As of March 22, 2022, Ukrposhta delivered almost 80% of pensions (UAH 8.4 billion), delivery is carried out in all regions.
As the press service of the national postal operator reported on Wednesday, in most regions the rate of pension payments fluctuates between 93-99%. So far, it has not been possible to fully pay pensions in zones where active hostilities are taking place.
So, in Chernihiv region 16% was paid, in Zaporizhia region – 48%, Kharkiv region – 50%, in Kherson region – 57%, in Sumy region – 60% of pensions.
Ukrposhta noted that as soon as green corridors to cities temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation or under shelling are formed, the company will immediately deliver payments. In addition, the percentage of pension payments is lower than usual at present, partly due to the fact that many Ukrainians have changed their place of residence due to hostilities and have not yet completed the redirection.
“For three weeks in a row, together with our colleagues, we have been constantly in touch with the Ukrainian military, rebuilding routes, looking for strong-willed and creative solutions to bypass enemy checkpoints, find cash in a surrounded city or region, and provide people with basic necessities. Unfortunately, there are still separate areas where we cannot reach, but our defenders are doing their job every day, retaking our cities and villages from the invaders, and we at Ukrposhta are already starting cars to quickly do our job after,” the Ukrposhta general director Igor Smelyansky said.
The national postal operator notes that the majority of Ukrainians who received pensions for February received them locally – at Ukrposhta offices in the city or by targeted delivery. Also, Ukrposhta received about 22,000 applications for redirecting payments.
Nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereschuk said.
“Nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed, Donetsk region from Mariupol to Zaporizhia… Berdiansk – Zaporizhia. Some 24 buses are now at the entrance to Berdiansk. From 10 o’clock they will be brought to start the evacuation,” Vereschuk said at a briefing on Wednesday.
According to her, humanitarian corridors are also planned in Zaporizhia region: Polohy – Zaporizhia, Huliaipole – Zaporizhia;
in Kyiv region: Velyka Dymerka – Brovary, Bohdanivka – Brovary, Borodianka – Bila Tserkva, Svitylnia- Brovary;
in Luhansk region: Rubizhne – Bakhmut, Nyzhnie – Bakhmut.
“These routes will also pass through other cities, where stops will be made to collect people, Lysychansk, Severodonetsk…,” Vereschuk said.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has accepted an invitation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit the country on the condition that Kyiv makes significant progress in ceasefire talks with Russia, Israel’s Ynet news reported.
According to the publication, Bennett has already asked the country’s security service to begin preparations for his possible visit to Kyiv.
“In order to advance the negotiations, it is clear that in-person meetings are necessary. And they may happen down the road if negotiations reach a tipping point,” a source involved in the talks with the Ukrainians told Ynet.
“However, some security officials have expressed their misgivings about the risks entailed in the prime minister going into an active war zone, especially after a Russian bombing of the city killed at least eight people on Monday,” the report says.
“According to sources familiar with the matter, Zelensky and Ukrainian government officials have been pursuing a Bennett visit to Kyiv for the past ten days as they believe the visit would help expedite ceasefire talks with Moscow,” according to the edition.
Earlier this month, the Israeli prime minister visited Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
SkyUp Airlines (Kyiv), in cooperation with The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, operated 8 flights from Moldova to Israel from March 6 to March 17, which allowed 1,248 Ukrainians to evacuate to Israel under the repatriation program.
According to the company’s website, 83 pets went to Israel with the passengers.
SkyUp noted that in active cooperation with The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews the company will continue to organize evacuation flights. In particular, flights are already planned for another 1,500 Ukrainians.
“As a conscientious company, we understand that we must continue our operations for the good of the country – in order for Ukraine to have a bright future. I express my deep gratitude to The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Moldova, the esteemed Ambassador Mark Oleksandrovych Shevchenko and personally to Serhiy Mykhailovych Humeniuk, who worked tirelessly to help our compatriots, as well as all those thanks to whom these flights take place. We are honored that our company can become a kind of bridge between Ukrainians and friendly countries, where people can feel security,” SkyUp Airlines CEO Dmytro Seroukhov said.
More than 3.5 million people have left Ukraine since the start of the Russian special operation, the United Nations Refugee Agency reported on its web page.
Over 2 million people have crossed into Poland, over 542,000 into Romania, nearly 368,000 into Moldova, over 317,000 into Hungary, and over 253,000 into Slovakia.
Russia has absorbed 252,000 and Belarus about 4,000 refugees from Ukraine, it said.
The losses of pharmaceutical company Farmak (Kyiv) due to a fire in a warehouse that occurred at the beginning of the war amounted to about UAH 1.5 billion.
“The warehouses of Farmak, where there were ready-made medicines, raw materials for medicines, primary packaging, were burned to the ground by the occupiers in the first days of the war. According to general estimates, the losses amounted to about UAH 1.5 billion,” the company said on its Facebook page.
The company also said that currently 87 of its employees defend Ukraine in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or territorial defense.
From December 2021, Farmak and the Charitable Foundation of Zhebrivskykh Family have donated more than UAH 12 million to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, medical institutions and the civilian population, including about UAH 9 million in medicines.
In addition, the company announces an agreement with its foreign partners on humanitarian supplies of critically important medicines, in which Farmak provides logistics. Some of these deliveries worth EUR 1 million have already been unloaded in Ukraine.
“This is only half of the already confirmed deliveries. This is what makes it possible to fill the warehouses of the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health with everything necessary,” the company said.
Farmak said that the company is currently “working on the issue of reducing the shortage of medicines on the Ukrainian market using internal resources.”
The company said that since the beginning of the open armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, Farmak has not made a single shipment of medicines to Russia and the Republic of Belarus. In particular, on February 24, Farmak donated a truck with medicines worth $200,000, which were preparing for shipment to Belarus, to the needs of Chernihiv.
“We cleared it back and handed it over to the needs of the city of Chernihiv, which was one of the first to be attacked by the Russian military,” the company said.
Farmak recalled that its representative office in the Russian Federation was curtailed back in 2014.
