Ukraine would be grateful to Germany for assistance in unblocking the export of agricultural products and organizing mobile grain storage facilities due to the expected shortage of storage capacity this autumn, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a meeting with Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture of Germany Chem Ozdemir.
“According to preliminary estimates, in October we may not have enough storage facilities to store crops for 10-15 million tons. The Ministry of Agrarian Policy is considering the possibility of organizing mobile storage facilities,” he wrote in a telegram on Saturday.
Shmyhal stressed that Russia is deliberately destroying agricultural facilities, such as Ukraine’s second largest grain terminal in Nikolaev a few days ago.
In early June, the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) increased the forecast for grain and oilseeds harvest in Ukraine this season by 5.2% compared to the April forecast – up to 66.5 million tons.
The Cabinet of Ministers has created an organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the Eurovision 2023 international song contest in Ukraine.
As the representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnichuk said in the Telegram channel, the corresponding decision was made at a government meeting on Friday.
In particular, an organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023 in Ukraine was created and its composition was approved.
As reported, the Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra with the song Stefania won the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin (Italy). Thus, Ukraine received the right to host the competition next year.
Volumes of cargo transportation in 2021, mln tons
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the European Union’s response to Ukraine’s application for membership will show whether Europe has a future.
“Now, of course, is a decisive time. Not only for Ukraine, but also for the European Union, for the entire European continent. Now it is being decided what the future of a united Europe will be like and whether it will be at all. Russia wants to destroy European unity, wants to leave Europe split and weak. All of Europe is a target for Russia, and Ukraine is only the first stage in this aggression, in these plans,” Zelensky said at a briefing with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Kyiv on Saturday.
That is why, according to the head of state, “a positive response of the European Union to the Ukrainian application for EU membership can become a positive answer to the question – does the European project have a future at all.”
Zelensky stressed that the people of Ukraine have already made a great contribution to the protection of freedom and values shared with the European Union.
“Thousands of Ukrainian lives were given to live in Ukraine and all of Europe as a person, to live freely. During such a brutal war, Ukrainians made sure that state and public institutions remain stable. Our people are absolutely integrated into the European space,” he said.
He also noted that polls conducted among the European population showed that people support Ukraine in joining the EU.
“And this is fair. And we are really looking forward to the recognition of this reality at the political level on June 23-24, when the historic meeting of the European Council for us should take place. Its logical decision should be to grant Ukraine the status of an EU candidate country. We really believe in this … The Ukrainian people will do everything necessary for the European integration of Ukraine,” Zelensky stressed, adding that “the European project definitely cannot be completed without Ukraine.”
EU, EUROPE, FUTURE, MEMBERSHIP, ZELENSKY
The number of refugees from Ukraine registered for temporary protection or similar national protection schemes in Europe stood at 3.207 million as of June 9, 2022, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on its website.
Compared to the June 1 data, the increase was almost 0.3 million, and the main contribution was made by the data update for Germany – an additional almost 0.24 million.
According to UNHCR data collected from national governments, Poland has the most refugees with this status – 1 million 152.36 thousand, while 3.865 million arrived in the country from Ukraine, according to the Polish border service, from the beginning of the war to June 9 people, and in the opposite direction departed for Ukraine 1.738 million.
Following are Germany and the Czech Republic, where the number of refugees registered for temporary protection from Ukraine amounted to 565.82 thousand and 366.49 thousand, respectively.
The UN, referring to government data, indicates that in total in Germany, where Ukrainians are allowed to stay without registration until the end of August, 780,000 refugees from Ukraine were recorded. So, based on the data presented, a significant proportion of them have not yet applied for temporary protection status in this country.
In the Czech Republic, the situation, according to UN information, is different: almost all arrivals applied for protection status – 366.49 thousand out of 366.63 thousand.
In the vast majority of other countries, the picture is similar to the Czech Republic: the statistics of registered refugees is completely or almost equal to the statistics of those who applied for protection status, which is probably due to the peculiarity of their registration. An exception, similar to Germany, is only Romania – 37.32 thousand with the status of 89.78 thousand refugees registered in the country, Estonia – 25.69 thousand out of 39.8 thousand and Italy – 97.31 thousand out of 125 .91 thousand
In addition to Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy, more than 50 thousand refugees from Ukraine have also registered for temporary protection status in Spain – 118.12 thousand, Slovakia – 77.14 thousand (out of 270 thousand net inflows across the border since the beginning of the war) , Austria – 69.76 thousand, the Netherlands – 62.97 thousand, Lithuania – 53.89 thousand and Switzerland – 53.12 thousand.
Following are Belgium – 45.3 thousand, France – 43.3 thousand (data from the end of April), Portugal – 41.45 thousand, Sweden – 38 thousand, Great Britain – 37.4 thousand (data from the beginning of May ), Ireland – 33.15 thousand and Denmark – 27.21 thousand, as well as the above-mentioned Romania and Estonia.
From 10 to 25 thousand refugees from Ukraine with the status of temporary protection in Finland – 24.46 thousand, Latvia – 23.38 thousand, Hungary – 24.09 thousand, Norway – 16.71 thousand, Greece – 14, 89 thousand, Croatia – 13.76 thousand and Cyprus – 12.79 thousand.
In addition, the UN statistics on those who received the status of temporary protection include refugees of Ukraine in Slovenia – 7.05 thousand, Luxembourg – 5.3 thousand, Montenegro – 2.53 thousand, Iceland – 1 thousand, in Malta – 0.92 thousand, in Serbia and Kosovo – 0.7 thousand and Liechtenstein – 0.21 thousand.
In addition, the table contains data from Bulgaria, possibly entered with an error: according to them, 78.29 thousand refugees from Ukraine were recorded there, but 113.03 thousand received protection status.
The UN also indicated the countries in which refugees from Ukraine were recorded, but there is no data on their obtaining status: Moldova – 86.25 thousand, Turkey – 145 thousand, Georgia – 20.03 thousand, Azerbaijan – 5.06 thousand. , Albania – 1.48 thousand, North Macedonia – 1.1 thousand, Bosnia and Herzegovina – 0.36 thousand and Armenia – 0.3 thousand.
Separately, it is worth mentioning Russia and Belarus, the Ukrainian border with which, respectively, 1 million 136.24 thousand and 16.65 thousand people crossed. The UN information indicates that in the Russian Federation all those who crossed the border were recorded, while in Belarus – less than half. There is no data on any status of these people, as well as data on crossing the border of Ukraine in the opposite direction.
SoftServe, an IT company with Ukrainian roots, announced the active return of its own specialists from abroad and from western regions.
An average of 10-20 people return home from overseas and western regions every day, the company said in a statement released on Wednesday.
“Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the SoftServe IT company has relocated more than 4,000 employees to the western regions and abroad. However, since May, the company has observed a trend towards the return of IT specialists to their usual locations – now 1082 people have returned home”, – is noted in the message of the company.
According to SoftServe, since May, the dynamics of people returning from abroad has been constant: according to the company’s internal statistics, 10-15 people return to Ukraine every day.
“In May, the most people were outside Ukraine – 1,900 employees. Since then, this figure has steadily decreased, and now 314 employees have arrived in Ukraine. According to surveys, about 170 more are planning to return home as soon as possible. However, we, as a company we go as far as possible towards the decision of employees regarding where to work from.For those who want to stay abroad, we offer the possibility of employment in local branches of the company for a year or even longer in the hub countries: Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Latin America”, – comments Ekaterina Gubareva, VP HR SoftServe.
Most of all, SoftServe IT specialists return to Kyiv: as of the beginning of June, more than 400 people arrived there.
“Our offices in Kyiv have not closed their doors to employees and their families since the beginning of the war and have served as a shelter and place of work. When it became relatively safe, we switched to normal operation. Now two of our offices have co-working spaces, where an average of 10 % of employees, but there is an upward trend. In the summer, we plan to launch a certification center and equip a parking lot with chargers for electric cars,” Elena Lebedeva, director of the Kyiv development center, is quoted in the message.
Slower, but also brass knuckles, the number of people who return to the Dnieper (+38 people since April) and Kharkiv (+10 people since May).
However, 10 workers have left Odessa since May.
In addition, there is a trend towards returning to their usual places of residence of workers who were forced to leave for the western regions of Ukraine.
In total, more than 1,100 SoftServe employees have moved since the beginning of the war in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Uzhgorod – now almost a quarter of them have already left, and this process is dynamic.
Almost half of the people who relocated to the city since the beginning of the war left Ternopil.
Less active workers are leaving Vinnitsa, Khmelnitsky and Rivne.
According to internal surveys, as of today, 99% of SoftServe employees say they are safe. For comparison, in March this figure was 84%.
SoftServe is included in the list of the largest IT service companies in Ukraine. To date, it has about 13.5 thousand employees and 40 offices around the world. The main offices of the company are located in Lviv and Austin (Texas, USA). The company’s development centers are located in Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkov, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Uzhgorod, Ternopil, Odessa, Vinnitsa and Khmelnitsky, as well as in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and Latin America.
