Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom Vadym Prystaiko, on behalf of the Cabinet of Ministers, signed a Ukrainian-British framework agreement providing for the allocation of funds for the construction of eight missile boats, the acquisition of two minesweepers from the United Kingdom, and the creation of two naval bases in Ukraine, the ZN.UA publication said on Saturday.
The signed agreement details the financial side of the agreements, that is the loan totaling GBP 1.7 billion provided to Ukraine by the U.K. for ten years.
Thanks to the U.K., Ukraine covers the primary needs of the country’s naval forces, which must be ready to contain Russia’s aggression from the Black and Azov Seas, ZN.UA said.
Agreements on the development and strengthening of the Ukrainian Navy were reached a year ago. During the last year’s visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to London, a memorandum on strengthening cooperation between Ukraine and the United Kingdom in the military and military-technical sectors was signed. The memorandum stipulated the raising of financing from the UK’s export credit agency in the amount of GBP 1.25 billion. In the summer 2021, in Odesa, a memorandum on maritime partnership projects between the consortium of British industry and the Ukrainian Navy was signed.
The number of tourists entering the country has increased by 12.6% compared to the first three quarters of 2020; more than three million foreigners have arrived this year, the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine reported on Facebook on Saturday.As of October 2021, among the tourists visiting Ukraine, 70% were Europeans, 25.5% came from Asian countries, 3% were tourists from North America, 1.4% from African countries, 0.6% and 0.2% from Oceania and South America, respectively (while in the corresponding period of 2020, 79.2% came to Ukraine from Europe, 17.7% of tourists came from Asia, 1.5% – from North America, 0.7% – from Oceania and African countries each).The TOP-15 countries by the number of foreigners who entered Ukraine included: Moldova – 74,630 (of which tourists – 24.09%); Russia – 411,373 (13.31%), Poland – 209,039 (6.76%); Romania – 200,370 (6.48%); Belarus – 199,553 (6.46%); Turkey – 171,955 (5.56%); Hungary – 152, 390 (4.93%); Germany – 111,675 (3.61%); Israel – 96,250 (3.11%); U.S. – 81,581 (2.64%); Saudi Arabia – 48,660 (1.57%) Italy – 39,499 (1.28%); Great Britain – 37,384 (1.21%), India – 34,947 (1.13%); Azerbaijan – 33,410 (1.08%).
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal notes interest in developing cooperation with Slovakia in terms of information exchange between the customs authorities of both countries.”The head of the Ukrainian government stressed that Ukraine is interested in developing cooperation with Slovakia in the customs sphere. According to him, one of the topical areas of such cooperation is the exchange of information between the customs authorities of both countries and the implementation of a pilot project for the exchange of preliminary information,” the governmental press service said following a joint visit by Shmyhal and Prime Minister of Slovakia Eduard Heger to the Uzhgorod – Vyshne Nemetske checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Slovak border on Friday.Also, according to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, the issue of concluding agreements with Slovakia remains open, which will allow opening pedestrian and bicycle traffic through the checkpoint Uzhgorod – Vyshne Nemetske. “The relevant protocol is under consideration by the Slovak side. We look forward to a constructive discussion of these issues during our bilateral meetings,” said Shmyhal.
Scientists and doctors from Ukraine, the United States and Italy exchanged the results of the latest scientific research in the fight against coronavirus and confirmed the effectiveness of antiviral drugs in the fight against COVID-19.
“The problem of combating the pandemic is relevant both for Ukraine and for the whole world. In our country, the number of COVID-19 cases is growing daily. And although the immunization of the population is quite active, none of the vaccines guarantees that a person will not get sick. The issue of prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in the early stages is now extremely relevant,” the scientists said, following the results of the scientific and practical conference entitled “New Treatment Strategies for COVID-19,” organized by the pharmaceutical company Farmak (Kyiv).
At the conference, scientists discussed the development of new and effective existing medicines that help treat patients with COVID-19. In particular, they paid special attention to the results of studies of antiviral drugs that demonstrated a therapeutic effect, shared their experience of partnership in the development of a direct-acting antiviral drug, talked about the prospects for the development of other antiviral drugs.
“How do antiviral drugs work? The virus is much smaller than bacteria, but this does not prevent it from destroying cells. People often mistakenly believe that antibiotics can neutralize the virus, but this is not the case. It is important to understand that antibiotics are effective only against certain types of bacteria. Antiviral agents are used to quickly and effectively deal with the virus. At the beginning of the disease, they reduce the symptoms and shorten the duration of the disease. It should also be understood that such drugs prevent it from multiplying,” the scientists said.
Italian scientist, doctor of the Ronzoni Institute for Chemical and Biochemical Research Stefano Elli, in particular, said that antiviral drugs have great potential in the fight against a pandemic. He presented a study showing the effect of Enisamium on SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). Enisamium is better known as the active ingredient of Farmak pharmaceutical company.
“According to the results of preclinical and clinical studies, Enisamium has confirmed its effectiveness. Prescribing the drug to patients with moderate severity of COVID-19 made it possible to alleviate the course of the disease in the subjects, prevent the deterioration of its clinical condition, avoid deaths and shorten the length of hospital stay,” Elli said.
According to the representative of the state enterprise State Expert Center Pavlo Babich, the positive experience of using this drug is confirmed by the results of a study on its use among patients with moderate COVID-19.
“Studies have shown that an antiviral drug successfully used in the treatment of influenza and acute respiratory viral infections in 11 countries of the world and, as it was recently established, by the joint efforts of scientists from Ukraine, Germany, the U.K., is also clinically effective in moderate COVID-19. Indeed, the drug has a wide spectrum of antiviral action against RNA viruses that cause acute respiratory diseases by inhibiting the RNA polymerase enzyme of the virus, under the influence of which it replicates,” he said.
“According to the results of research by scientists from the United States, Italy and Ukraine, it can be summarized that antiviral drugs are a powerful weapon in overcoming and preventing the negative consequences of COVID-19,” the scientists said.
Citizens of Ukraine who have completed a full course of vaccination against coronavirus (COVID-19) will be able to enter Latvia and Greece if they have supporting documents, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said. “Another EU country, Greece, remained open to Ukrainians. Our citizens can enter it on the same conditions as before,” Kuleba said in Twitter on Friday.
He later added that Latvia also remains open for the entry of vaccinated Ukrainians.
“We continue to work with European partners to preserve freedom of travel,” Kuleba said.
Thus, at the moment, the number of EU countries that have left the possibility of entry for vaccinated citizens of Ukraine has reached 15. In addition to Latvia and Greece, they include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Spain, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Slovakia, France, Croatia, Czech Republic and Sweden.
The European provider of electronic identification tools Nets A/S plans to open an office in Ukraine, the Ministry of Digital Transformation said on the Telegram channel, citing Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Liudmyla Rabchynska.
“This will bring us even closer to the EU Digital Single Market and help in digitalization processes. Nets A/S is the main provider that creates tools for electronic identification in the Scandinavian countries, Norway and Denmark, over the past 20 years,” the message says.
As the Ministry of Digital Transformation said, now 99% of the population of Denmark has an electronic ID and receive 100% of public services online.
“The emergence of Nets A/S in our state will allow Ukrainians to use new fintech services, e-archives, trust services and e-identification tools,” the ministry said.
