Minister of Finance Serhiy Marchenko criticized head of the Ministry of Health Maksym Stepanov for poor planning of measures to combat COVID-19, while admitting the possibility of increasing spending on medicine in the state budget-2021.
“He behaves like a character from ’12 Chairs’. ‘Money in the morning – chairs in the evening, money in the evening – chairs in the morning, but money in advance.’ That’s how Stepanov behaves. His task is to get as much of a budget as possible, taking advantage of the fact that we have a COVID, we have problems, we have people dying, and then, using this rhetoric, to solve those problems that are necessary to solve. I think this is absolutely wrong,” Marchenko said in an interview with lb.ua.
“We must first propose a plan, show a solution to the problem, and there was enough time for that, and then ask the finance minister or the government questions to search for funds. And now we have the approach – first money, and then I will fight COVID-19. It is impossible to put the question like that,” the minister said.
At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Finance pointed to the unspent funds of the Fund to Combat COVID-19 at the end of 2020.
“At the Cabinet of Ministers we often sort things out, and this is normal, because I have something to ask him, in particular, about the leftovers of last year. He collected money, and in the end we got leftovers that were not used,” Marchenko said.
Speaking about the possibility of correction of the state budget for 2021, he also said there is a possibility of increasing spending on medicine.
“There is a possibility of such a scenario, since there is a need to close several issues on medicine. We will discuss with the IMF and with other partners the possibility of minor adjustments to the budget,” Marchenko said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba during his phone call with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi discussed steps to step up bilateral trade, the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has reported.
“We are interested in significantly expanding the range of Ukrainian exports to the Indonesian market, which we also consider as a platform for the expansion of Ukrainian goods to other countries of Southeast Asia. Ukraine can also become a bridge for Indonesian goods to enter the markets of Eastern Europe,” Kuleba said.
He noted the importance of holding the fourth joint meeting of the intergovernmental economic commission in 2021 to select promising economic projects. The minister also said that the Council of Exporters and Investors under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine will bolster assistance to Ukrainian companies in establishing ties with Indonesian business.
The two foreign ministers pointed out the importance of starting expert consultations between Ukraine and Indonesia to consider the signing of an agreement on preferential trade.
Kuleba also called a promising area of cooperation in teaching Indonesian students in Ukraine.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has partially slowed down the development of important projects between our states. There has been a slight drop in trade volumes, contacts between governments and citizens have become fewer. We are now striving not only to catch up with the pre-existing level of relations, but also to significantly revive them in the political, trade, educational and cultural spheres,” the minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine said.
The phone call between the Ukrainian and Indonesian diplomats took place on the day of the celebration of the 29th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Indonesia.
The ministers agreed to hold political consultations of their ministries in the near future and presented invitations to exchange visits.
The Kyivstar mobile operator during April and May launched high-speed 4G Internet at 900 MHz in Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Kremenchuk, Kryvy Rih, Mariupol and Mykolaiv, the company said.
“The LTE900 project gave a significant impetus to expanding the network in small villages, where people did not have high-speed Internet before. Over the past year, residents of thousands of such settlements received 4G from Kyivstar, and we already see how quickly the use of the Internet there is growing, digital divide with cities is decreasing,” the director for planning and quality management of Kyivstar networks, Vasyl Pantov, said.
According to him, LTE900 has significant development potential for at least the next few years, primarily for launching 4G in remote, inaccessible villages and on highways, as well as for improving network performance where tens of thousands of customers are already using it at the same time.
The company notes that thanks to the use of 900 MHz frequencies in cities, Kyivstar has improved the quality of the signal indoors, since the advantage of this range is not only in a larger coverage radius, but also in the fact that the signal at low frequencies penetrates better through the walls of buildings, compared to signal at high frequencies.
“As statistics show, thanks to this innovation, 4G coverage inside buildings increased by 5-10 percentage points (p.p.), 4G traffic grew by an average of 7%, and the subscriber satisfaction index according to the survey results also improved by 1-2 percentage points.,” the company said.
Currently, Kyivstar’s 4G network operates in almost 15,000 cities and villages of Ukraine, where more than 87% of the country’s population live.
A meeting between U.S. President Joseph Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, scheduled for June 16 in Geneva, will be devoted to developing rules for their confrontation that are manageable and predictable for both sides, both in Ukraine and on a number of other international issues, political scientist believes, Director of the Institute of Global Strategies Vadym Karasiov said.
“The point of the Biden-Putin meeting will be to develop rules for the confrontation between the United States and Russia so that this confrontation is manageable. This also applies to Ukraine, judging by Putin’s recent interview. It should be understood that Ukraine remains for a long time a territory where the interests of the United States and Russia will come into contact. It is important for Biden and Putin to understand the limits of this influence and to make the overlapping of their interests more predictable and manageable and not turn into direct or even military clashes,” “Karasiov told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, it will also be important for the Russian President to hear from the U.S. President about his plans to provide Ukraine with the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP).
According to political scientist, Director of the Ukrainian Barometer sociological service Viktor Nebozhenko, “one should not expect sensations from the meeting between Biden and Putin, although the background itself and the upcoming negotiations will be quite sharp.”
“There are exaggerated expectations against an overly aggressive background. Biden fears the Republican party, which, criticizing him, is gaining strength. In turn, Putin fears losing control over gas transit, as once happened with Gorbachev [Soviet President Mykhail Gorbachev]. As a result of their meeting, there will be no easy decisions on certain issues. There will be an intricate text of the communique, a general press conference, but we will not get something that would give us the opportunity to draw quick conclusions,” Nebozhenko said.
According to the political scientist, “sensations should be expected by the autumn.” “After Putin and Biden, other players will come to the fore, namely, China, the EU countries, even Ukraine, each with its own political party.”
According to expert of Hardarika Strategic Consulting Corporation Kostiantyn Matviyenko, in the conversation between the presidents of Russia and the United States around Ukraine, the key issue will be the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
“They will try to find such a mechanism so that Russia does not ‘lose face’ in the gas pipeline construction, and the United States can show that they ensure the security of Ukraine,” he told the agency.
Matviyenko said the leaders of Russia and the United States will focus, in addition to Ukraine, on the issue of resuming the nuclear deal with Iran, the Russian initiative to ease sanctions, “since they are” hitting “its technical capabilities in the military sector,” as well as Russia’s access to world food markets and seeking informal quota arrangements.
According to PhD in Political Science, political scientist Ihor Petrenko, the talks between the presidents of the United States and Russia “will most likely focus on environmental issues, since it is in this that they can reach consensus and progress.”
“If you recall, Putin devoted a significant part of his address to the Federal Assembly in April to ecology. It was a kind of pass towards Biden. And ecology is one of the electoral promises of the U.S. leader, important for his political agenda,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
The decline in Ukraine’s GDP in January-April 2021 slowed down to 0.2%, according to an estimate by the Ministry of Economy.
“The Ministry of Economy estimates a slight decrease in GDP at 0.2% (a 2% drop in the first quarter of 2021, by 4.9% in the four months of 2020),” the ministry said in its review of economic activity in April this year, posted on its website.
The mobile operator lifecell in May launched 4G mobile communications in 343 settlements in all regions of Ukraine.
According to the operator’s statement, in general, as of the end of May, 10,911 settlements were connected to the lifecell 4G network, where a total of more than 27.9 million people live.
In May, the lifecell network was expanded in 343 settlements, where 196,000 Ukrainians live. Of these, 339 with a population of up to 5,000 people, and four with up to 25,000 people.
“With the deployment of the network, the consumption of data traffic has also grown. Thus, lifecell subscribers who use 4G consumed 81% more mobile Internet traffic in May, compared to the same period in 2020,” the operator said.
As of the end of May 2021, the leaders in the use of lifecell mobile Internet were:
– up to 5,000 people – Baturyn (Chernihiv region);
– up to 25,000 people – Zdolbuniv (Rivne region);
– up to 50,000 people – Fastiv (Kyiv region);
– up to 100,000 people – Uman (Cherkasy region);
– up to 500,000 people – Vinnytsia;
– up to 1 million people – Zaporizhia.
In the category of cities with a population of more than 1 million people, the first place is occupied by Kyiv, followed by Odesa and Kharkiv.
