Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk said he hoped Austria would realize the strategic role of Ukraine as a guarantor of security for Europe.
“I hope Austria will realize the strategic role of Ukraine as a guarantor of security for Europe as well as economic potential of our country and support Ukraine’s EU aspirations,” he said during a meeting with President of the National Council of Austria Wolfgang Sobotka in Vienna on Tuesday.
According to a statement posted on the website of the Ukrainian parliament, the officials discussed support for Ukraine on its way towards obtaining the status of EU candidate, Austria’s participation in the revival of Ukraine, and punishment for the aggressor country Russia for waging the war against Ukraine.
Stefanchuk stressed the importance of a regular inter-parliamentary dialogue and the recognition by the Austrian parliament of the 1932-1933 Holodomor famine in Ukraine genocide against the Ukrainian people.
He also invited his Austrian counterpart to visit Ukraine.
Kyiv has redeemed the payment on the participation bonds in the PBR Kyiv Finance Plc loan in the amount of $28.8 million on June 13 in accordance with the schedule, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said.
In addition, the city will also pay a semi-annual $2.2 million coupon.
“Despite the war in Ukraine and the difficult economic situation, Kyiv fulfills its obligations, remaining a stable and predictable partner for foreign investors,” the mayor stressed.
As reported, the international rating agency S&P Global Ratings downgraded the long-term credit rating of Kyiv in foreign and national currency from “B-” to “CCC +” with a negative outlook.
The United States intends to build granaries in Poland on the border with Ukraine to facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain to Europe by rail, US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday.
“We are going to build temporary granaries on the border with Ukraine – in Poland,” he said during a speech broadcast by the White House on Tuesday.
Biden noted that this plan, if implemented, would allow exporting grain from Ukraine to Europe, and from there to other parts of the world. He said that he is currently “working closely with European partners to release 20 million tons of wheat from Ukraine to world markets.”
The US President also acknowledged that the plan “will take time” to implement.
The World Health Organization (WHO) will hold an emergency meeting to discuss whether the monkeypox virus spreading among humans poses a public health hazard of international concern, Western media reported.
The meeting is expected to take place on June 23rd.
To date, since the beginning of the year, 1.6 thousand cases of infection with the monkeypox virus have been registered, another 1.5 thousand people are under suspicion. 72 people who have been infected have died. In total, the virus has been detected in 39 countries.
The virus was first discovered in monkeys in 1958 and in humans in 1970.
Monkeypox is a rare infectious disease most prevalent in remote areas of Central and West Africa. Its symptoms are nausea, fever, rash, itching, and muscle pain. Cases outside the region are often associated with travel to epidemiologically disadvantaged areas. The virus is spread by contact, but its virulence is low.
Earlier, the WHO stated that the situation with the spread of the monkeypox virus among humans will not reach pandemic proportions.
Earlier, the Club of Experts, Doctor of Medical Sciences Dmitry Ivanov and Doctor of Biological Sciences Svyatoslav Morozov analyzed this disease and gave their forecasts. For a more detailed analysis of the situation, see the YouTube channel of the Club of Experts at the link
The negative balance of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-April 2022 decreased by almost 42 times compared to the same period in 2021 – to $29.6 million from $1,236.7 million, the State Statistics Service (Gosstat) reported on Tuesday.
According to its data, the export of goods from Ukraine for the reporting period compared with January-April 2021 decreased by 12.3% – to $16.712 billion, imports decreased by 17.5% – to $16.742 billion.
The State Statistics Service clarifies that in April this year, compared to March 2022, the seasonally adjusted volume of exports increased by 7.2%, to $2.727 billion, and imports, by 65.1%, to $2.78 billion.
The seasonally adjusted foreign trade balance in April 2022 was negative and amounted to $0.053 billion, which is better than in April 2021, when the seasonally adjusted foreign trade balance was also negative at $0.359 billion.
The State Statistics Service recalls that in March 2022 it was positive and amounted to $0.86 billion.
The export-to-import coverage ratio in January-April 2022 amounted to 1.00 (in January-April 2021 – 0.94).
The State Statistics Service specified that foreign trade operations were carried out with partners from 215 countries of the world.
The international investment group Solway, which owns Pobuzhsky Ferronickel Plant LLC (PFP, Kirovohrad region), has confirmed its exit from Russian assets due to Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.
“In March 2022, the group condemned the actions of taken by the Russian government against the people of Ukraine and decided to exit all its projects in Russia. At the moment, this process has been legally completed,” the company told Interfax-Ukraine on Saturday.
Earlier, the media disseminated information that the international mining and metallurgical group Solway exited the project for gold mining at the dumps of the Klyuchevskoye deposit in Transbaikalia and the existing enterprise for the extraction of gold and silver in the Kuril Islands.
Pobuzhsky Ferronickel Plant is the only enterprise in Ukraine that produces ferronickel on an industrial scale.
In 2003, after a long downtime, the international company Solway Investment Group acquired the assets of the plant and restarted it a year later.
