President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky called the meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meaningful and believes that 2021 will be fundamental for relations between Ukraine and the United States.
“In general, the meeting is meaningful, and we believe that this will be a fundamental year in relations between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelensky said at a general press conference with Blinken on May 6.
At a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday, Blinken said that the United States supports the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine. The Secretary of State is very pleased that this position is shared by all the members of the G7, from which he just returned from London.
According to political scientist Daniil Bogatyriov, in recent weeks, international relations are characterized by an escalation in confrontation between various centers of power.
According to the expert in international affairs, the beginning of not one, but two cold wars is characteristic of the current geopolitical situation in the world: between Russia and the United States in Eastern Europe and between China and the United States in Southeast Asia.
“For example, a recent meeting of the representatives of the U.S. Department State and the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Alaska only exacerbated contradictions between the countries. At the end of the meeting, unambiguous confrontational statements were made. The American side expressed to the Chinese one claims about the violation of human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the increasing pressure in Taiwan. The Chinese, in turn, pointed to the facts of human rights violations in the United States during the suppression of the BLM protest movement,” Bogatyriov said.
According to the political scientist, a similar level of confrontation has also been achieved between the United States and the Russian Federation.
“Today we see attempts to eliminate internal opposition in Russia and Belarus. Thus, the Russian authorities have launched a process to recognize the structure of Alexei Navalny (the Anti-Corruption Foundation) an extremist organization. It is no coincidence that the so-called conspiracy of the opposition intelligentsia has been uncovered in Belarus just now,” the expert said.
He noted that all these processes in the future may lead to the formation of the phenomenon of “large spaces” in various regions of the world, which will in fact be zones of direct influence of one or another large state.
“We are entering the world of “large spaces,” the world of zones of influence, where a cold war will flare up between them and in the future serious restrictions on the movement of citizens and any other cross-border activities are not ruled out. Such things will be possible only within the framework of their large space, that is, this will lead to the lowering of the very real “iron curtain,” as it was in the last cold war,” Bogatyriov summed up.
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“Wheels down in Kyiv as we look to strengthen the U.S.-Ukrainian partnership. This will be an important opportunity to discuss continued Russian aggression and to underscore the need for maintaining both the pace of and focus on reforms with our Ukrainian partners,” Blinken said on his Twitter on Thursday night.
The plane landed at the Boryspil international airport at about 00:20 Kyiv time.
As reported, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky; Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba; Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal; other officials and representatives of Ukrainian civil society to reaffirm the U.S. unshakable support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression.
Conducting agricultural production in Ukraine in January-March this year became more expensive by 30.4%, while the total cost index in crop production increased by 25% compared to the first quarter of 2020, in animal breeding – by 42%.
According to the State Statistics Service, the price index for material and technical resources of industrial origin consumed by agriculture has grown by 25.4% since the beginning of the year compared to the same period in 2020.
According to the agency, in March 2021, the cost of agricultural production in Ukraine increased by 6.9% compared to March 2020, while in crop production by 7.4%, livestock – by 5.6%.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia resumes the sale of railway tickets to Zhytomyr region due to its exit from the “red” zone of anti-epidemic measures, since May 5, passenger trains run throughout the country without restrictions, the press service of the company reports. “On May 5, Wednesday, from 24:01, Zhytomyr region, the last region with existing railway restrictions, leaves the ‘red’ zone of epidemic danger. Now restrictive anti-epidemic measures provided for the ‘yellow’ level, will be applied in the region” the message posted on the official website of Ukrzaliznytsia on Tuesday says.
This decision was made at an extraordinary meeting of the State Commission on Environmental Safety, Manmade Disaster and Emergency Response on May 4, on Tuesday.
“Now all trains in the country run in accordance with the schedule, there are no quarantine restrictions on railway traffic now,” the report said.
Some 116,000 foreign tourists visited the Ukrainian capital in the first quarter of 2021, Deputy Head of Kyiv City State Administration Maryna Khonda has said.
“Despite all the obstacles caused by the pandemic, foreign tourists still visit Kyiv. This year, most tourists, according to the State Border Guard Service, came to the Ukrainian capital from Belarus – 10,500 people. Also 8,900 people came from Israel and 8,300 from Turkey,” the press service of Kyiv City State Administration said, citing Khonda on Wednesday.
The official also said that the list of countries, where more tourists came from, included the United States, India, Germany, Great Britain, France and Georgia.
In addition to foreigners, according to preliminary estimates, the capital was visited by about 300,000 domestic tourists, and the tourist tax at the beginning of May amounted to UAH 11.670 million.
