The grain terminal of MV Cargo, a joint project of MV Cargo with Cargill (the United States) in Pivdenny port, has launched the second railway line.
“In May, the grain terminal of MV Cargo launched the second railway line. Now we will be able to accept grain twice as fast – 24 wagons simultaneously on two tracks. At the same time, we will be able to unload four cars at the speed of one car in three minutes,” according to a report on Facebook.
MV Cargo expects that such rates will allow increasing the average daily unloading to 300 wagons, which is equivalent to 18,000 tonnes per day or up to 540,000 tonnes of grain per month.
As reported, MV Cargo postponed the official opening of the terminal until September 6, 2019.
The Odesa branch of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority and Brooklyn-Kyiv have signed a memorandum on the completion of construction of a grain terminal at Odesa seaport.
According to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent, the memorandum was signed during the Ukrainian Port Forum 2019 in Odesa.
On the part of the stevedoring company, the memorandum was signed by the director general and founder of Brooklyn-Kyiv, Yuriy Hubankov.
“On behalf of Brooklyn-Kyiv and Louis Dreyfus Company I want to thank the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority and the management of the Odesa branch of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority… I am sure that in September we will launch the project and give the port of Odesa an additional 3 million tonnes of transshipment,” Hubankov said.
From the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, the memorandum was signed by the head of the Odesa branch, Ihor Tkachuk.
“This project was started in 2008, but was suspended for technical reasons. However, thanks to the new leadership of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, a clear position of the Ministry of Infrastructure, we were able to move it forward and today it is already at the final stage of the completion. With this memorandum we confirm our plans to complete construction in due term. We are planning to continue dredging and improving the port infrastructure,” he said.
IDP organizations, political experts call to reboot Minsk process
On May 28, 2019, Interfax Ukraine’s press center hosted a press conference entitled: “Rebooting the Minsk Format: New Faces.”
During the press conference, experts noted the need to speed up staffing the Minsk Group with new capable personnel, on the one hand, who can articulate Ukraine’s position in the negotiation process more clearly and, on the other hand, unfreezing the dialogue on the exchange of prisoners of war, the killed and the search for missing people.
Head of the Public Council under the Ministry for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Hennadiy Borisichev said: “In the conditions of withdrawal of a number of key figures from the group, against the backdrop of intensified hostilities in Donbas and the capture of eight Ukrainian soldiers, the absence of Ukrainian representatives on the only legitimate communication platform endangers the lives and health of our citizens living in territories not controlled by Ukraine and captives.”
At the same time, he expressed the readiness of the Public Council under the Ministry for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons, which consists of 26 public organizations, and IDPs organizations whose members are former residents of Donbas to cooperate with the administration of the new president, denoting that the “Public Council under the Ministry for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons has a sufficient personnel and project resource capable, in our opinion, of reviving the Minsk process upon condition of its depoliticization.”
“Human rights activists, unlike politicians, are not politically biased, we are guided by the interests of war-affected people. The state should delegate at least some of the areas in the Minsk process to people who are vitally interested in supporting Ukrainian citizens on both sides of the contact line.”
“In addition to work at the Public Council under the Ministry, I head the union of IDP organizations ‘All-Ukrainian Platform of Donbas (‘Donbas Platform’).’ We represent more than 1.38 million IDPs whose position has been ignored. Who, if not us and our experts, could represent Ukraine at the Minsk process? Today not a single expert representing internally displaced people and other victims of the war was involved in the work of the Minsk Trilateral Contact Group to resolve the situation in the Donbas, the appointment of Ukraine’s envoys still remains non-transparent, which results in mistrust of a significant part of society in this process and reduces the effectiveness of the talks, ” Borisichev said.
Head of NGO Rada of Peace Initiatives Ivan Gunya outlined a number of problems noted by residents of the temporarily occupied territories, which are only aggravated by certain provisions of the Minsk agreements. In particular, the requirement of “total amnesty” for participants in illegal armed formations would cause internal conflicts in the ORDLO [occupied districts in Donetsk and Luhansk regions]. First of all, between the victims of the occupying authorities and representatives of the “amnestied” occupying administrations.
“The amnesty process requires an individual approach, the amnesty cannot be extended to the military who committed serious crimes. First of all, ordinary citizens must now benefit from our efforts,” Gunya said.
Director of Center for Civil Society Studies Vitaliy Kulyk added that the new authorities need to understand that the war that the Russian Federation has been waging against the Ukraine, occupying territories, should not become part of the electoral process. The situation does not tolerate the slightest inaccuracy in the wording. “What works well in campaign materials has nothing to do with the conflict.” The expert spoke out against the soonest peace on the terms of the Russian Federation – with the loss of Crimea, the immediate return of the ORDLO under Ukraine’s nominal control – on the terms of “broad autonomy and federalization.”
Head of RAND Research Projects Dmytro Hromakov noted that despite the constant mantras of politicians about the desire of Ukrainians for peace and the importance of the end of the war in Donbas to them, which is seen in all sociological research, it should be noted that the majority do not need peace at any cost. Most Ukrainians are not ready for “peace through defeat” and any action by the authorities in this direction will only lead to another iteration, if not a forceful change of power, then precisely to the emergence of revanchist movements and, as a result, another conflict of interests between the government and society.
According to a February poll by the Razumkov Center, 59% of respondents are convinced that peace in the east of Ukraine can only be achieved under conditions acceptable to Ukrainian society. At the same time, 29% of respondents are in favor of establishing peace at any cost, 11% were undecided.
The key problem of the Minsk process for Ukraine is the need to solve simultaneously two tasks at different levels within the same platform. On the one hand, to put the Russian Federation at the negotiating table as an officially recognized party within the framework of international law, which requires serious diplomatic efforts by the new administration at global platforms (UN, PACE, the OSCE, EU). On the other hand, today we need to solve the current problems of our citizens living in the occupied areas, victims of this conflict. It is necessary to form channels and areas of communication between those residing in the ORDLO and the rest of Ukraine. The current situation creates difficult communication for the public legitimization of any decisions at the Minsk talks, since a compromise is always easy to be used as a factor for the so-called “zrada” [literally “treason,” “treachery,” “betrayal” – when the public sees a decision as the betrayal of its interests] and trolling directed towards the current administration.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Ukraine in January-March 2019 increased cement production by 23% compared to the same period in 2018, Executive Director of the Ukrcement Association Roman Skylsky has said.
“In the first quarter of 2019, the growth of the construction market was already 24%, and cement production rose by 23%. Exports grew by 66%, imports by 2.8 times. These figures will obviously change after the introduction of a number of restrictive measures by the Ukrainian government regarding imports from neighboring markets,” he said during the international conference UkrCemFor 2019 in Kyiv.
According to the expert, cement production in 2018 decreased by 0.8%, which is associated with a slight drop in demand and the limited capacity of railway logistics, which accounts for 65% of all cement transportation.
“However, the year of 2018 showed a rise in clinker production by 4.3%, which means that producers have the reserves and resources to produce goods, but they decide not to manufacture final products due to a drop in demand or logistic restrictions on the delivery of goods to end consumers,” he explained.
