Ukraine exported in January “grain corridor” by 25% less agricultural products than in December due to deliberate actions of Russian inspectors to delay ships in the Bosphorus, the Administration of Sea Ports of Ukraine (AMPU) reported on Sunday.
According to the agency, in January the ports of “Big Odessa” processed 77 ships and sent 3 million tons of agricultural products to Africa, Asia and Europe, while in December the figure was 97 ships and 3.7 million tons of agricultural products, respectively.
At the same time, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine noted that the critically low rate of ships’ departure from the ports (2.5 ships per day) continues to remain. For comparison, in October this indicator was 5.7.
“In January, the ports worked only at 30-40% of capacity due to a shortage of the fleet to load. Three ships a day at the proposed nine are inspected in the Bosphorus and receive permission to move to Ukrainian ports for food,” – added in the ministry.
According to the ministry, the SKC plans to conduct 10 inspections a day, but Russian inspectors successfully complete only half of them.
“In January, 204 inspections were conducted, of which 173 were successful, another 31 inspections were not completed because Russian inspectors ended their workday prematurely and unilaterally at 3 p.m. 30 minutes (work time is regulated till 5:30 pm) or due to claims of documents not having been checked by the SKZ,” added in the Ministry of Infrastructure.
In addition, the registration of vessels for participation in the initiative is also delayed. With more than 80 ships declared, the representatives of the aggressor country register 2-3 ships a day without any explanation. As of February 4, 120 vessels are waiting for inspection in Turkish territorial waters (98 – entering the ports for loading, 22 – with the agricultural products for the exit). The vast majority of them are waiting several weeks.
In total, for six months of operation of the “grain corridor” ports of Greater Odessa has sent 691 ships with 19.7 million tons of foodstuffs: the port of Chernomorsk – 285 ships-7.3 million tons, port “Odessa” – 215 ships-5.2 million tons and port “Pivdenny” – 191 ships with 6.6 million tons of food.
“The world received 19.7 million tons of food, and should receive more than 30 million tons, subject to the stable functioning of the corridor,” the department added.
As reported, in Istanbul on July 22 with the participation of the UN, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia signed two documents on the creation of a corridor for 120 days for the export of grain from the three Ukrainian ports – “Chernomorsk”, “Odessa” and “Pivdenniy”. After the end of its validity period, the agreement was extended for another 120 days, starting from November 19, 2022.
David Arahamia, head of the parliamentary faction Servants of the People, has confirmed information that Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov is to be transferred to the post of head of the Ministry for Strategic Industries of Ukraine, the current head of the Main Intelligence Directorate Kirill Budanov may head the Defense Ministry, Igor Klimenko the Interior Ministry (MVD), and Vasyl Malyuk the Security Service of Ukraine.
“Alexei Reznikov is being transferred within the government to the position of Minister for Strategic Industries to strengthen military-industrial cooperation, which makes perfect sense given his expertise on Ramstein and the need to raise the Ministry, which has to do more. Major General Kirill Budanov will head the Ministry of Defense, which is absolutely logical for wartime. The Interior Ministry – Igor Klimenko. The SBU – Vasily Malyuk. The logic is the same: the security agencies at this stage should be headed not by politicians, but by cadre security officers,” wrote Arahamia in his telegram channel on Sunday evening.
He stressed that the war dictates the personnel policy, and time and circumstances require strengthening and regrouping. According to Arahamia, this is happening now and will happen in the future.
“The enemy is preparing to advance. We are preparing to defend ourselves and get our own back,” the MP added.
Earlier, MP Maryana Bezuglaya reported that the faction “Servant of the people” held a closed meeting, which decided to dismiss from their positions Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexei Reznikov and Minister of strategic industries Pavel Ryabikin. Also, according to her, the SBU chairman and Interior Minister will be put to a vote in parliament.
The ICE computed index showing the dollar’s trend against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound and Swedish krona) gained 0.15%, while the broader WSJ Dollar Index gained 0.09%.
The ICE dollar index jumped more than 1 percent Friday following the release of U.S. economic data showing that the U.S. labor market remains strong, leaving ample room for the Federal Reserve (Fed) to maneuver further tightening monetary policy.
According to the U.S. Labor Department, the number of jobs in the U.S. economy increased by 517,000 in January and unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1969, 3.4%.
This week, traders will be waiting for more signals from Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell, who will speak at the Economic Club in Washington on Tuesday.
During a press conference on the results of the January 31-February 1 meeting of the U.S. Central Bank, Powell acknowledged for the first time that “the disinflationary process has begun. He also suggested that the Fed rate, which was raised to 4.5-4.75% at the end of the meeting, would not exceed 5%, and reiterated that the Fed could achieve slowdown in inflation without causing significant harm to the economy.
The euro/dollar pair is trading at $1.0797 as of 7:55 a.m., up from $1.0799 at the close of the previous session.
The pound is at $1.2062, compared to $1.2056 at the close of the previous session.
The dollar rose to 131.71 yen against 131.18 yen the day before.
SkyUp Airlines (Kiev) carried 2.3 times fewer passengers in 2022 than in 2021 – 1.08 million, due to the full-scale aggression of Russia and against Ukraine and the closure of the Ukrainian sky since February 24 last year, according to a message on the official website SkyUp.
According to it, after the start of the war, the company worked on a “wet lease” with 10 airlines, including Wizz Air, SmartWings, Freebird Airlines, Tailwind Airlines, Corendon Airlines, and in just one year it performed 7,713 flights to 204 airports worldwide on 627 routes.
It is specified that SkyUp aircrafts also performed charter flights for tour operators from Moldova and Baltic countries, in particular for affiliated tour operator Join UP!, as well as special flights for Hasidic pilgrims from Tel Aviv to Chisinau.
“Despite the temporary lack of ability to operate flights from/to Ukraine, significant changes in competitive conditions and operating conditions in new markets, we continue our operations and have not stopped since the beginning of the full-scale invasion,” the statement said.
SkyUp underlined that it managed to keep the fleet, as due to the tight flight schedule on February 24, 10 of 11 aircraft were abroad at the time of closure of the Ukrainian sky, and on August 16 the company added a new mid-range Boeing 737-800 with 189 passenger seats to the fleet, manufactured in 2011.
According to the release, SkyUp did not lay off any employees last year, and fewer than 10 percent of employees decided to leave the company for their own reasons, with another 53 employees serving in the Navy. 80% of the 1,200 employees remaining on SkyUp’s payroll were engaged at varying levels of workload, with “the majority of the team remaining in Ukraine,” the release said.
SkyUp also pointed out that it opened a line maintenance station for its own fleet in Antalya, Turkey, in the middle of last year. Similar line station operates in Tallinn. The company notes that it planned to develop the direction of maintenance of its own fleet and in Ukraine, registering in March 2021 organization Sky-Stream: at the time of the Russian invasion was equipped and prepared maintenance station at Boryspil airport. “However, the full-scale war forced to look for opportunities to work abroad,” SkyUp stated.
The company said that it has received certificates of compliance with TCO safety standards of Great Britain and Switzerland, which gives the right to operate flights to these countries and also ensure compliance with national regulations of the UAE CAA necessary to perform occasional passenger flights to these countries.
The company plans for 2023 is to strengthen its position in new markets and the development of wet leasing, as well as the implementation of charter flights for Ukrainian and foreign tour operators, the release said.
Skyap Airlines LLC was registered in Kiev in June 2016, and carried out its first flight in 2018. The founder is ACS-Ukraine LLC of Tatiana and Yuri Alba, who also own the tour operator JoinUp!
As reported, SkyUp airline in 2020 carried 1.25 million passengers (while performing 8.7 thousand flights), and in 2021 increased this figure to 2.5 million.
The electricity deficit has slightly decreased due to increased production, but remains at a significant level and is still insufficient to cover consumption in full, NEC Ukrenergo said.
“After repairs, two units at thermal power plants returned to the grid. At the same time, one unit was taken out for emergency repairs. Also during almost all day there is the import of electricity from other countries,” described the situation “Ukrenergo” in its daily update in the Telegram channel.
At the same time, according to the system operator, power consumption is gradually increasing due to the intensification of frost, with a more rapid increase expected tomorrow with the beginning of the working week.
The company confirmed the information previously promulgated by the network operators on the introduction of limits of consumption in the regions only for the period from 16:00 to 20:00.
The exceptions are the Kyiv and Odesa regions, where there are network restrictions.
In particular, emergency shutdowns continue in Odessa and nearby areas due to a large-scale accident at one of the substations of Ukrenergo.
The company assured that together with the Odessa regional military administration and the regional energy company its specialists are developing reserve schemes of connecting Odessa and nearby areas, and repair teams of Ukrenergo and the regional energy company are working around the clock to eliminate the consequences of the accident and the quickest resumption of power supply.
As reported, since Sunday morning, in order to avoid accidents due to equipment overload, stabilization shutdowns have been introduced in Goloseevskyi, Solomenskyi and Pecherskyi districts, as well as on the Left Bank of the capital. In the Kiev region, restrictions will be applied in Kiev-Svyatoshinsky district. Due to the accident, there is also temporarily no light in Fastivsky and Vasylkivsky districts of Kyiv region.
On Friday evening and then on Saturday morning a large-scale accident occurred at one of the substations of Ukrenergo, as a result of which Odessa and the Odessa region were out of electricity. According to data as of the evening announced by Herman Galushchenko, head of the Ministry of Energy, one third of consumers were connected to the grid.
Specialists working on the new general plan of Kharkiv proceed from the assumption that the city’s population will be about 2-2.5 million people, city mayor Igor Terekhov said.
“We count on 2-2,5 million city inhabitants together with students, who will study in our higher educational institutions and technical schools. Perhaps over time there will be even more,” Terekhov said at a press meeting Friday.
According to him the team of British architect Norman Foster Foundation is preparing pilot projects in 5 areas (cultural heritage, housing, industry, scientific quarter, rivers and green areas). In particular, the mayor assured that the reconstruction of the center of Kharkiv will be done “with respect to the past”.
“The center of Kharkiv will be restored with respect to the past,” he said, noting that this area will be given new life by redesigning the key public places taking into account their history.
Besides, according to him, five city strategies (transport, energy, water and natural environment and redrawing of out-of-date administrative districts of Kharkiv) are being worked out.
Terekhov also promised that in the nearest future we will create a site, which will inform about the work on the general plan.
In turn, Foster noted that architects, while developing the general plan, proceeded from the fact that it is important to preserve rivers and green areas in Kharkiv, and also to improve mobility, connect pedestrian and bicycle lanes and create such transport networks throughout the city. He also noted the importance of the transition to clean energy sources.
According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, as of January 1, 2022 the population of Kharkiv was slightly more than 1 million 421 thousand people.
On January 31, the head of the Kharkiv OVA Oleg Sinegubov said that now there are about 1.1 million people living in the regional center.
