Up to 80% hemostatic tourniquets supplied to the Ukrainian army are of poor quality, head of COR-Medical Tigran Amalyan has said.
“I think the most acute problem concerning both the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the healthcare system is a large number of poor quality tourniquets. We have conducted a research, we worked with military doctors, and we think up to 80% of tourniquets supplied to our army today are of poor quality,” he told a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
Amalyan said that one of the reasons why such a huge amount of poor quality tourniquets is supplied was the fact that the military do not check them on their own.
“The military want to take them without checking and then, in case of an injury, when they use them, tourniquets often crack. We even had to post several videos on our channel. We must inform all military that they should check tourniquets on their own,” he said.
Amalyan also noted that there are no protocols of transfer from civilian to military medicine in the country.
He also pointed at the fact that “a lot of highly qualified Ukrainian doctors, who should had been trained for dozens of years, have been simply transferred to the frontline. I know that several very serious specialists were killed on the battlefield. And they were among a few specialists of such a high level in the world.”
The National Bank of Sweden and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) will launch a program for Ukrainian refugees to exchange hryvnia cash for Swedish krona approximately from June 15, the NBU press service reported on Thursday.
According to the report, adult Ukrainians registered in Sweden will be able to exchange hryvnia in 53 branches of the Forex company in the amount of up to UAH 10,000 per person.
Denominations of UAH 100, UAH 200, UAH 500 and UAH 1,000 will be accepted for exchange.
As reported, Germany from May 24, and Belgium from June 1 launched a program for exchanging cash hryvnia for euros.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will take part in the NATO summit, which will be held in Madrid on June 28-30, Deputy Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance Mircea Geoană said in an article in the Italian edition of La Reppublica.
According to him, the leaders of Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan will speak at the allied summit for the first time.
“The meeting ‘one way or another’ will be attended by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky,” Geoană was quoted as saying in the article.
He also noted that the summit would be truly transformative.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) of Ukraine in the first quarter of 2022 fell by 15.1% compared to the first quarter of 2021 after growing by 6.1% in the fourth quarter of last year, the State Statistics Service published such a preliminary estimate on Thursday.
According to her, compared with the previous quarter (seasonally adjusted), GDP fell by 19.3%.
According to the State Statistics Service, in 2021, Ukraine’s GDP grew by 3.4% after a decline of 3.8% in 2020, its nominal volume amounted to about $200 billion.
The Ministry of Economy estimated the decline in GDP in the first quarter of this year at 16%. According to the World Bank, which predicts a decline in the Ukrainian economy this year by 45.1%, the Ukrainian authorities expect it to decline by 44%.
The Dutch Development Bank (FMO) has reduced the value of its portfolio in Ukraine by EUR200 million, including direct investments – by EUR70 million, loans – by EUR90 million, according to a press release from the bank.
“In Ukraine, we provided financing mainly to agro-industrial companies and the renewable energy sector. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, FMO published in its annual report that the direct impact on Ukraine amounted to about EUR200 million under contracts with 14 clients,” the message says.
It is indicated that this risk falls on debt products (56%), equities (37%) and guarantees (7%).
“The adjustments reflect management’s updated expectations for revenue and investment recovery impacted by the war in Ukraine,” FMO said.
In addition, the financial institution has indirect risks in Ukraine through borrowed funds in the amount of EUR14 million.
The bank stressed that it has no direct contact with Russia, and the assessment of its portfolio in Belarus has been reduced by about EUR20 million, mainly in the form of capital.
Consumer price growth in Ukraine in May 2022 slowed down to 2.7% from 3.1% in April and 4.5% in March, but exceeded 1.6% in February and 1.3% in January , the State Statistics Service (Gosstat) said on Thursday.
In May last year, inflation was 1.3%, so in annual terms, in May this year, it rose to 18% from 16.4% in April, 13.7% in March, 10.7% in February and 10% – following the results of January, the department indicated.
Core inflation over the past month also declined to 1.4% from 3% in April and 3.8% in March. However, taking into account 0.7% in May 2021 in annual terms, it increased to 13.7% from 13% in April, 10.5% in March, 8.2% in February and 7.6% – at the end of January.
Since the beginning of this year, for its first five months, inflation in Ukraine amounted to 13.9%, and the base – 9.6%, said the State Statistics Service.
The National Bank of Ukraine, as reported by its head Kirill Shevchenko, expected an increase in inflation in May up to 17%.
In the consumer market in May, prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 2.7%. Most of all (by 14.3% and 11.5%) rice and fruit rose in price. Prices for fish and fish products, grain processing products, vegetables, soft drinks, and pasta increased by 5.9-3.2%. At the same time, prices for eggs fell by 21.2%, beef, sugar, and poultry meat fell by 2.5–0.9%.
Prices for alcoholic beverages and tobacco products increased by 3.9%, incl. for alcoholic beverages – by 6.4%, tobacco products – by 1.5%.
The decrease in prices in the healthcare sector by 0.9% was primarily due to the reduction in the cost of pharmaceutical products by 1.8%.
Transportation prices increased by 10.2% mainly due to the increase in the price of fuel and lubricating oils by 22.8%, as well as road passenger transport fares – by 6.7%.
In the field of communications, prices increased by 1.0%, due to a rise in the cost of postal services by 6.7% and telephone equipment by 2.7%.
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.
