Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced CAD541 million ($410 million) in new funding and projects to support Ukraine and strengthen transatlantic security at the NATO summit in Vilnius.
“The new funding for Ukraine builds on more than $8 billion in multifaceted assistance Canada has committed since the beginning of 2022, and builds on the Prime Minister’s announcement this week in Latvia to renew and expand Operation Reassurance, which is part of NATO’s defense and deterrence measures in Eastern Europe, and doubles Canada’s current presence in the country,” the Canadian head of government said in a statement on its website on Wednesday.
According to the prime minister, that Canada intends to provide Ukraine with additional drones with cameras, and will also provide training to the Ukrainian military as part of Operation Unifier in Canada.
In addition, the Prime Minister announced an additional CAD48.8 million ($37 million) to the Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine, on top of the CAD34.6 million announced in April 2023, which will support NATO’s practical non-lethal assistance to Ukraine through the donation of materials including fuel, bridge equipment, radios and first aid supplies.
“Canada, along with Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom, signed a statement to form a joint coalition to train the Ukrainian Air Force to operate and maintain F-16 fighter jets. By signing the statement, Canada commits to contribute to a multinational effort to train Ukrainian pilots, technicians and support personnel to operate and maintain F-16 fighter jets,” the statement reads.
Trudeau also announced an additional CAD2.7 million ($2.05) in cybersecurity assistance to Ukraine.
The National Restaurant Association of Ukraine has asked the Kyiv Defense Council to consider extending the opening hours of catering establishments, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has said.
The mayor posted the relevant document on his Telegram channel.
“We understand that business must work, the economy must receive taxes, and people must have jobs. The city authorities will consider this issue carefully. A meeting will be held with entrepreneurs to discuss all aspects. And after that, the issue will be considered by the Kyiv Defense Council,” said Klitschko.
Entrepreneurs emphasize that extending the work of catering establishments by one hour – until 23:00 – will help improve the economic situation in the city, create additional jobs, and increase revenues from taxes, fees, and payments to budgets of all levels.
Previously, all catering establishments were open only until 22:00, as the curfew started at 23:00. Since March 2023, the curfew in Kyiv has started at 00:00.
Since the second day of the war, the restaurants that are members of the Association have set up 21 kitchens in Kyiv and provide free meals to 178 organizations every day: units of the Armed Forces, hospitals, orphanages and nursing homes, police, territorial defense, people in bomb shelters and many people in need.
A request to extend the work of catering establishments was signed by 80 restaurateurs and chain owners.
It is worth noting that Klitschko promised to consider this issue in the near future.
The Chumak PJSC intends to build a plant for processing tomatoes into paste in Odessa Region, as the company considers this region to be the most favorable in terms of climatic conditions, the director of the department of agrarian policy, food and land relations of the Odessa OVA, Alla Stoyanova, has said on Facebook.
The official recalled that Ukraine covers its domestic needs in vegetables at the expense of imports. According to Stoyanova, in Odessa region in 2023, the sown area of vegetable crops is 1489 hectares, of which 476.6 hectares are allocated for tomatoes, 307.1 hectares – onions, 95.11 hectares – carrots, 81.87 hectares – cabbage, 22.75 hectares – cucumbers, 434.44 – other vegetable crops.
The Director of the Department also informed that relocation of production facilities of Chumak PJSC to Odessa region will be a significant support for agro-industrial complex of the region and will create almost 5000 additional jobs.
The director of “Evrika” LLC Mikhail Bely suggested “systematic and balanced approach to the issue of product logistics”, which will facilitate the delivery of products to farmers for processing and will help the company “Chumak”.
Farmers present at the meeting expressed their willingness to expand production areas under tomato production.
“Vegetable farming is a high-cost business. It depends on irrigation and acquisition of specialized machinery, because farmers massively complain about the shortage of workers. In addition to investments in mechanization of production, attention should also be paid to storage and processing of products. We have a huge potential – natural, logistical (…), human”, summarized Stoyanova.
Prometey Group has continued cooperation with Vostok Bank (Kyiv) and MTB Bank (Odesa), which have each allocated UAH 60 million to replenish working capital and implement targeted programs of the group’s production companies, the group’s press service said.
“Since the beginning of the war, these banks were the first to provide financial support to Ukrainian agricultural producers, including our group. We highly appreciate the trust placed in us in the face of a full-scale invasion and economic uncertainty that the agricultural sector faced in February 2022. The new financing will be a good help for our farmers during the harvest season,” Natalia Dudnikova, Deputy Head of Corporate Finance at Prometey, commented on cooperation with banks, as quoted by the press service.
Prometey Group provides storage, processing and logistics services for agricultural crops. Prior to the Russian aggression, it owned 34 elevators in Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Odesa, Kherson, and Dnipro regions.
By the end of 2021, the group planned to generate $45 million in EBITDA, while in 2020 this figure reached $32.6 million, and in 2019 – $30.5 million.
“In 2023, Prometey plans to increase its land bank from 20 thousand hectares to 50 thousand hectares, and in the long term, to increase it to 100 thousand hectares.
The Cabinet of Ministers at a meeting on Tuesday established unified rules for the functioning of the Register of artesian wells to ensure open access to information about them and minimize corruption risks, government representative in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk said in Telegram.
The corresponding changes will be made to the Cabinet of Ministers’ resolution N963 “On approval of the Procedure for state registration of artesian wells, equipping them with means of measuring the volume of extracted groundwater”.
It is noted that the document defines the powers of the Cabinet of Ministers to develop the procedure for maintaining the state register of artesian wells, periodicity of submission and/or updating of data of the State Register of artesian wells, as well as legally fixes the concept of “artesian well”.
At the same time, according to the unified procedure of data submission to the State Register of artesian wells defined by the document, all information about them is entered through the electronic cabinet of the subsoil user, which is accessed on the State Geological Web Portal.
“The government continues its consistent policy in the direction of digitalization of the subsoil use sphere. With this decision, we create transparent access of the public and business to artesian well data and minimize corruption risks. The water user will be able to enter data about the well through the E-cabinet of the subsoil user without contact and intervention of an official,” emphasized the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strelets, who is quoted by the press service of the agency in its message in Telegram.
The Ministry of Natural Resources notes that the proposed changes will make it possible to promptly respond to wartime challenges, will help in overcoming the consequences of the Russian terrorist attack on the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant and will make it possible to quickly provide the population with drinking water.
PJSC “National Energy Company (NEC) “Ukrenergo” on July 6 announced the intention to conclude with the insurance group “TAS” for voluntary health insurance services for 8.522 thousand people.
As reported in the system of electronic public procurement Prozorro, the expected cost of the purchase of services is 46.678 million UAH, the price offer of the company – 38.941 million UAH.
The tender was also attended by IC ROM Ukraine with a price offer of UAH 38.626m, VUSO – UAH 44.989mn, Unica – UAH 45.553mn.
“Ukrenergo unites eight regional power systems: Dnipro, Donbas, Western, Crimean, Southern, South-Western, Northern and Central.
“Ukrenergo” operates backbone and interstate power transmission lines, as well as performs centralized dispatching of the country’s united power system. NEC is a state-owned enterprise subordinated to the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine.
SG TAS was registered in 1998. It is a universal company offering its clients more than 80 types of insurance products on various types of voluntary and compulsory insurance. It has an extensive regional network of 28 regional directorates and branches.
