Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will pay an official visit to Romania next week, Digi24 TV channel reported on Friday, citing its own sources.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and other officials of the country.
It is reported that this will be the first visit of the Ukrainian president to Romania since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The possibility of such a visit was previously announced by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on the same TV channel.
Iohannis and Zelenskyy already met on Thursday in Granada, Spain, at the summit of the European Political Community.
Earlier, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu also announced his visit to Ukraine. The prime minister and some government ministers will go to Kyiv for talks with representatives of the Ukrainian government to establish as many points of cooperation as possible. These include security, energy, agriculture, and many other issues that need to be addressed by the two countries.
Currently, 39% of Ukrainian medical institutions are experiencing a shortage of specialists, with a particularly acute shortage in the de-occupied territories.
This conclusion was made by experts of the National Agency humanitarian aid ZDOROVI following the results of the next wave of the quarterly Barometer survey of the state of medicine in Ukraine.
“The shortage of personnel is especially noticeable in the de-occupied territories, as there is a low percentage of specialists returning to their jobs,” the agency said in a press release.
At the same time, according to the agency’s press release, the number of staff in about 47% of medical institutions has not changed compared to the pre-war period.
The researchers note that 76% of medical institutions operate under partial resource shortages, and 11% consider the level of shortage to be critical.
At the same time, more than 60% of respondents noted a significant impact of the work of humanitarian organizations on the level of provision of medical facilities.
At the same time, according to the survey, 69% of respondents rated the level of medical staff training to work in a difficult security situation as average, 20% of respondents called their level low, 45% of respondents identified a critical need for personal protective equipment and special equipment to work in a disaster.
“When specifying the material needs for personal protective equipment and special equipment, respondents most often mentioned individual chemical protective packages, gas masks, chemical protection suits, special vehicles, oxygen stations, generators, gabions, body armor, helmets, and equipment for bomb shelters. 73% of respondents are interested in receiving training in disaster medicine,” the press release says.
The new wave of the Barometer survey involved 180 representatives of medical institutions and health departments from different regions of Ukraine, including the frontline and de-occupied territories.
Zdorovi cooperates with international partners, including ICAP Ednannia, RAZOM for UKRAINE, NOVA Ukraine, Americares, the Netherlands Refugee Council and other charitable foundations and organizations.
Freight transportation by rail, million tons
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Ukraine’s international reserves amounted to $39 billion 708.2 million as of October 1, 2023, according to preliminary data, the National Bank of Ukraine said on its website Friday.
“They decreased by 1.7% in September as a result of the NBU’s interventions to sell foreign currency to cover the difference between supply and demand in Ukraine’s foreign exchange market and the country’s debt payments in foreign currency, largely offset by receipts from international partners,” the NBU pointed out.
It specified that the government’s foreign currency accounts in the central bank received $3.329 billion, of which $1.592 billion – macro-financial assistance from the EU, $1.25 billion – a grant from the United States through the World Bank Trust Fund, $386.4 million – from the placement of foreign currency bonds of the internal state loan (OVGZ) and $100 million – from the World Bank under the guarantee of the United Kingdom.
At the same time, the Ukrainian government paid $465.3m for servicing and repayment of state debt in foreign currency, of which $388.9m – for servicing and repayment of foreign currency bonds, $51.1m – debt to the World Bank. In addition, Ukraine paid $882.1 million to the International Monetary Fund.
In addition, the National Bank in September sold $2.692 billion in the foreign exchange market, having bought back only $0.7 million, and the revaluation of financial instruments (as a result of changes in market value and exchange rates) increased the value of financial instruments by $12.9 million.
“The current volume of international reserves provides financing for 5.3 months of future imports,” the NBU pointed out. Earlier, the Experts Club research project and Maksim Urakin released an analytical video about the economy of Ukraine and the world – https://youtu.be/zCJ1cU3n0sY?si=hn2qK7REvGl9egn2.
You can subscribe to Experts Club’s youtube channel by following the link – https://www.youtube.com/@ExpertsClub
Biopharma, a biopharmaceutical company based in Kyiv, plans to triple the number of its plasma centers to 30 by 2027, according to the company’s president Konstantin Efimenko.
“We plan to increase the number of plasma centers. Currently, there are 10 of them, but by 2027 we want to increase their number to 30,” he said during the forum “Dialogues on Sustainability. How Business Develops in Times of War” forum in Kyiv on Thursday.
He also said that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the company “has not stopped working for almost a single day.”
In particular, in March 2022, Biopharma built a complex of diesel generator stations with a total capacity of 2 mW and purchased four 10 cubic meters of fuel tanks, built bomb shelters at the plant and in its office in Kyiv.
As reported, in 2020, Biopharma announced plans to invest $20-23 million in the development of a network of plasma centers by 2025 and build plasma and blood centers in every regional center of Ukraine.
Greece proposes to use its ports in the Aegean Sea as a corridor for the export of Ukrainian grain, the Greek newspaper Kathimerini reports.
According to the report, the Greek government has already discussed its proposals with partners in the EU to transport Ukrainian grain through the ports of Thessaloniki and Alexandropoulos. The grain could be transported to the ports by rail through Romania and Bulgaria, and then loaded onto Greek commercial vessels.
The problem in this regard is the limited capacity of the railroad network in northern Greece, which is located on the border with Bulgaria and Turkey and escaped destruction during the recent floods.
A “green light” for Ukrainian exports via Greece could also be an impetus for the development and modernization of railways in northern Greece, particularly on the line from Alexandropoulos to Ormenio, a station on the border with Bulgaria.
During his visit to Kyiv, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis informed his EU colleagues that Greece is ready to contribute to solving the problem and focused on the “huge consequences” of the collapse of the agreement with Russia, especially for the countries of the Global South.
Athens is confident that such a proposal could be beneficial for both Ukraine and Greece, the newspaper writes.
As you know, Lithuania and Croatia have already offered their ports to help Ukraine with agricultural exports.
