The Health Ministry of Ukraine has paid for transplant surgeries that will be held in 2020, reads a statement on the ministry’s website.
According to the statement, the ministry transferred the payments to ten participants of the pilot project for organ transplantation whose applications were approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on December 18, 2019.
The money was allocated from the national budget for 2019. As soon as the first tranche is spent, another one will be transferred from the national budget for 2020.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers extended the pilot project for organ transplantation for 2020.
All medical institutions that have a license to provide organ transplantation services were included in the list of participants in the pilot project.
In addition, the government approved the tariffs for transplantation of organs and other anatomic materials: kidney allotransplantation (from living or deceased donor) will cost UAH 323,798; ABO incompatible kidney allotransplantation – UAH 721,230; heart or heart-lung transplant – UAH 535,280; full-size or partial liver transplant – UAH 855,039; donor nephrectomy – UAH 33,561; donor liver resection – UAH 116,130; organ recovery from deceased donor – UAH 74,086; donor tissue matching (antigen testing via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method) – UAH 18,630; allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant, including cell recovery stage – UAH 1.36 million; autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant, including cell recovery stage – UAH 1.308 million.
The government also allowed using the funds to pay for hematopoietic stem cell transplant from abroad, as well as making prepayments for transplant services and use the funds remaining from 2019 in 2020.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia jointly with the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine have signed a memorandum of intent with General Electric Transportation (the United States) on the acquisition of 40 more locomotives made by the U.S. company.
“We agreed on the next phase of the acquisition of 40 GE locomotives. We plan that we will receive the first of them in 2020,” Head of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov wrote on his Facebook page on Monday.
According to Kravtsov, the new rolling stock will significantly improve the operation of the diesel locomotive traction and the overall operations of the company.
The head of Ukrzaliznytsia said that the first batch of 30 GE locomotives is already operating successfully and is demonstrating its effectiveness, performing about 20% of all freight work.
“According to our estimates, in 2019, only thanks to GE locomotives, we saved about UAH 100 million on fuel,” Kravtsov said.
According to him, the localization of production for the first GE locomotives should be 15%.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the results of the gas talks between Ukraine and Russia, German government spokesperson Ulrike Demmer wrote on Twitter on December 31.
“I [Angela Merkel] am glad that the talks on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine, which have been held for a year and a half, could now be successfully concluded,” reads Merkel’s statement posted by Demmer.
Merkel also noted that the continuation of gas transit through Ukraine from January 1, 2020 is “a good and important signal for ensuring our gas supply security in Europe.”
She thanked the Russian and Ukrainian governments, Vice-President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič, Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier and other participants for the successful results of the talks.
As reported, Russia’s Gazprom, NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy, Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine LLC (GTSOU) and the Justice Ministry of Ukraine signed a package of documents that allow to continue gas transit via Ukraine after December 31, 2019, consistent with the protocol signed on December 20, 2019.
“Five days of continuous bilateral negotiations in Vienna have resulted in final decisions and final agreements. Also, the sides have signed a package of agreements and contracts as a big package deal, which restores balance of interests. The documents take effect today to ensure Russian gas transit via Ukraine after December 31, 2019,” Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told the press.
Ernest Airlines suspends has blocked sales of transport contracts for all flights departing from January 13, 2020 over the suspension of the airline’s operating license under a decision of the National Civil Aviation Authority of Italy (ENAC).
According to a posting on the website of the airline, the license can be restored following the demonstration by Ernest S.p.A. to be in possession of the requirements prescribed by the current legislation on the matter and to obtain the revocation of the provision issued by ENAC.
The flights will be restored on the site as soon as the revocation of this provision is published.
Earlier Ernest Airlines suspended flights on the Kyiv-Genoa, Kharkiv-Rome and Kharkiv-Milan routes for the 2019/2020 winter navigation season.
Ernest Airlines plans to invest EUR 100 million in Ukraine in two years and to deploy two aircraft in Kyiv in 2020.
The balance in the foreign currency account with the Treasury as of the beginning of November 2019 exceeded UAH 20 billion in the hryvnia equivalent, Finance Minister Oksana Markarova has said. In October 2019, it amounted to about UAH 35 billion in the hryvnia equivalent, according to the materials published by the minister on Facebook on Friday.
The highest amount of the Treasury’s forex account balance this year was recorded in June 2019, when it topped UAH 80 billion, after which it started to steadily decrease.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 28/12/19 through 07/01/20
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
