The tangible shortage of fuel at filling stations in certain regions of Ukraine, which formed this week, is associated with the enemy’s destructive strikes over the past three weeks on the fuel infrastructure of Ukraine, but this shortage will be eliminated within a week, said First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister Economics Julia Sviridenko.
“Over the next seven days, the deficit will be eliminated, since the operators have contracted volumes in Western Europe and now we are solving the issue of how to import them to the territory of Ukraine as quickly as possible,” she wrote on her Facebook page on Friday.
Sviridenko noted that this situation will lead to a slight increase in the price of oil products. “This is primarily due to the higher cost of logistics due to complex routes and the use of several modes of transport,” the First Deputy Prime Minister explained.
Speaking about the situation on the market, she pointed out that since the beginning of the war, through the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Economy, the government has been cooperating on a daily basis with market operators to provide the population and enterprises with oil products. Decisions were made that significantly reduced the impact on the economy of a sharp rise in the cost of petroleum products on world markets, in particular, the excise tax was canceled and VAT was reduced from 20% to 7%.
At the same time, Russia, as an aggressor country, is trying to stop the Ukrainian economy by creating an artificial shortage of fuel, Sviridenko noted. And the destruction of the Kremenchug oil refinery, which was the main producer of fuel in Ukraine, as well as a number of oil depots of market operators with a significant supply of fuel, led to a temporary shortage, which will be eliminated within a week.
As reported, currently the prices for gasoline and diesel fuel are limited by the government to UAH 34.10/l and UAH 38.7/l, respectively. However, according to the director of the consulting group A-95 Sergey Kuyun, the shortage of fuel determines its real price on the market at 40 hryvnia/l and 45 hryvnia/l, despite the government’s setting of marginal prices.
Head of Tesla Inc. Elon Musk, in addition to Starlink satellite Internet stations, donated Tesla Powerwall solar panels to Ukraine.
“Today, two outpatient clinics in Borodianka and Irpin have received Tesla Powerwall solar panels and energy saving systems,” Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov said on Telegram.
According to him, these solar panels and generators have become very popular in America.
“The Powerwall energy system has high autonomy and provides backup power in case of power outages. This ultra-modern equipment will help Ukrainians in the areas most affected by the Russian occupation,” Fedorov stressed.
Dutch Embassy resumes its work in Kyiv, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
“Today the Dutch embassy will reopen in Kyiv. Ambassador Jennes de Moll and a small team will work closely with Ukrainian authorities and partner countries on the ground,” the ministry said on Twitter Friday.
The Embassy said that the consular section of the embassy remains closed.
The international developer Nhood offers premises for rent in Retail Park Petrivka (Kyiv), Hanna Koriahina, the COO of Nhood Ukraine, told Interfax-Ukraine.
“There are options for retail, warehouse and office real estate. Premises ranging from 400 to 1,400 sq m are offered for rent. The possibility of splitting lots, depending on the purpose,” she said.
According to the expert, the total area of Retail Park Petrivka opened in April 2018 is 12,000 square meters. The second stage was to be 7,100 square meters, but its implementation is frozen.
Nhood is a global real estate player. It brings together the real estate competencies and know-how of 1,029 experts from 10 European countries to continuously rebuild and transform a portfolio in the management of nearly 300 commercial properties across Europe.
Nhood Ukraine (until February 2021 Ceetrus Ukraine) is an international developer of shopping centers and retail parks in Ukraine. It manages five existing shopping galleries and a retail park. Three major projects are under development: Rive Gauche and Retail Park 2 (both – Kyiv), as well as the OVI shopping center (Odesa) – with a total area of more than 200,000 sq m.
The first cargo of Ukrainian corn weighing 71,000 tons since the beginning of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine went on a P-class vessel to the recipient from the Black Sea port of Constanta (Romania), the Reuters website reported on Friday.
According to him, this port has already received about 80 thousand tons of Ukrainian grain, and the same number is on the way to it.
As Ukraine’s seaports were blocked following Russia’s aggressor country’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the world’s fourth-largest grain exporter has been forced to ship to Romania by train across its western border or through its small river ports on the Danube River.
“Supporting the export of Ukrainian grain means preventing a colossal wave of world hunger provoked by the blockade of Ukrainian ports. Compared to the initial moment, when everyone was looking for alternative transport corridors for grain exports, they are gradually being formed,” Viorel Panaita, president of Comvex port operator, who organized deliveries of a batch of Ukrainian corn.
According to Comvex, the seaport of Constanta owns the fastest-loading grain terminal in Europe, capable of handling up to 70,000 tons of crops per day.
As reported, Ukrainian and Romanian ministries at the end of March began negotiations on the export of agricultural products from Ukraine through European seaports, including the Romanian port of Constanta.
Ukraine has tens of millions of tons of agricultural products in warehouses, but due to a naval blockade by the aggressor country, the Russian Federation cannot supply it to its traditional markets.
The countries bordering Ukraine have responded to its problem with the export of agricultural products, and have already significantly simplified the procedures for registering freight traffic or are actively working on it. In particular, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, as well as Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Georgia, Denmark, Greece, Austria introduced liberal conditions for Ukrainian carriers.
Before the Russian military invasion, Ukraine monthly exported about 5 million tons of agricultural products through the ports of Odessa and Nikolaev, but now, due to their naval blockade by the Russian Federation, it can transport about 500 thousand tons of grain monthly. This leads to a monthly shortfall of about $1.5 billion in export earnings for the country.
Henkel, an international company headquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany, has announced the resumption of two of its four factories in Ukraine.
According to a press release, the decision to resume production of the international company Henkel in Ukraine is made by the local leadership of Henkel Ukraine, based on the current military-operational situation.
The plant in the Lviv region, which specializes in the production of building mixtures of the Ceresit brand, was the first to resume operations.
Soon Henkel plans to resume the activities of the company’s plant in Vyshgorod, Kyiv region.
In total, Henkel Bautechnik (Ukraine) manages four factories in the country for the production of building mixtures. The company has suspended the work of all production facilities since the beginning of the war – on February 24, 2022.
At the moment, the work of two other production facilities is impossible, since they are located on the territories of Ukraine temporarily occupied by Russian troops in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions.
As noted in the release, to support its employees and their families, Henkel has fully maintained the payment of wages, even despite the temporary suspension of production.
In the early days of the war, Henkel launched a solidarity aid program worth more than EUR1 million, most of which went directly to more than 600 employees as emergency financial assistance. Henkel also provided safe housing for its employees and their families forced to leave Ukraine.
At the same time, Henkel has expanded its solidarity program to a total of more than EUR5 million, including product donations and comprehensive collaboration with long-term social partner Habitat for Humanity.
In early March, Henkel announced that it was stopping new investments in the Russian Federation, as well as stopping advertising campaigns in state media and all sponsorship activities. Subsequently, the company officially announced the decision to stop its activities in the Russian Federation.
