The Cabinet of Ministers has allocated an additional UAH 2.5 billion for the construction of engineering and fortification facilities, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said.
“The key task for us this year is to strengthen our defense capabilities. In this context, today there are two important decisions. We allocate additional almost 2.5 billion hryvnias from the reserve fund for the construction of engineering and fortification facilities,” Shmygal said at a government meeting on Friday.
According to him, UAH 1.4 billion of these funds will be used for fortification of defense lines, and another UAH 1.1 billion for the construction of non-intrusion strips. – for the construction of non-explosive barrier strips.
In addition, the government has allocated another UAH 120m from the reserve fund for the State Border Guard Service to strengthen the defense capability and engineering and technical arrangement of the border.
The annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, which officially opens its work on Monday, 15 January, on Sunday announced the fourth meeting of national security and foreign policy advisers to discuss the Ukrainian Formula for Peace.
According to the forum’s official programme, a press conference on Switzerland’s role as co-organiser of the meeting and its continued support for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine will be held in the afternoon, and in the evening key members of the Ukrainian delegation will share the results of the discussion.
The day before, Justice Minister Denys Malyska said on Facebook that the work of the delegation in Davos, where representatives of more than 80 countries gathered, would last about a day and a half.
According to the official programme, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will deliver a special address at the WEF on Tuesday, 16 January.
On the same day, later in the day, there will be a session on “Ukraine’s Horizons” on how Ukraine can intensify its reconstruction efforts to support its economic and political ambitions to join the EU and NATO after nearly two years of devastating war. It will be attended by, among others, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, US Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery Penny Pritzker, Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office (OP) Andriy Yermak, Foreign Ministers of Spain and the Netherlands Jose Manuel Albarez Bueno and Hanke Bruins Slot, and Yale University history professor Timothy Snyder.
The following day, Wednesday, 17 January, at the session “Ukraine at War: Year Three”, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will discuss strengthening international unity in support of the country’s defence and economy, which will continue to come under pressure, and what approaches and goals Ukraine and its international partners should agree on for the coming year.
In addition, on 15 January Davos will host the Ukrainian House, co-organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Horizon Capital and Western NIS Enterprise Fund, followed the next day by an exhibition and discussion area Deciding Your Tomorrow/”691 Days Deciding Your Future”, organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, PinchukArtCentre in cooperation with the Office of the President.
The programme of Ukrainian House events up to and including 18 January includes, among others, Demonstration of the vision of Ukraine’s digital transformation – Diya, Mriya and Win-Win with Mikhail Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Ministry of Digital Economy, a discussion on the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine with Deputy Head of the OP Rostislav Shurma, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management William Browder, Senior Sovereign Strategist at RBC Bluebay Asset Management Timothy Ash, and another discussion with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba.
In addition, the topic of Ukraine’s sustainability in 2024 will be discussed by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Sviridenko, investor and advisor to General Catalyst Teresa Carlson, founding partner of Argentem Creek Partners John Patton, CEO of Datagroup-Vol Mikhail Shelemba, while Shurma from OP, CEO of Marsh McLennan John Doyle, Managing Director for Europe and the Caucasus of EBRD Matteo Patrone and Citigroup representative Julie Monaco will talk about Ukraine’s investment opportunities and risk insurance.
Among the speakers of the Deciding Your Tomorrow discussion programme on 16-18 November are, among others, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Bilström, musician Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, Harvard University Professor of Economic Development Ricardo Gausman, President of the Board of the Munich Security Conference Foundation Wolfgang Ischinger, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Kornienko, historian Serhiy Plokhiy, Executive Director of Roubini Macro Associates Nouriel Roubini; Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry; and Niall Ferguson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Finally, on 18 January, the Ukrainian Breakfast, a traditional private event organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and EastOne, will be held on the margins of the WEF.
DAVOS, EastOne, Victor Pinchuk Foundation, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
The Pig Producers of Ukraine Association and the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection have created a new interactive map of African swine fever (ASF) cases in Ukraine, which records all cases of the disease since 2012.
“With the help of the ASF map, pork producers will have constant access to updated statistics on outbreaks of this disease. They will be able to track the geography of the virus and navigate the epizootic situation in the industry,” the association said in a statement.
According to the interactive map, 38 cases of ASF were registered in Ukraine in 2023, of which 12 cases were 129 wild animals, 21 cases in farms (175 animals), three cases in the private sector on commercial farms or in farms (253 animals), and 11 infected facilities were also identified. During the year, 23 quarantine regimes were canceled.
At the same time, a year earlier, 10 outbreaks of ASF were recorded in Ukraine, including three on farms, two cases each in the wild and in the private sector, commercial farms, and farms. Infected facilities were detected three times.
In pre-war 2021, 16 outbreaks of ASF were recorded in Ukraine, including six in the private sector, commercial farms, farms, three cases in the wild and on farms. Infected facilities were detected four times.
An interactive map of ASF outbreaks in Ukraine is available at https://pigua.info/uk/site/disease.
In 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia JSC transported 30.58 million tons of grain cargo, up 5.9%, or 1.708 million tons, from a year earlier, said Valery Tkachev, deputy director of the commercial work department of UZ, at a meeting with agricultural market participants on Thursday.
According to him, 22.729 mln tons of grain crops were transported for export by rail, which is 178 thsd tonnes more than in 2022. Of these, 14.324 mln tonnes (-4.9%) were shipped to the ports, and 8 mln 405 thsd tonnes (+12.2%) – to the western border crossings.
“Before the embargo on imports of Ukrainian grain by neighboring countries was imposed in April, 900 thsd tonnes to 1 mln tonnes of grain were transported by rail per month. After the ban was imposed, the volume was almost halved. The work of ports in 2023 was significantly affected by the uncertainty of the “grain corridor”, Tkachev stated.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 63 million tons of cargo for export in 2023.
Nova Group and Nova Poshta, together with the Come Back Alive charity foundation, have handed over the third batch of aid in the form of integrated communication devices (ICDs) to the Ukrainian Air Force as part of the Pack the Sky – Upgrade Air Defense project, the group’s press service said on Friday.
“This is the first project in Ukraine that comprehensively provides the air force with communications,” said Olena Plakhova, Nova’s director of reputation management.
According to the release, the exact number of KAZs transferred was not disclosed, but all of them have already been delivered to the Center Air Command and are helping to defend Kyiv, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, and other cities and villages in the central part of the country.
According to the report, the KAZs are domestic trucks with high cross-country ability, provided with the necessary equipment, machinery, and secure communications to effectively perform combat missions. Their main task is to accompany air defense missile systems.
The cost of one KAZ is about UAH 7 million.
As reported, last year, to strengthen air defense within the framework of the “Pack the Sky – Upgrade Air Defense” project, from June 1 to December 26, “Come Back Alive” together with Nova Poshta raised UAH 330 million.
It is noted that thanks to the Foundation’s operational work with manufacturers and engineers, in October 2023, before the end of the collection, “Come Back Alive” and “Nova Poshta” handed over two batches of equipment to air defense units: a batch of portable communication and control kits, as well as telecommunication kits and related equipment.
In Romania, farmers are blocking truck traffic to Ukraine at the Siret checkpoint, the reason and duration of the blockade are unknown, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reports.
“Truck traffic through the Romanian checkpoint Siret, opposite the Ukrainian checkpoint Porubne, is blocked! Farmers in Romania are blocking truck traffic through the Siret checkpoint. The reasons and estimated duration of the blockade are unknown. Traffic may be hampered in both directions,” the message posted on the telegram channel on Saturday reads.
The State Border Guard Service notes that no significant queue of trucks heading towards Ukraine has been recorded so far. There are 825 vehicles registered in the E-queue for departure.
At the same time, cars, passenger buses and pedestrians are allowed to cross as usual.
