – on 8 thousand hectares.
According to the Ministry, due to favorable weather conditions, rapeseed sowing has already been completed in Volyn, Sumy and Ternopil regions. Agrarians in Vinnytsia, Lviv and Chernivtsi regions have started sowing winter crops.
As of September 5, 699.7 thou hectares of winter crops were sown in Ukraine, including 654.9 thou hectares of rapeseed, 42.5 thou hectares of winter wheat, 1.2 thou hectares of winter barley, and 1.1 thou hectares of winter rye.
U.N. nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi met Ukrainian energy officials on Tuesday before a planned visit to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, part of efforts to prevent a wartime nuclear catastrophe.
Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived in Ukraine a week after visiting the Kursk nuclear power station in Russia and warning of the danger of a nuclear accident there.
On his latest visit to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Grossi met Energy Minister German Galushchenko, as well as Petro Kotin, head of state nuclear power company Energoatom, and Oleh Korikov, acting head of Ukraine’s State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate.
The IAEA was “fully committed to safety & security of (Ukrainian) nuclear sites, with (a) presence at each,” Grossi wrote on X alongside photos showing him and Ukrainian officials holding talks.
He said they were “exchanging (views) on our support to Ukraine’s NPPs (nuclear power plants) ahead of my ZNPP visit.”
Grossi said on X on Monday that he was on his way to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) “to continue our assistance & help prevent a nuclear accident.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he would meet Grossi after the IAEA chief visits the country’s nuclear plants.
The ZNPP in southeastern Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, fell to Russian troops soon after Moscow’s full-scale invasion and is not operating now.
Both sides have frequently accused each other of shelling the plant. Moscow and Kyiv both deny the accusations.
Zelenskiy and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Monday visited the city of Zaporizhzhia, which lies across the Dnipro River to the northeast of the plant.
Zelenskiy also said that at this stage of the war, it is not possible for Ukraine to take back control of the plant.
“It is safer for Ukraine to control the Zaporizhzhia plant, but so far, from the point of view of the battlefield, I do not see such possibilities, and those that probably exist, they are dangerous,” Zelenskiy said.
Russian news agencies reported on Monday that a high-voltage power supply line at the plant had automatically disconnected, but the plant’s needs are supplied by another line. There was no reason given for the automatic disconnection.
Ukraine said Russian attacks had damaged one of the two external overhead lines connecting the plant to the Ukrainian power grid on Monday. Russia did not immediately comment on this assertion.
Russia says the Kursk nuclear plant visited by Grossi last week has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian forces that are just 40 km (25 miles) away since Ukraine carved out a slice of Russian territory in a cross-border attack this month.
Grossi said after visiting the Kursk nuclear plant that it was extremely fragile because it had no protective dome and that the “danger or possibility of a nuclear accident has emerged near here.”
Ukraine’s foreign ministry on Thursday denounced what it said were Russian efforts to “accuse Ukraine of alleged provocations against nuclear safety”.
It said Russia had intensified a “disinformation campaign to distract attention from its own criminal acts at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.”
In a statement, it described such accusations as “cynical” following attacks on energy infrastructure that forced Ukraine to disconnect several nuclear power units from the grid last week.
In the coming days, the Verkhovna Rada will carry out personnel rotations in the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
In particular, a government source told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency that on September 4-5, the parliament may hold a personnel day to consider rotations in the government. For his part, MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak (Voice faction) said on his telegram channel that a number of rotations in the government are being actively discussed in parliament. In particular, he said, the heads of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories are expected to be dismissed.
“Some will simply be dismissed, others will be transferred. And then they will appoint these vacancies, plus those 6 ministries without ministers. Although some ministries will be added to the current portfolios of the deputy prime ministers,” the MP suggested.
Also, sources close to the government confirmed to the agency that the current acting Minister of Veterans Affairs, Oleksandr Porkhun, will probably be proposed for the post of Minister of Veterans Affairs, the current acting Minister of Youth and Sports, Matviy Bidnyi, for the post of Minister of Culture and Information Policy, and the current acting Minister of Culture and Information Policy, Rostyslav Karandeyev.
In addition, Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, head of the passenger division of Ukrzaliznytsia, and Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy head of the Presidential Office, are being considered as candidates for the post of minister of infrastructure and regional development.
Among other things, the agency was informed about the possibility of appointing Taras Vysotskyi, who has been the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy since May 2021 and has been leading the department as acting Minister in recent months after Mykola Solskyi resigned. Another source said that Oleksandr Kamyshyn, head of the Ministry of Strategic Industries, could replace Rostyslav Shurma as Deputy Head of the Presidential Office in charge of the economy.
The Agency was unable to obtain official confirmation of these personnel rotations, as well as confirm other alleged personnel changes.
Source: https://interfax.com.ua/
JSC Ukrgasvydobuvannya (UGV) has launched a high-performance well in Poltava region with a daily production rate of 274 thousand cubic meters of gas.
According to the company’s website, the new well was drilled as an appraisal and production well using a hydrocarbon-based mud. Its peculiarity is that the planned bottom hole is located directly under a settlement.
“The idea of drilling this well belongs to Andriy Tiro from UkrNDIGas, he assessed the field’s production potential and found a remote site for its drilling. At the same time, the development team has prepared a detailed geological and technical feasibility study,” said Serhiy Lagno, UGV CEO, as quoted on the website.
He added that the well was drilled thanks to modern drilling equipment, advanced drilling technologies and the skill of Ukrburgaz drilling department (UGV division – IF-U) specialists, who completed a rather difficult task in 4 months: they drilled a well with a bottom hole reach of more than 1.3 thousand meters.
In turn, the specialists of the Ukrgazpromgeofizyka geophysical department (UGV branch – IF-U) performed complex logging operations and determined the depth of gas-bearing formations in the conditions of a large wellbore angle.
“The commissioning of the new well increased gas production per day at this field by 17%. This means that the field has prospects for further drilling, despite its depletion and age,” commented the head of UGV.
As the company recalled, Ukrgasvydobuvannya drilled 50 wells in 6 months of 2024, of which 41 were put into operation.
As reported, in 2023, Ukrgasvydobuvannya launched 86 new wells, 24 of which had an initial flow rate of more than 100 thousand cubic meters, and in January-May 2024, 36 new gas wells, 11 of which are highly productive.
In 2023, the company produced 13.224 bcm of commercial gas, which is 0.679 bcm more than in 2022.
“In January-June 2024, Ukrgasvydobuvannya increased natural gas production (commercial) by 8.8% compared to the same period in 2023 – up to 6.913 bcm.
NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine owns 100% of Ukrgasvydobuvannya shares.
Metinvest Group, as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front military initiative, has built the country’s first underground hospital for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, in coordination with the Vostok Medical Force, to provide primary medical care and stabilize soldiers after they are injured on the front line, investing more than UAH 20 million, the group said in a press release on Tuesday.
For its part, the Ministry of Defense noted in a post on its website that the hospital was the first in a large-scale project implemented by the ministry in coordination with the Vostok Medical Force, and in total it involves the construction of more than two dozen underground staging areas.
It is specified that the first facility is located near the front line and is designed to provide medical care to Ukrainian defenders in the safest possible conditions. The hospital was built on the basis of six enlarged steel bunkers, each of which is 7.6 meters long and 2.5 meters in diameter, developed by Metinvest. Ventilation, water supply, drainage and alternative power sources have been installed to ensure the facility’s operation.
Additional safety measures were taken during the installation of the underground hospital, including the addition of high-powered electronic warfare systems and alternative power sources.
“Such underground stations are critical for saving the lives of our military… This is the first step in a large-scale project that will strengthen our medical infrastructure and allow us to more effectively support our defenders on the front line,” said Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.
“Metinvest clarified that the hospital’s staffing level corresponds to the level of a second echelon field hospital (Role/Echelon 2) in accordance with NATO standards, and the investment included not only the cost of building the hospital but also the cost of its equipment.
“A medical hospital many meters underground is the most ambitious and complex project we have had to implement since the beginning of the full-scale invasion as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front initiative,” said Metinvest’s Chief Operating Officer Alexander Mironenko.
It is noted that the steel underground hospital is not inferior to civilian hospitals in terms of medical equipment.
In particular, Metinvest has equipped the hospital with oxygen concentrators, a ventilator, cardiac monitors, defibrillators, operating equipment and lighting, sterilizers, patient heating systems, and medical furniture worth more than UAH 7 million.
“This underground hospital is the best of the stabilization centers. It will allow us to provide medical care to more than 100 patients a day, saving hundreds of lives of our heroes. I hope that the number of such facilities will increase,” said Roman Kuzev, acting commander of the Medical Forces ‘East’.
