Moldova has been offering assistance with the transit of Ukrainian grain since the beginning of the war, and now it is trying to find a solution that will suit Moldovan farmers and help Kiev, Moldovan President Maia Sandu has said.
Speaking about the situation with Ukrainian grain, Sandu called it a “complicated topic.”
“We are trying to find a solution. There are discussions with Ukraine, Romania and the European Commission to see how we can harmonize the interests of Moldovan farmers, but also ensure this transit of grain from Ukraine. We have an obligation to help Ukraine, which today provides for our peace,” she told RFI.
According to her information, Moldova will try to find the best solution for both sides. One of them is rapid investment in transportation and port infrastructure to increase capacity for this period.
“We want to increase our exports, we want to develop our infrastructure, and we can do it, in particular with the resources of the European Union,” she explained.
Sandu spoke about the problem of farmers in Moldova who, even before the war in Ukraine, did not have enough capacity to export.
“We have to state that the railroad and port infrastructure in Moldova is underdeveloped. Now, when these large volumes are coming from Ukraine, the situation has become more complicated,” Sandu said.
As reported, Moldova intends to modernize the railway infrastructure and railway bed in order to increase exports of Ukrainian agricultural goods, for which it cooperates with Romania, Ukraine and donor organizations.
The Hungarian railroad on Saturday canceled trains #6284 from Debrecen to Mukachevo, #33 from Mukachevo to Budapest and #6285 from Zahony to Chop of “large passenger traffic and long border control,” Ukrzaliznytsia reported.
“The Hungarian railroad has just informed that today trains #6284 from Debrecen to Mukachevo, #33 from Mukachevo to Budapest and #6285 from Zahony to Chop will not run due to “large passenger traffic and long border control”. This is not the first such incident of this month,” Ukrzaliznytsia said in a Telegram message.
“We are unfortunate for the passengers waiting for these flights in Mukachevo, Chop and on the territory of Hungary; and although this route is served exactly by the Hungarian MAV START, we on the part of Ukrzaliznytsia apologize,” Ukrzaliznytsia notes.
“Having gone through the spring of 2022, we are not used to flight cancellations due to a large number of passengers and we value the reputation of the railroad as a whole as a predictable and most reliable transportation, so we will use all official channels with a demand to our Hungarian colleagues to establish uninterrupted traffic for our passengers,” Ukrzaliznytsia emphasized.
Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) has launched ticket sales for the new international train 119/120 Kyiv – Chełm, with the first flight on September 3.
“Departure from Kyiv is at 06:28, from Rivne at 11:27, from Kovel at 13:31, and arrival in Chełm at 17:27. No border crossing at night and an easy transfer to the Polish intercity IC21100 to Warsaw (18:12-21:02),” UZ said in a telegram on Saturday.
“Return departure from Chełm is at 10:23 (transfer from the IC12100 Warsaw Skhidnya train 06:05 – Chełm 08:42), arrival in Kyiv at 22:45,” UZ informed.
The first flight is on September 3, tickets are available in the Ukrzaliznytsia app.
JSC “Slavyanske Wallpapers – KFTB” (formerly – Koryukivska Factory of Technical Papers, Chernihiv region), a leading Ukrainian wallpaper manufacturer, in January-July this year produced 9.27 million conditional pieces of wallpaper – 26.5% more than in the same period of 2022.
According to statistical data from the UkrPapyr association provided to Interfax-Ukraine, in July, in particular, it produced 1.62 million conditioned pieces – 4.2% less than in July-2022, but 3.6% more than in June this year.
At the same time, in monetary terms, the factory’s output in January-July increased by 56.3% to UAH 719.3 mln.
As reported, in January-February this year, the factory showed a 10.7% drop in production volume to the same pre-war period of 2022 – to UAH 189.51 million, with wallpaper production falling by 40.5% to 2.18 million pieces.
According to the association “UkrPapir”, in 2022, the factory reduced the output of wallpaper 2.4 times to 2021 to 13.59 million усл. pieces, the production volume decreased by 45% to 903.55 million UAH.
Earlier, the company noted that due to Russian aggression last year significantly reduced sales volumes, especially through retail channels.
JSC “Slavic Wallpaper-KFTB” – one of the largest European wallpaper factories, produces more than 10 types of wallpaper from economy segment (paper, duplex, vakryl) to premium-class wallpaper (vinyl, fleece, hot stamping wallpaper). In addition, the factory has mastered the production of its own latex, water-dispersion paint (TM Latex).
In 2021, the share of exports in the total sales of the company amounted to 65% (or UAH 1.1 billion), and the largest importers were Latvia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
Representatives of Ukraine’s tourism industry in January-June 2023 paid 897.848 million UAH to the budget, the press service of the State Agency for Tourism Development (SART) told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
It is specified that this is 11% more than for the first half of 2022 (809.435 million UAH), and 17.5% less than for the first half of 2021, when 1 billion 88.945 million UAH was transferred to the state budget from the tourism industry.
The press release informs that in this reporting period, the total number of taxpayers engaged in tourism activities decreased by 23% compared to January-June last year. At the same time, the number of legal entities decreased by 28%, while the number of individuals – by 21%. If we compare this indicator with the same period of 2021, the total reduction in the number of taxpayers amounted to 36% (-45% for legal entities and -32% for individuals).
The largest share of revenues to the state budget was provided by hotels – 63%, or 569.828 million UAH, while in January-June last year they paid 460.498 million UAH, and for the same period in 2021 – 665.420 million UAH.
At the same time, in January-June this year decreased the amount of tax paid from the activities of tourist bases and children’s recreation camps, which provided 60.428 million UAH of deductions against 73.012 million UAH for the same period last year and 178.921 million UAH for the first two quarters of 2021.
The amount of taxes paid from the activities of campgrounds and parking lots for RVs for two quarters of this year almost doubled to UAH 1.492 million against UAH 731 thousand in January-June 2022, but decreased by 26% compared to the first half of 2021.
Kyiv will block traffic on Khreshchatyk Street from Independence Square to Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street from 23:00 on August 20 to 23:30 on August 28, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, Serhiy Popko, said in a telegram.
“Attention drivers. In connection with the preparation and holding of festive events in the center of Kyiv, traffic on Khreshchatyk Street will be blocked from Independence Square to Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street,” the message reads.
“The restriction will be in effect from 23:00. August 20 until 23:30. August 28. Please take this information into account when moving around the center of the capital,” informed the head of KCIA.
