Western countries will continue to support Ukraine and will continue to provide their assistance to our country to quickly overcome the consequences of the Chornobyl disaster. The corresponding statement was made by the Ambassadors of Germany and Great Britain in Ukraine, as well as the Deputy Head of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine during an online discussion of Kyiv Security Forum, organized by Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s Open Ukraine Foundation, the forum’s press service reported on Monday.
Thus, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany to Ukraine Anka Feldhusen noted that Germany continues to provide assistance to Ukraine even 35 years after the accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant.
She also stressed that the most famous international project on safety at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant is the construction of a new safe shelter over the old sarcophagus of the fourth power unit.
“This unique masterpiece of modern technology should protect the environment from the radioactive remnants of a destroyed reactor for at least a hundred years. Germany has directly contributed about EUR 100 million to the project, the total cost of which is more than EUR 2 billion. All these assistance measures can only try to slightly reduce the harm caused and alleviate the terrible suffering,” said Feldhusen.
In turn, British Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine Melinda Simmons said that it is impossible to fully assess all the losses and negative consequences for humanity that were caused by the Chornobyl accident even 35 years after the accident.
The diplomat noted that today British engineers are involved in projects that guarantee the safety and stability of the Chornobyl zone, including a new safe shelter.
Simmons said that the total cost of the shelter is EUR 2.1 billion which is the largest international nuclear safety cooperation project supported by 40 countries, including Britain. This example of international cooperation in the field of nuclear safety shows that we have come a long way since 1986, and this gives us the hope for the future that such a tragedy will never happen again, said Simmons.
The United States also reminded of its support for Ukraine. Thus, deputy head of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, Joseph Pennington, said that the transformation of Chornobyl remains a long-term challenge, but Ukraine will not have to cope with it on its own.
He stressed that the United States, along with the rest of the international community, will continue to support Ukraine to ensure the future energy and nuclear security of not only this place, but Ukraine as a whole.
The diplomat noted that no other nuclear accident in history has been more serious in terms of costs and casualties like the Chornobyl accident and clarified that thanks to cooperation between Ukraine and the United States, significant success has been achieved in overcoming the consequences of the disaster.
According to Pennington, the United States is proud to become the largest donor to the New Safe Shelter project, which covers the site of the disaster of the reactor of the fourth Chornobyl power unit.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine together with the International Labor Organization (ILO) presented a new joint pilot project called “Economic Empowerment of Women as a Response to the COVID-19 Crisis in Ukraine,” the communications department of the UNDP in Ukraine said.
It says that he project aims to contribute to a sustainable recovery of living standards of the COVID-19 crisis-affected population in Ukraine by promoting and supporting women’s economic empowerment. This is to be done by improving the relevant institutional frameworks, and increasing economic opportunities to improve women’s livelihoods. The project will be implemented in two target regions of Ukraine – Rivne and Sumy regions.
UNDP Resident Representative to Ukraine Dafina Gercheva, speaking at the launch of the joint project, said that it aims to address shortcomings that were exposed by the pandemic, and to scale up efforts to support vulnerable groups.
“The promotion of women’s economic empowerment is a crucial step that brings us closer to gender equality. I’m confident that this project will serve as a starting point for a great partnership, promoting equal economic opportunities, and supporting women’s economic resilience – despite the formidable challenges the current crisis is posing,” Gercheva said.
In turn, Director of the ILO Office for Central and Eastern Europe, Markus Pilgrim, noted that access to the labor market is a key issue in Ukraine – 36 percent of women between 15-64 years are outside the labor force.
“The pandemic sharpened the existing problems of the Ukrainian labor market. In times of crisis, entrepreneurship constitutes an important and sometimes unique opportunity for women to get out of poverty, but could also lead to further improvements – decent employment, gender equality and economic empowerment,” Pilgrim said.
It is noted that this project is all about promoting gender equality and women empowerment at all levels, including national, sub-national and community levels.
The joint project has a total of four activities with several sub-activities, holistically addressing the topic on the macro-, meso-, and micro levels. Besides several events to encourage inclusive policy dialogue, four local communities and two Business Membership Organizations will be supported to strengthen their portfolio to support women-led businesses.
The project would provide 100 women with training to advance their entrepreneurial skills by applying modules of the world’s largest entrepreneurship development program.
Afterwards, 25 women-entrepreneurs will receive mentoring assistance to certify their business or other related activities. Furthermore, 25 micro-, small and medium enterprises are selected to receive e-commerce training in the target regions.
The highest “red” level of epidemiological danger was registered in Kiev and 10 out of 24 regions of Ukraine, as of Sunday, which provides for the most stringent quarantine restrictions.
The table of indicator values on regions with a significant spread of coronavirus infection COVID-19 as of April 25 published on the website of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine says.
According to the Ministry of Health, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhia, Kiev, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Khmelnytsky, Chernihiv regions are placed in the “red zone”.
The “orange zone” includes 9 regions out of 24: Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kirovohrad, Luhansk, Rivne, Ternopil and Cherkasy regions.
The “yellow zone” includes five regions: Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa, Kherson and Chernivtsi. The yellow level of epidemiological danger is basic at the national level.
Over the past two weeks, compared to April 11, Zakarpattia, Odesa and Chernivtsi regions have moved from the “red” to the “yellow” zones, that is, the epidemic situation in them has significantly improved, at the same time, Poltava region has moved from the “orange” to “red” zone – the situationhas become worse there.
The Ukrainian naval forces took part in the initial planning conference for the training of the Turkish Navy Dogu Akdeniz 2021 (Eastern Mediterranean – 2021), which is to be held in the Western Mediterranean at the end of the year, the press service of the Ministry of Defense reported.
According to the command of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the participants of the event considered the issues of defining the general concept of training, agreeing on the previous composition of the forces, it is planned to involve. Representatives of the Ukrainian Navy discussed the format of the participation of the Ukrainian side, in particular, the involvement of officers of the Ukrainian Navy in the multinational headquarters of the exercises, as well as the training of officers onboard the Turkish Navy corvettes of the ADA class (MILGEM) during their training.
In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, an inception planning conference for the aforementioned training took place online.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine plans to exempt air carriers from taxation on internal flights, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“In order to enhance travel within the country, we plan to exempt air carriers from taxation on such routes. This step will reduce the costs of companies and cut the cost of air tickets for internal flights. Ukrainians, for their part, will have greater access to fast travel around the country,” Shmyhal said on Facebook on Sunday, April 25.
According to him, for this it is necessary to amend the current legislation. “I have already set this task for the ministries,” the head of government said.
The prime minister said the government also discussed the issue of intensifying cooperation in the tourism sector with Turkey. “We set a goal not only to expand sea and air traffic in order to open new and convenient routes for Ukrainians, but also to encourage Turkish citizens to come to Ukraine for family vacations,” Shmyhal said.
The European Union (EU) has invested EUR 1 billion in vaccine research and EUR 2.9 billion in expanding production capacity, the press service of the German Embassy in Kyiv said. “The study now needs support to protect the world from new strains of viruses. At the same time, Germany is also helping within the EU. The EU has already invested EUR 1 billion in vaccine research and EUR 2.9 billion in expanding production capacity,” the message reads.
The press service noted that the rapid development of vaccines against COVID-19 became possible thanks to international scientific cooperation.
“One example is the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, which was the first to be registered in the EU. The German married couple of researchers Ozlem Tureci and Professor Ugur Sahin and their team developed a vaccine in Germany in a very short time with funding from the federal government,” the press service said.
