President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky instructed the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), the Antimonopoly Committee and the President’s Office to draft a law on oligarchs, NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said and added that NSDC confidently classifies 13 persons as oligarchs.
“At the last meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, the President the NSDC, the Antimonopoly Committee, and the President’s Office to draft a law on oligarchs who today have a very large impact on our economy, our domestic and foreign political processes,” Danilov said, speaking at the Ukraine 30. National Security forum in Kyiv on Tuesday.
According to Danilov, “the NSDC considers 13 persons who can be confidently classified as oligarchs according to the NSDC criteria.” At the same time, he did not specify who he was talking about.
As reported, on April 15, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, following a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, announced an initiative to draft a bill on oligarchs in order to limit their influence on politics and the adoption of laws in Ukraine.
Manufacturers of vaccines against coronavirus (COVID-19) disease have begun to “cancel debts” on contacts for supplies, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said.
“Now the situation has begun to level out and manufacturing companies have begun to cancel the debts they owe us,” he said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Stepanov said that “in the last ten days alone, we have received 1 million doses of vaccines from the Chinese company Sinovac, deliveries have begun under the COVAX initiative – 367,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and 117,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine, and in total we expect 1.4 million doses under COVAX by the end of May.”
Stepanov also expressed hope for the resumption of vaccine supplies from India.
“We expect that the embargo on the export of vaccines in India will be lifted, and that debt of 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines that we have contracted will be closed to us,” he said.
Stepanov said that by the end of the second quarter, Ukraine expects first 500,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine, the main deliveries through this contact will begin in July, in particular, 4.5 million doses are expected in the third quarter.
As of Tuesday morning, 2,208 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) disease were recorded in Ukraine, 8,617 people recovered and 119 people died, Minister of Health of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov has said.
“Some 2,208 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Ukraine as of May 11, 2021. In particular, 89 children and 34 health workers fell ill. Also, over the past day, 1,084 people were hospitalized, 119 people died and 8,617 people recovered,” Stepanov said on his Facebook page on Tuesday morning.
A day earlier, on May 10, some 2,817 new COVID-19 cases were reported, on May 9, some 5,372 new cases of COVID-19 infection were recorded, on May 8, there were 8,710 new cases of COVID-19 infection, on May 7, some 8,404 new cases of COVID-19 were reported, 6,038 new cases of COVID-19 infection were recorded on May 6, some 2,576 new COVID-19 cases were reported on May 5, and some 2,472 new cases of COVID-19 infection were reported on May 4.
The number of infected since the beginning of the pandemic on Tuesday morning was 2.125 million people, 46,631 patients died, and 1.777 million people recovered.
Over the past day, the largest number of confirmed cases was registered in Donetsk (325), Kharkiv (213), Dnipropetrovsk (191), Zaporizhia (169) and Mykolaiv (132) regions.
Over May 10, 2021, some 2,194 people were vaccinated in Ukraine and 865,590 people were vaccinated since the beginning of the vaccination campaign. Some 695 people have completed vaccination (received two shots) (of which two people received one shot abroad).
Electricity consumption in Ukraine, taking into account in-process losses in power grids, increased by 7.4% in January-April 2021 (by 3.742 billion kWh) compared to the same period in 2020, to 56.647 billion kWh, according to data from the Energy Ministry.
According to the calculations of Interfax-Ukraine, excluding in-process losses, electricity consumption for the specified period increased by 7.8% (by 3.203 billion kWh), to 44.27 billion kWh.
The country’s industry, excluding in-process losses, boosted electricity consumption by 6.2%, to 17.319 billion kWh. In particular, metallurgical industry consumed 9.355 billion kWh (3.8% more compared to January-April 2020), the fuel industry some 1.122 billion kWh (1.6% more), machine-building industry some 1.346 billion kWh (16.5% more), chemical and petrochemical some 1.463 billion kWh (10.5% more), food and processing some 1.406 billion kWh (0.7% more), building materials some 770.9 million kWh (18.2% more), others some 1.860 billion kWh (11.8% more).
In addition, agricultural enterprises consumed 1.211 billion kWh (6.1% more), transport some 2.176 million kWh (5.6% more), construction some 434 million kWh (25.4% more).
In January-April 2021, the country’s population consumed 14.593 billion kWh (9.3% more), households some 5.304 billion kWh (5.8% more), other non-industrial consumers some 2.990 billion (14.8% more).
According to the results of the first three months, the share of industry in the total volume of electricity consumption decreased from 40% to 39.3%, while the share of the population increased from 32.7% to 33.1%.
In April 2021, electricity consumption, taking into account in-process losses, increased by 9.7% (by 1. 89 billion kWh) compared to the same month of 2020, to 12.27 billion kWh, excluding in-process losses, by 12.2% (by 1.109 billion kWh), to 10.191 billion kWh.
Founder and owner of the Serum Institute of India, Cyrus Poonawalla, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, assured that Ukraine will be among the priority countries that will receive the contracted vaccine as soon as the Indian government restores its export.
CoviShield company’s vaccine against coronavirus disease was the first that Ukraine received for vaccinations. The owner of the Serum Institute noted that India had already supplied Ukraine with half a million doses of the vaccine, the website of the President’s Office reported on Friday.
In turn, Zelensky invited Poonawalla to explore the possibilities of cooperation between his company and Ukrainian partners in order to jointly develop and produce medicines, medical products and vaccines in Ukraine, including those from COVID-19.
As reported, the incidence rate of COVID-19 in India has led to delays in the supply of up to 90 million doses of vaccines from that country. The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, is a key supplier of vaccines to the international COVAX vaccine distribution program.
Ukraine has agreed with the Indian manufacturer Serum Institute to increase the supply of vaccines against coronavirus (COVID-19) disease to 15 million doses, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said.
“During negotiations with the owner of the Serum Institute, Mr. Cyrus Poonawalla, an agreement was reached to increase the supply from 10 million to 15 million doses of vaccine,” he said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Stepanov also said that “there is a proposal from the Chinese company Sinovac.”
“We have reached an agreement with them to increase supplies and additional contracting,” he said.
Stepanov said that Ukraine currently has contacts for the supply of 42 million doses, but intends to increase the agreement to 48 million doses in 2021, which will allow 70% of the adult population to be vaccinated.
