The Cabinet of Ministers has adopted a resolution allowing some bachelor’s students to go abroad for internships.
This was reported by MP Oleksiy Honcharenko on his telegram channel.
Bachelor’s students aged 18-22, as well as masters of medical, pharmaceutical and veterinary specialties studying at Ukrainian universities, will be able to travel abroad.
Goncharenko’s information was confirmed on Facebook by Education Minister Oksen Lisovyi.
According to him, it will be possible to study abroad for one semester, or about four months.
He gave a list of documents required for this:
– student’s e-ticket;
– a referral from an educational institution;
– a certified copy of the agreement with a foreign university on admission to the academic mobility program;
– a military reference document from the TCC.
Also, those wishing to do an internship abroad should have high grades and fulfill a number of requirements set by the program founders.
The Ministry of Education will not issue any special permits.
The day before, amid mobilization in Ukraine, the authorities tightened the rules for admission to graduate school. Tougher admission conditions will cut off those who were liable for military service who were hoping to enroll in a postgraduate program at any university solely to get a deferral from mobilization.
Meanwhile, in the new draft law on toughening mobilization, MPs promised to leave the postponement for graduate students.
In 2023, 15.122 thousand traffic accidents involving Ukrainian drivers occurred abroad, the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine reported.
At the same time, 31%, or 15.122 thousand accidents occurred in Poland, 19%, or 2.033 thousand accidents in Germany, 7%, or 753 in the Czech Republic, and 4%, or 463 in Italy.
As reported, 1.625 million Green Card contracts were concluded in 2023, which is 0.7% less than in 2022. The amount of payments collected amounted to UAH 5.207 billion (+27.3%).
At the same time, the amount of indemnities paid on claims increased 2.4 times to EUR 46.7 million, while the number of paid claims increased by 96.6% to EUR 15.122 thousand.
The situation with Ukrainian refugees is not improving, and a more active state policy is needed, says the Center for Economic Strategy (CES) in its report “Refugees from Ukraine: Intentions to Return, Impact on the Ukrainian Economy and Recommendations for State Policy.”
“According to different scenarios, from 1.3 million to 3.3 million Ukrainians may remain abroad. This is 0.4-0.6 million more than in the calculations for December 2022,” the document says.
According to CES estimates, as a result, the Ukrainian economy may lose 2.7% to 6.9% of GDP annually.
According to the researchers, the number of Ukrainians who have moved abroad is 5.6-6.7 million, which is 0.3-0.5 million, or 5% more than at the end of 2022.
“This was a result of the strikes on Ukraine’s power grid in the winter of 2022-23, the intensification of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in May, and the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in early June 2023,” the study says.
It is specified that 63% of refugees, according to a study by Info Sapiens commissioned by the CES, plan to return to Ukraine, but this share is falling.
“We are not sure that all of them will really return. First of all, the longer the war lasts, the more Ukrainians adapt to life abroad. In addition, some Ukrainians (6.8%) believe that the prospects for their children are better abroad,” the document says.
According to it, people with higher incomes before the war are more likely to return, while people with higher incomes now are less likely to return. In addition, students are one of the largest groups who would like to stay abroad.
It is noted that the majority of refugees are women (the largest share of women aged 35-49 is 18%) and children. Compared to 2022, the share of children has slightly decreased from 52% to 51%, with girls and boys being approximately equal among them.
Among adults, the proportion of men slightly increased from 17% in November 2022 to 22% in May 2023, in particular among people with temporary protection status in the EU – from 27% to 29%.
It is specified that the distribution of Ukrainian refugees by country of residence has also changed: the share of Poland has decreased from 42% to 29%, while the share of Germany has increased from 18% to 26%.
It is noted that a significant number of Ukrainian refugees lost most of their income after the start of the full-scale invasion, but as of May 2023, the economic situation of Ukrainian refugees abroad has improved: the share of those who have to save on food or have enough money for food has decreased from 40% to 35%.
The CES has identified four groups of refugees using cluster analysis. The first group (25% of all refugees) are classic refugees: mostly middle-aged women with children who have moved to Poland. They are not very adapted to life abroad, as 41% of Ukrainians in this group have never been abroad before. In addition, they mostly lived in settlements that were outside the combat zone but were subjected to rocket attacks (central and western Ukraine, as well as Odesa region). Accordingly, the main reason for going abroad was fear for their own safety.
The second group (29% of all refugees) are quasi-labor migrants who went abroad not only because of the war, but also for work. They are the most adapted to life abroad, as 25% of people in this group have already had experience working abroad. Also, for this group, external factors – both the hostilities and the policy of the Ukrainian state – will have the least impact on their decisions to return to Ukraine.
The third group (29% of all refugees) are professionals, people who mostly work in their specialty and are less willing to work outside of it. They often had their own business before the war. This group is more loyal to Ukraine and more often than others plans to return to Ukraine.
The fourth group (16% of all refugees) is people from the war zone, Ukrainians who suffered the most from the war. People from this segment are the most ready to take steps to adapt abroad. At the same time, they also express the greatest readiness to return to another region of Ukraine if it is impossible to return to their home region. Their decision to return will depend on the conditions created for this.
74.1% of Ukrainians believe that men between the ages of 16 and 25 should be allowed to study abroad without hindrance, according to a survey conducted by the Ilk Kucheriv Foundation for Democratic Initiatives and the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
In particular, when asked whether respondents agree or disagree with the statement that young men aged 16 to 25 should be freely released abroad to study in foreign secondary, vocational and higher educational institutions, 52.2% said they fully agree, 21.9% – mostly agree, 7.7% – mostly disagree, 10.7% – do not agree at all, and 7.5% found it difficult to answer.
The all-Ukrainian poll was conducted in the period from July 3 to July 17, 2023. A total of 2011 respondents aged 18 and older were interviewed by face-to-face method in the Ukrainian-controlled territories of Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattya, Zaporizhzhya, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovograd, Lviv, Mykolayiv, Odessa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi regions and in Kyiv. The statistical error of the sample does not exceed 2.8%.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has simplified the departure of wounded Ukrainian servicemen for treatment abroad, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said.
“At one of the last government meetings, I voiced the clear priorities of our government in the field of veteran policy. One of these priorities is a reform of medical and social expert commissions and military medical commissions. Today we make a decision to facilitate the departure of our wounded soldiers for treatment abroad,” said Shmygal at the government meeting on Friday.
According to Prime Minister, now the military will be able to receive a referral for such treatment in the medical institution where they are being treated or rehabilitated.
According to the representative of the Cabinet in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk in Telegram, changes have been made in the procedure for sending people from the components of the defense and security forces who suffered due to the military aggression of Russia against Ukraine, for treatment abroad.
In particular, it is allowed health institutions to independently determine the need to send defenders of Ukraine, suffered in connection with the military aggression of the Russian Federation, for treatment abroad and form a corresponding package of documents to the state body that is part of the security and defense sector without involving military-medical institutions in the procedure.
“Acceleration and optimization of the procedure will also be ensured by simplifying the preparation of an opinion on the necessity of sending a person from the constituents of the defense or security forces, suffered due to the military aggression of the Russian Federation, for treatment abroad,” Melnychuk wrote.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has included 13 insurance companies in the list of insurers with the right to conduct transactions with non-resident reinsurers, the regulator’s website says.
According to its data, on March 6, 2023 the list included IC “TAS”, IC “Universalna”; on March 13 – IC “Unica”, IC “Arsenal Insurance”, IC “ARKS”, IC “PZU Ukraine”, IC “TAS”; on March 20 – IC “INGO”; on March 29 – IC “Insurance Guarantees of Ukraine”; on April 4 – IC “Busin”; on April 17 – IC “Guardian”, IC “Ukrainian fire insurance company”, IC “European insurance alliance”.
As reported, on February, 13, the NBU reported that it expanded the possibilities of insurance companies on payment of insurance payments under reinsurance contracts with non-resident reinsurers, and specified the requirements for such operations.
Thus, starting from February 14 insurers, insurance and reinsurance brokers could make payments under respective contracts without restrictions as to the date of conclusion of such contracts under condition of fulfillment of a number of conditions.
In order to simplify the procedure for cross-border reinsurance payments, the National Bank has created a list of insurers and established the procedure for deciding on the inclusion and exclusion of an insurer from the relevant list, as well as the grounds for leaving applications without consideration.
In order to be included to the specified list a respective application should be submitted to the NBU. Inclusion of insurers in the list takes place if the insurer complies with a number of requirements, namely, absence of enforcement actions taken against the insurer for violation of legislation requirements in the sphere of financial monitoring (except written clauses) in realization of special economic and other sanctions, compliance with transparency requirements as to ownership structure, compliance with solvency, capital adequacy and risk ratios within the year prior to application submission and within the period of being in the list of insurers.
In addition, the financial strength (stability) rating of the non-resident reinsurer, with which the reinsurance transaction is performed, should correspond to the level not lower than “A3” (Moody’s Investors Service), “A-” (Standard & Poor’s), “A-” (Fitch Ratings), “A-” (A.M. Best).
