The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Australia, Richard Marles, has announced another $100 million package of military assistance to Ukraine.
“Australia will stay with Ukraine for as long as it takes for Ukraine to win this war. To this end, we are today announcing another $100 million package of assistance to Ukraine. $50 million of this amount will be spent on short-range air defense systems, another $30 million will be spent on the purchase of drones, as Australia is part of the Drone Coalition with the UK and Latvia. The remainder will be used to purchase support equipment, from inflatable boats to helmets and boots,” Marles said at a joint briefing with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Lviv on Saturday.
He added that Australia was also able to provide Ukraine with air-to-ground munitions.
The United Arab Emirates and Ukraine concluded an economic agreement aimed at increasing their bilateral trade, which has fallen sharply from its pre-war level.
Non-oil trade between the two countries reached $386 million last year, down from more than $800 million before the Kremlin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Thani Al-Zeyoudi, the UAE’s minister of state for foreign trade, said in an interview. The fall in trade is not specific to the Gulf nation, and similar trends with Ukraine since the start of the war can be seen across the globe, he said.
The agreement finalizes a trade pact that was announced two years ago, and is part of the UAE’s goal of growing its non-oil foreign trade with multiple nations. The deal aims to alleviate or remove tariffs on some products, and strengthen supply chains to the wider region for major exports such as grains, machinery and metals, according to a statement on the agreement released Monday.
Kyiv estimates the accord may boost Ukraine’s gross domestic product by 0.1% in the medium- to long-term, the Economy Ministry said in a statement on its website.
“Ukraine is a bridge for our exports to Europe, and an important source for our imports related to food security,” Al-Zeyoudi said in the statement. The agreement “will provide Ukrainian companies and entrepreneurs with a new platform that allows them to expand towards growth markets in Asia and Africa through the UAE.”
Al-Zeyoudi said the pact would “play an active role in revitalizing the Ukrainian economy, and would provide new opportunities for the business communities of the two friendly countries.”
“It is not a classic free trade agreement, it is comprehensive, and it includes goods, services, investments, digital trade, and so on,” Ukrainian Economic Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said. The ministry said it expects exports of metals and vegetable oil to rise as a result of the deal.
Joint investment between the two countries reached $360 million in 2022 across several sectors including logistics and infrastructure, travel and tourism, and technology, according to the statement.
The energy-rich UAE has been signing similar pacts with several countries it is targeting for trade growth such as India, Israel and Turkey. In 2021, the Gulf country said it planned to deepen its trade ties in fast-growing economies by drawing $150 billion in foreign investments.
The UAE has maintained ties with both Ukraine and Russia since the start of the Kremlin’s invasion. The Gulf nation’s business capital Dubai has been a destination for both Russians and Ukrainians.
All checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish border were unblocked on Sunday night, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solsky said.
“We express our gratitude to the Polish Ministry for their constructive work on unblocking the border, as well as to the industry associations of both countries. The ongoing negotiations were not easy, but the main thing is that we have a result,” the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy quoted him as saying at the online talks on Monday.
According to the report, negotiations between the ministries and associations will continue. The parties agreed to exchange monthly figures on the transit of agricultural products to monitor the situation.
The next meeting of the agriculture ministers of Ukraine and Poland is scheduled for May 7. They will discuss the terms of cooperation between the agricultural sectors of the two countries in the summer.
Viola von Cramon, Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Deputy Chair of the EP Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee (EPA), Germany, Green Group/European Free Alliance, has suggested that Ukraine should include opposition representatives in its executive bodies.
In an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, the MEP stated that holding presidential elections in Ukraine is impossible due to the war waged by the Russian Federation. In this regard, she expressed support for the inclusion of opposition representatives in the Ukrainian executive branch.
“Yes, this is what I consider necessary. I think we should have made this a precondition at the very beginning (of providing financial assistance to Ukraine)… You saw how Netanyahu (Israeli Prime Minister) created a military cabinet from the very beginning, 24 hours after the attack (by the Hamas terrorist organization on Israel). He made sure to include everyone and that everyone spoke with one voice. The same could be expected from Ukraine,” she said.
At the same time, the MEP did not rule out that this condition could be specified when providing further financial support. “I would say that the US, the EU, Germany and other donors may require this. I think we need to make sure that all participants in the political arena receive the same attention, the same access, and the same financial review. This way, they know what money is coming and going and why certain decisions are made. I am in favor of involving the opposition more in the decision-making process at the executive level,” she argued.
In addition, the agency’s interlocutor, stating the impossibility of holding elections throughout Ukraine, allowed the discussion of holding local elections in the non-occupied territories. “The Constitution (of Ukraine) does not allow holding elections during the war. But perhaps we could discuss or think about local elections in those territories, in those regions that are not occupied. But I am not sure that this is being discussed, and it is not for me, as a European, to talk about it,” von Cramon said.
The MEP also commented on cases when members of the Verkhovna Rada were denied permission to sign business trips outside the country. “Yes, we are very well aware of this and we are fighting for the rights of my colleagues. This is not normal. But it’s not just the opposition. Interestingly, after one of the votes, people who did not vote for a certain law faced the same appeal. So it’s not just the opposition. In fact, this is used as a political tool against those MPs who did not follow the presidential line, and this is a problem,” von Cramon said.
She believes that the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, “does not decide anything,” and that the decisions are made by “the Secretary General of the Rada (Vyacheslav Shtuchnyi), appointed by the President’s Office.” “You have an elected speaker of the Ukrainian Rada chamber, but you also have a secretary general appointed by the President’s Office who makes all the decisions, earns a lot of money – 13 thousand euros – and is not obliged to disclose (declare) his assets and his income. This is what really worries me,” the European politician said.
Von Cramon also believes that the Verkhovna Rada could allow journalists to cover its work again. “I think it would be fair to leave the doors (of the parliament) open and give a place to journalists who are interested in reporting directly on the debate to feel the spirit, the dynamics of the debate, but I don’t think I have anything to say about that,” the MEP said.
At the same time, she is convinced that the press in Ukraine is “free,” although “there are certain restrictions and, of course, a lot of subcensorship.” “It’s more like what you think: “If I publish this, if I criticize this, it might end up in Putin’s hands or help Putin discredit Ukraine,” and of course that’s not in the interest of most journalists. But I wouldn’t say that there are any, let’s say, red lines that cannot be crossed,” von Cramon explained her opinion.
At the same time, she also believes that “there is a tendency in the Presidential Office not to give a voice to the opposition and critics.” “With this marathon (the United News telethon), they have actually included all journalists and ensured that the pluralism of the media landscape has virtually disappeared. This unity does not reflect the diversity of the political landscape, and this can be criticized. I criticize it. But I would not say that there is no free and objective media,” stated the MEP.
The State Inspectorate of Architecture and Urban Development of Ukraine (SIAU) has revoked the construction permits for 14 residential complexes on the territory of the National Aviation University (NAU) in Kyiv.
“The State Inspectorate of Architecture and Urban Development of Ukraine has canceled the permit for construction works on the territory of the National Aviation University upon the application of the acting rector of NAU Ksenia Semenova. The cancellation of the construction was preceded by a corresponding decision of the NAU Supervisory Board,” the university’s press service said.
It is noted that at the meeting of the Supervisory Board of the National Academy of Sciences, all documents on the investment agreement for the development of the territory, which was concluded in 2007, were reviewed and studied in detail.
“Taking into account all the available facts and materials, it was decided to take the following actions: to conduct claim work on the investment agreement, which is contrary to the interests of the university, to cancel the permit for the construction of 14 residential complexes, to hold officials responsible for making decisions that led to the loss of state property and stagnation of the university,” the statement said.
In January-March 2024, Ovostar Union, a vertically integrated holding company, one of the leading producers of eggs and egg products in Ukraine, increased its total number of hens by 2.7% to 7.31 million, while reducing the number of laying hens by 4.1% to 6.12 million.
According to the group’s report published on the Warsaw Stock Exchange website on Friday, the volume of egg production in the first quarter of 2024 amounted to 331 million eggs, which is 9% less than in the same period of 2023. Accordingly, sales in the egg segment amounted to 211 million units, which is 12.4% less than last year.
Export sales of shell eggs in January-March 2024 also decreased by 22.9% and amounted to 81 million units, which was 38% of the total number of eggs sold in this period in 2024. A year earlier, this figure was 44%, the report says.
At the same time, in the first quarter of 2024, the agricultural holding increased egg processing by 42% to 132 million eggs, while in 2023 this figure was 92 million. Ovostar produced 571 tons of dry egg products and 3.41 thousand tons of liquid egg products, while last year the processing amounted to 406 tons and 3.07 thousand tons, respectively.
Sales of dry egg products amounted to 629 tons, up 18.5% year-on-year, of which 478 tons (76%) were exported. In the first quarter of 2023, 354 tons (67%) of dry egg products were exported to foreign markets.
Sales of liquid egg products amounted to 3.4 thousand tons, up 11% year-on-year, of which 1.14 thousand tons (34%) were exported. A year earlier, 1.29 thousand tons (42%) of liquid egg products were exported.
“In the first quarter of 2023, the volume of egg production decreased due to a slight decrease in the number of laying hens. Given the downward trend in egg prices, the company increased the volume of egg processing, which led to a steady increase in egg production. In the current situation, the management is satisfied with the operating results achieved in the first three months of the year,” said Boris Belikov, CEO of Ovostar Union.
Ovostar Union, a vertically integrated holding company, is one of the leading producers of eggs and egg products in Ukraine. “In the first nine months of 2023, Ovostar earned $29.08 million in net profit, up 12.2 times year-on-year. Its revenue for the nine months increased by 36.3% to $123.06 million, mainly due to higher prices for its products.