Ukraine has registered 43,778 new cases of COVID-19, as well as 9,497 recoveries and 174 deaths in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Health Ministry said on Friday. “Over the past day, February 3, Ukraine has recorded 43,778 new cases of COVID-19, including 4,381 children and 873 medical workers, while 75,304 persons have been vaccinated for COVID-19, including 23,482 who received the first dose, 28,444 who received the second dose, 695 who received an additional dose, and 22,683 who received a booster shot. In the past 24 hours, 4,328 persons have been hospitalized, 174 have died, and 9,497 have recovered,” the ministry said on Telegram.
There were 39,620 new contagions in Ukraine the day before.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ukraine has seen a total of 4,213,675 cases, including 3,660,351 recoveries and 100,983 deaths.
As many as 15,420,207 people have been vaccinated for COVID-19 in Ukraine to date.
Ukraine and Turkey have signed an agreement to expand the joint production of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“Today we’ve paid special attention to cooperation in the aviation and defense industries. This is one of the locomotives of our strategic partnership. Our goal is the implementation of specific projects to create joint ventures, exchange of experience, exchange of technologies. An agreement has been signed today that will expand the production of unmanned aerial vehicles,” Zelensky said at a joint briefing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Kyiv.
As reported, Oleksiy Arestovych, the speaker of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on resolving the situation in Donbas, in December 2021 announced that the Ukrainian-Turkish plant, which is being built in the town of Vasylkiv, Kyiv region, will produce reactive heavy drones of the ANKA type – the next generation of drones after Bayraktar, as well as promising Ukrainian drones.
“In particular, we can talk about jet drones, which are interceptors. That is, they are capable of operating against air targets, against other drones. Even against manned aircraft. They will have Ukrainian engines and the rest of Turkish avionics: a hull, etc.,” he said.
According to Arestovych, the plant in Vasylkiv should already produce the first products at the end of 2022.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and Turkish Trade Minister Mehmet Mus signed an agreement on a free trade zone between the countries.
The agreement was signed in Kyiv on Thursday in the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following the results of negotiations between the parties.
It is expected that the agreement on a Free trade area between the countries will bring an additional 2% of GDP annually.
Ukraine’s revenue from export of grain crops in 2021 amounted to $12.3 billion, the largest trading partners were China, which imported $2.55 billion, as well as Egypt ($1.39 billion) and Turkey ($0.92 billion), the Institute of Agrarian Economics (IAE) reported on its website on Thursday.
“2021 was characterized by the further strengthening of the position of China, which in 2020 for the first time took the top among 10 largest importers of Ukrainian grain. In four years, starting from 2018, this country has increased its grain purchases from Ukraine almost five times, to $2.55 billion. At the same time, China’s share in the value of domestic grain exports increased from 19.7% in 2020 to 20.7% in 2021,” the IAE said, citing expert Bohdan Dukhnitsky.
According to the IAE, last year Egypt increased imports of Ukrainian grains by 24%, from $1.12 billion to $1.37 billion, but its share of their total exports decreased from 11.9% to 11.2%.
“Turkey, which in 2020 ranked only sixth in the top 10, moved up to the third spot last year, increasing the value of purchases of Ukrainian grain to $0.92 billion. In addition, in 2021, there were changes in the top 10 largest buyers of grain from Ukraine: Iran and Pakistan pushed South Korea and Bangladesh out of the top 10,” the expert said in the IAE report.
Other major grain importers from Ukraine were Indonesia with $750 million, Spain with $645 million, the Netherlands with $552 million, Iran with $533 million, Pakistan with $355 million, Libya with $342 million and Tunisia with $306 million.
The IAE said that in total, these 10 countries had dominated in the value of all grain purchases in Ukraine in 2021 (their share was more than two thirds).
As reported, since the beginning of 2021/22 (July-June) and as of February 2, Ukraine exported 38.63 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops (31.6% more compared to the same date of the previous year), including 17.08 million tonnes of wheat (30.4% more), 15.64 million tonnes of corn (32.6% more), 5.48 million tonnes of barley (38.7% more), 0.16 million tons rye (92 times more), 63,800 tonnes of flour (27.0% less).
Kyiv City State Administration has implemented a project to build a city backbone network and infrastructure for the implementation of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology.
According to Kyiv City State Administration, with reference to the chief digital transformationofficer of Kyiv (CDTO) Petro Olenych, this will allow monitoring the state of the environment, controlling the microclimate in schools or hospitals and improving the efficiency of public services.
“A smart city is impossible without the introduction of the Internet of Things technologies: traditional infrastructure, a network of connected sensors and a control system. Already, Kyiv is covered with a network for collecting and analyzing data – 295 base stations operate in all districts of the city for this. The next step is to install sensors on locations and information analysis,” he said.
Thanks to the LoRaWAN wireless communication technology, sensors can be used to obtain data with maximum energy efficiency, Oleh Polovinko, the director of the department of information and communication technologies of Kyiv City State Administration, explained.
It is planned that the sensors will be installed on gas pipelines, water pipes, electrical panels, etc.
One of the examples of the implementation of IoT in the city is “smart waste bins”.
“Sensors on the tanks will inform about the possible ignition of a fire in the container, display and predict the fullness using an ultrasonic signal. When the tank is full, the utilities will be notified about the need for garbage collection.
“What are the direct effects of these decisions on this example? Processes are becoming more economical: we do not drive a garbage truck around the city, but we can optimally build a route, saving both fuel and driver time,” he emphasized.
As reported, the mobile operator lifecell, together with the Internet of Things network operator using the LoRaWAN technology, the IoT Ukraine company and the integrator company Smart Eco Logic, launched a project of water supply account for Lutskvodokanal.
