Some 75 observers have already arrived in Ukraine from abroad to monitor the local elections scheduled for October 25, Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Oleh Nemchinov said, citing data from the State Border Guard Service.
“The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said that 75 international observers have already arrived,” Nemchinov wrote in his Telegram channel on Friday.
According to him, a regular, fourth meeting of the Interdepartmental Working Group for Coordination of the Activities of Executive Authorities to Create the Right Conditions for the October 25 elections was held online on Friday. During the meeting, the issues of organizing the educational process in the regions, the readiness of election commissions to work, monitoring the decisions of local government agencies on the allocation of funds for anti-epidemic measures, providing election commissions with disinfectants and personal protective equipment, the development and maintenance of budget funds sent to territorial election commissions for organization and conduct of elections.
“There are only two days left before the local elections, so there are final preparations and active coordination of the activities of the central executive authorities and the Central Election Commission. We must consolidate efforts and ensure that local elections are held at the proper level,” Nemchinov wrote.
Ukraine and China have signed a program of cooperation in the field of aerospace for 2021-2025, which consists of 69 joint projects with a total value of contracts of more than $70 million.
As reported on the website of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU), the program was signed at a meeting of the Ukrainian-Chinese subcommittee on cooperation in space of the Commission on Cooperation between the Governments of Ukraine and China on October 22. The Ukrainian side was chaired by SSAU Head Volodymyr Usov, the Chinese – by Administrator of the Chinese National Space Administration (СNSA) Zhang Kejian.
The cooperation program will be the main one for joint activities of the two countries in space exploration in the medium term.
During the meeting, an agreement on the establishment of a joint laboratory of space science was also signed and an agreement to strengthen the exchange of information on space activities of the two countries was reached.
The next meeting of the subcommittee on cooperation in the field of space is scheduled for 2021 in China.
The mobile operator Vodafone Ukraine has launched a 4G LTE900 network in Sumy region, having installed 25 base stations, the company’s press service said on Friday, October 23.
According to a press release, the new coverage provides high-speed Internet for 195 settlements with a population of over 62,000 people.
To date, the operator has launched more than 530 base stations in the range of 900 MHz, which cover over 3,000 settlements. About 2.8 million people live on this territory.
The 4G LTE900 network from Vodafone Ukraine is already operating in Kyiv, Odesa, Vinnytsia, Volyn, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Khmelnytsky, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Ternopil, Rivne, Chernivtsi, Cherkasy, Chernihiv regions and in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk.
Till the end of 2020, the LTE 900 MHz network will be launched in all regions of Ukraine, alternately from the west to the east.
According to licensing conditions, by mid-2022, mobile high-speed Internet coverage should be provided in settlements with a population of more than 2,000 people, covering 90% of the population of Ukraine. And the coverage of roads of international and national importance should be provided until mid-2024.
The light Alpha launch vehicle (LV) will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California as early as December 22, 2020, the press service of Firefly Aerospace Inc., a provider of launch vehicles, spacecraft and in-space services, has said, referring to co-owner Ukrainian businessman Max Polyakov and Firefly Aerospace CEO Tom Markusic, who was cited in an interview on Friday by CNBC TV.
Firefly is finishing up work to prepare the launchpad at SLC-2.
While “everything is susceptible to surprises,” with room in the schedule to launch as late as January 31, Markusic said the “full gamut of rules” at Vandenberg means the company has put extra work into certification for Alpha’s first launch.
“Our design has been highly vetted, as we have a lot of requirements that are put on us by the range and that makes the rocket ultimately more reliable,” he said.
He said that it is very reasonable for Firefly Aerospace to expect complete success on the first launch.
Standing at 95 feet tall, Firefly’s Alpha rocket is designed to launch as much as 1,000 kilograms of payload to low Earth orbit – at a price of $15 million per launch.
Firefly Aerospace was restarted in 2017 by Ukrainian Polyakov, including it in Noosphere Ventures.
Only a handful of tests remain until Alpha’s first launch. Firefly conducted a final engine test with the rocket’s first stage two weeks ago, with a second stage engine test up next. Then Firefly will conduct the “activation of the launch site.” The next big milestone will be the static fire of the entire vehicle at the launch site.
Firefly expects to launch at least three times in 2021.
In addition to the Alpha and Beta rockets, Firefly Aerospace is working on Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) known as a space tug to deliver satellites from a rocket to a specific orbit, and a lunar lander called Genesis for NASA.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Dnipro Municipal Energy Service Company (Dnipro) have signed a loan agreement on the allocation of EUR25 million in a loan to improve the energy efficiency of 98 public buildings, including 67 kindergartens, 27 schools and four clinics.
“Thanks to the agreement between Mayor Borys Filatov and the EBRD, today we’ve signed a loan to finance the second stage of a large energy saving project in the city’s buildings. This will create conditions that are more comfortable for the residents of our city,” the bank’s press service quotes deputy mayor of the city Eduard Pidlubny.
“The new loan builds on the successful implementation of a pilot project with Dnipro’s energy management company in 2020. Under the pilot financed by the EBRD, the E5P and the Clean Technology Fund, 33 schools and 48 kindergartens have been refurbished offering more comfort and greater energy efficiency,” the bank said on its website.
“The new financing will allow the city to maintain the pace of its energy efficiency investments in public buildings and will set an example for other Ukrainian cities to follow. Once the projects are completed, the city would have renovated almost 200 public buildings, the largest such effort in Ukraine,” Mark Magaletsky, the EBRD Deputy Director for Ukraine, said.
The EBRD’s board of directors reportedly approved the project last week.
The loan has a term of 13 years, including a grace period of up to three years, with 20 equal payments every six months. The loan will be secured by the city’s full municipal guarantee, the bank said.
Pivdenny commercial sea port (formerly Yuzhny, Odesa region), the largest seaport of Ukraine in terms of transshipment volume, increased transshipment by 21.4%, which is 46.932 million tonnes in January-September 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
According to the data of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority published on its website, in the nine months the port increased the transshipment of export cargo by 26.4% to 35.775 million tonnes compared to January-September last year, import cargo by 9.5%, to 5.793 million tonnes, and transit cargo by 0.4%, to 5.062 million tonnes. Coastal cargoes were handled 17 times over, which accounted for 1.728 million tonnes.
In terms of the cargo nomenclature, the port increased the transshipment of liquid cargo by 23.4% up to 4.028 million tonnes, bulk materials by 22.3%, to 39.478 million tonnes, packaged goods by 10.2%, to 3.425 million tonnes.
Transshipment of containers for the specified period amounted to 181,737 TEU (up by 25.4%).
Pivdenny sea port was founded in 1978. It is located on the banks of the Adzhalyk estuary and is the deepest in Ukraine. The total length of the berths is about 2.6 km.
