Real Madrid Football Club will donate EUR1 million as part of the Everyone with Ukraine campaign, which was launched by the Real Madrid Foundation on March 5 to help meet the humanitarian needs of displaced people in Ukraine, together with other international non-governmental organizations.
The Spanish club said on Wednesday the aid will be sent to the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNHCR, as well as to the fund’s partner in Ukraine, the public organization Epicentr for Children for children and to support the reception of refugees in Spain.
Among the places in Ukraine where this aid will go, Real named Chernivtsi, Kryvy Rih and more than ten Salesian missions in Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr regions and Odesa.
Real Madrid recalled that it has been working with Epicentr for Children since 2018 in seven social sports schools in the cities of Ternopil, Irpin, Khmelnytsky and Kyiv, and now this program covers 800 children.
“The Real Madrid Foundation’s “Everyone with Ukraine” campaign will continue as long as necessary to provide a direct donation channel that helps provide for the needs of the displaced population both in Ukraine and in the bordering countries as well as welcoming refugees in Spain,” the report says.
The United Nations Refugee Agency reported that since February 24, more than 3 million people have been forced to leave the country and at least 2 million more have become internally displaced persons within the country. The agency indicated that in just over two weeks, companies, foundations and philanthropists contributed more than $200 million to the emergency response in Ukraine, out of the $510 million requested for primary emergency care.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law on virtual assets, which refers this market to the regulation of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). According to the Telegram channel of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, with the start of this law, the following changes will be introduced in Ukraine:
– foreign and Ukrainian crypto exchanges will work legally;
– banks will open accounts for crypto companies;
– Ukrainians will be able to protect their savings in virtual assets;
– the state will guarantee judicial protection of rights to virtual assets.
In addition, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission will formulate and implement a policy in the field of virtual assets; determine the procedure for the turnover of virtual assets; issue authorizations to VA service providers; exercise supervision and financial monitoring in this area.
According to the Ministry of Digital Development, this is another important step towards the de-shadowing of the crypto sector and the launch of a legal market for virtual assets in Ukraine. “Since the beginning of the war, crypto assets have become a powerful tool for attracting additional funding in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. During the three weeks of the war, the Crypto Fund of Ukraine raised more than $54 million in crypto assets. Today, the president has signed the law on virtual assets. We are launching a legal market for virtual assets in Ukraine and bringing the crypto sector out of the shadows,” Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov wrote on his Telegram channel.
As of Wednesday, 26 MPs are abroad, about ten of them are members of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and the rest are members of the Opposition Platform – For Life faction, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk has said.
“As of this morning, according to the information I have, 26 MPs are abroad. But I must emphasize that about ten of them are the women deputies who were sent by me to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in order for them to defend the decision that PACE made yesterday regarding the exclusion of Russia from the Assembly,” the speaker said on the air of the 1+1 TV channel.
At the same time, he stressed that members of the Opposition Platform – For Life faction are now mostly not on working trips abroad.
“The reasons for their departure are not known. I didn’t send them on a working trip. But they are there. As for the future, they should be given political responsibility by the Ukrainian people in the next elections. But I think that it will not be limited to this either, because those who committed crimes against the Ukrainian people, who were collaborators, committed high treason, in addition to political responsibility, they will definitely incur criminal liability,” Stefanchuk specified.
Following the European Union, the Swiss authorities have announced the inclusion of an additional number of individuals and organizations in their sanctions lists in connection with the Russian operation in Ukraine. “A further 197 individuals are now subject to financial sanctions and travel restrictions and 9 additional entities are now subject to financial sanctions,” the Swiss government said in a statement.
“Switzerland’s list of sanctions now fully mirrors that of the EU,” it said.
The Russian individuals sanctioned by Switzerland include businessmen Roman Abramovich, Andrei Melnichenko, Alexander Vinokurov, Vadim Moshkovich, Dmitry Pumpyansky and his son Alexander, as well as Dmitry Mazepin and his son Nikita.
The Swiss sanctions also apply to Rostelecom president Mikhail Oseyevsky, entrepreneurs and top managers Andrei Guryev, Dmitry Konov and Mikhail Poluboyarinov, and Channel One general director Konstantin Ernst.
The Russian companies sanctioned by Switzerland are Rosneft Aero, Rosoboronexport, JSC NPO High-Precision Systems, Kurganmashzavod, JSC Russian Helicopters, the United Aircraft Corporation, the United Shipbuilding Corporation, Uralvagonzavod, and JSC Zelenodolsk Plant named after A.M. Gorky.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the EU members for completing the synchronization of the Ukrainian and European power systems.
“Ukraine has become a member of the Energy Union. The unification of Ukrainian & European energy systems has been completed. Now Ukrainian electricity flows in the EU & vice versa. Grateful to EU members, personally to Ursula von der Leyen, Kadri Simson & everyone, thanks to whom we now have a single energy system!” Zelensky said on Twitter.
ENERGY UNION, EUROPEAN POWER SYSTEMS, MEMBER, SYNCHRONIZATION, UKRAINE
More than 75,000 people crossed the state border of Ukraine to the EU and Moldova on March 15, which is about 5% more than the day before, the State Border Guard Service said on Wednesday. “The indicators show that over the past two days, passenger traffic has a tendency to slightly increase. There are no queues of pedestrians and vehicles in almost all directions. The exceptions are the Krakovets checkpoints, as well as Uzhgorod and Tysa, where there are slight accumulations of cars and buses,” the statement said.
According to it, as before, 65-69% of those who left the country in the west first cross the Ukrainian-Polish border.
At the same time, the State Border Guard Service notes a steady flow of people entering Ukraine, the number of which on March 15 amounted to 16,000, including citizens of Ukraine – more than 13,000. “The vast majority are men who are ready to defend the country. Since the beginning of open armed aggression, about 273,000 of our countrymen have returned to Ukraine,” the service said.
The State Border Guard Service recalled that all checkpoints on the western border (except Dzvinkove) operate around the clock.
It also said that over the past day, more than 800 vehicles with humanitarian cargo were registered at the western borders.
According to the UNHCR, as of 13:00 on March 15, a total of 3.06 million people have left Ukraine since the beginning of the war, of which Poland received 1.86 million, Romania and Moldova – 555,300, Hungary – 272,900, and Slovakia – 221,000.
