President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have discussed energy security issues and steps to de-escalate the situation around Ukraine and a peaceful settlement in Donbas.
“I had a good talk with Boris Johnson. Energy security issues were discussed. We coordinated next steps to de-escalate the situation around Ukraine and peaceful settlement in Donbas. I appreciate the firm and unwavering Britain’s support for sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Zelensky said on his Twitter page.
Later, the President’s Office of Ukraine said on its website that Johnson and Zelensky expressed a common position on the inadmissibility of using the Nord Stream 2 project as a weapon.
Moreover, amid discussing Ukraine’s interaction with NATO, the head of the Ukrainian state and the prime minister of Great Britain stated a common approach to the fact that no third country can block Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration.
“The interlocutors positively assessed the bilateral cooperation on the development of the defense capabilities of our state and the strengthening of the Ukrainian fleet,” the office said.
An exchange of views took place on further measures of political dialogue at the highest level. Zelensky renewed an invitation to Johnson to visit Ukraine in 2022.
The international vertically integrated pipe and wheel company Interpipe and the world leader in the production of premium pipe products Vallourec (France) have terminated the implementation of a partnership project for the joint production of steel pipes for the European market due to restrictions on this market.
The company’s presentation on the results of work for January-September 2021 states: the project with Vallourec has been completed.
The Interpipe press service confirmed the termination of the joint venture’s activities to Interfax-Ukraine.
“Indeed, there is such a phrase in the presentation… Interpipe has terminated cooperation with Vallourec within the framework of a joint venture established in April 2018 for the production of line pipes with their subsequent sale in the EU market,” the press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
As explained, Interpipe was forced to make the decision due to the impossibility of fully utilizing the capacities of this joint venture due to the preservation of quotas and duties on Ukrainian pipe products in the European market.
“At the moment, Interpipe and Vallourec no longer produce and sell pipe products in the EU market under the JV. Since October, line pipes in the European market have been sold under the Interpipe brand, as it was before the joint venture was established,” the company said.
Production of beer (except for non-alcoholic beer with an alcohol content of up to 0.5% ABV) in Ukraine decreased by 6.1% in January-November 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, to 156.6 million decaliters, according to the website of the brewers association Ukrpyvo.
At the same time, during the specified period, malt production decreased by 19.6%, to 195,580 tonnes.
Sugar production in Ukraine as of December 17 amounted to 1.25 million tonnes (more by 110,000 tonnes for the period on December 3-17), in general, 8.87 million tonnes of sugar beet (more by 720,000 tonnes) were processed, according to the website of the Ukrtsukor National Association of Sugar Producers.
According to the data on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, as of December 17, Ukrainian agrarians harvested 10.53 million tonnes of sugar beet (98.8% of the forecast) with a yield of 469.7 centners/ha.
Thus, at the moment, 84.2% of the sugar beet harvested in the current season has been processed.
