Agrosem LLC (Kyiv), a distributor of agricultural products, seeds and agricultural machinery, has launched a railway route from Ukraine to Austria, which will export batches of Ukrainian corn on a weekly basis.
Agrosem’s Facebook page reported on Tuesday that the first train of 25 hopper cars arrived at the Austrian customer on May 6. Based on the average carrying capacity of grain wagons of 72 tons, the volume of a weekly consignment of corn sent to Austria will be approximately 1.8 thousand tons.
“Customers in Ukraine and Austria are happy with the result, but the process was complicated, especially due to the difference between the width of the tracks in Ukraine and Europe. This required finding stations where it would be possible to transfer from the Ukrainian train to the Austrian one, and it was also necessary to find out the availability free wagons in both countries. But we are confident that the train will run weekly, delivering products to Europe,” the company explains.
According to the director of “Agrosem” Oleksiy Kulik, whose words are quoted by the press service of the company, it is now very important to support Ukrainian farmers and find solutions for the export of grown products. “We must do everything to ensure that Ukrainian farmers can sell their products in Europe at market prices,” he stressed.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Austria Vasyl Khyminets, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Ecology and Water Resources of Austria Elisabeth Kostinger, General Director of the Austrian Federal Railways Andreas Matt and Director of Agrosem Kulik participated in the organization of the export route.
“Agrosem” is the official distributor in Ukraine of agricultural machinery and spare parts, seeds, fertilizers and plant protection products. The company offers solutions in the field of precision farming, telematics systems, automated and unmanned vehicles aimed at improving product efficiency and saving resources in the agricultural production process.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the ultimate beneficiary of Agrosem LLC is Oleg Zvyagintsev with a 35% stake in the company’s authorized capital, Igor Zvyagintsev (15%), Alexei Kulik (15%) and US citizen Alexander Weiner (35%).
Germany will help Ukraine in demining, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock.
“We, like Germany, will help in demining to a greater extent. Because it is not only about military demining, where we will help you. It is also about demining in cities, villages, and doing it together so that people were able to return home,” Burbock said at a press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv on Tuesday.
The first president of Ukraine (1991-1994), Leonid Kravchuk, passed away on Tuesday, May 10, said People’s Deputy of Ukraine, ex-Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Dmitry Razumkov.
“A great loss for all of Ukraine. Today, Leonid Kravchuk, the first President of Ukraine, the first Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and the figure who stood at the origins of modern Ukrainian statehood, passed away,” Razumkov wrote in Telegram.
As it became known to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, Leonid Kravchuk was hospitalized with Covid-19 coronavirus infection in one of the foreign clinics in 2021, was in a coma for a long time, then underwent rehabilitation abroad of Ukraine.
Leonid Kravchuk was born on January 10, 1934. From 1970 to 1991, he held various positions in the structure of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the CPSU, left the ranks of the Communist Party after the August coup. In July 1990, he became chairman of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR, it was under his leadership that the resolution and the Act of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine were adopted. From August 24 to December 5, 1991 – Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
He was elected President of Ukraine in the first direct presidential elections on December 1, 1991, following which he won 61.6% of the vote. On December 8, 1991, together with the President of the Russian Federation (RSFSR) Boris Yeltsin and Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus Stanislav Shushkevich, he signed the Belovezhskaya Accords on the termination of the existence of the USSR.
In the early presidential elections of 1994, he lost to Leonid Kuchma in the second round, gaining 45.1% of the vote. From 1994 until 2006 he was elected a people’s deputy of Ukraine.
From July 28, 2020 to February 21, 2022 – Chairman of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group on the settlement of the situation in Donbas.
The size of the new aid package proposed by US President Joe Biden to Ukraine has grown from $33 billion to $39.8 billion to date after discussions, Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova said on Facebook after meetings with senators on Tuesday.
According to her, at the invitation of the leader of the Republican Party Mitch McConnell, she met with 45 senators from this party and at the invitation of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer – with 44 senators from the Democratic Party, whom she briefed on the current state of Ukraine’s struggle against Russian aggression and the urgent need for continued defense and US financial support.
Markarova noted that Ukraine expects the Congress to consider the new aid package proposed by the US President as soon as possible.
She added that also during the meeting, she thanked Senators Lindsey Graham (Republican) and Richard Blumenthal (Democratic) for the resolution on recognizing the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism.
“According to my information from the US allies, the House of Representatives intends to approve an updated $39.8 billion aid package to Ukraine in the near future. Our allies have no doubts about our victory and are ready to provide everything necessary for it,” the head of the parliamentary faction also wrote on Tuesday. “Servant of the People” David Arakhamia in Telegram.
According to him, such an unprecedented level of support will quickly change the situation on the battlefield, and the heroism of the Ukrainians will be backed up by modern equipment and weapons.
Earlier in the day, the media indicated, citing sources, that the updated package includes an additional $3.4 billion for military assistance and $3.4 billion for humanitarian assistance.
The Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra has reached the final of the Eurovision 2022 International Song Contest in Turin (Italy).
As the correspondent of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports, on May 10, the first semi-final of the International Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was held in Turin.
17 participants performed in it, of which 10 were chosen who will fight for victory in the final of the competition.
The Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra with the song Stefania performed at number six.
According to the results of the first semi-final, Ukraine qualified for the final, which will take place on May 14.
As reported, on February 12, the national final of the selection for Eurovision 2022 was held in Kyiv. According to the results of the competition, it was determined that in 2022, performer Alina Pash will represent Ukraine at the international song contest with the song “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”. Pash received 15 points (8 points from the jury and 7 points from the audience). The second place was taken by the group “Kalush Orchestra” (6 points from the jury and 8 from the audience), the third – the singer Wellboy (7 points from the judges and 6 from the audience). Roxolana, Barleben, Michael Soul, Cloudless and Our Atlantic also fought for the victory in the final.
After a series of conflict situations and scandals around this topic, Pash was disqualified for providing the organizing committee with a fake certificate from the State Border Service. In this regard, it was decided that the Kalush Orchestra would represent Ukraine at the competition.
In 2021, at Eurovision, Ukraine was represented by the electro-folk band Go_A, who took fifth place in the final of the competition.
In 2019, Ukraine did not take part in the competition due to public criticism of the singer Maruv because of her performance in the Russian Federation. The National Public Broadcasting Company and the winner of the 2019 National Selection refused to sign the contract.
Eurovision 2022 is taking place in Turin (Italy). The second semi-final will take place on May 12. The final of the competition will take place on May 14.
Consumer price growth in Ukraine in April 2022 slowed to 3.1% from 4.5% in March, but exceeded 1.6% in February and 1.3% in January, the State Statistics Service (Gosstat) reported on Tuesday.
In April last year, inflation was 0.7%, so in annual terms in April this year it rose to 16.4% from 13.7% in March, 10.7% in February and 10% in January, the agency said.
Core inflation also eased to 3% last month from 3.8% in March. However, taking into account 0.7% in April 2021 in annual terms, it increased to 13% from 10.5% in March, 8.2% in February and 7.6% in January.
Since the beginning of this year, for its first four months, inflation in Ukraine amounted to 10.9%, and the base – 8.1%, said the State Statistics Service.
The National Bank of Ukraine, as reported by its head Kirill Shevchenko, expected an increase in inflation in April to 15.9%.
As reported, in 2021 inflation in Ukraine rose to 10% from 5% in 2020 and 4.1% in 2019, while core inflation rose to 7.9% against 4.5% a year earlier.
