Currently, already 30 thousand square kilometers of de-occupied territories of Ukraine are recognized as such, which do not contain evidence of contamination by explosive objects, it is more than 17% of the preliminary assessment of contamination, reported in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
“Today, thanks to our joint work, the area of contaminated territories has already decreased by 30 thousand square kilometers. This means that in these territories were not found or were neutralized detected explosive objects,” – said the head of the Main Department of mine action, civil protection and environmental safety of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Colonel Ruslan Beregulia.
He also emphasized that now the most contaminated remain Kherson, Kharkiv and Mykolayiv regions, where more than 50% of all incidents with explosive objects among civilians have occurred.
According to the colonel, while carrying out demining activities, a comprehensive approach is applied, which, among other things, provides for chemical analysis of soils of agricultural lands for the presence of hazardous substances.
The head of the Main Department of Mine Action also noted that now 78 mechanized demining vehicles of both domestic and foreign production are used for demining of de-occupied territories from explosive objects by demining groups of security and defense forces, as well as by mine action operators.
The ministry recalled that initially the area of potentially explosive contaminated de-occupied territories in Ukraine was estimated at 174 thousand square kilometers, of which 14 thousand square kilometers are water areas.
Artem Sytnik has been appointed deputy director of the “Defense Procurement Agency” (DPA) of the Ministry of Defense on security issues.
“From now on, he will be responsible for the internal security of the agency, verification of contractors and control over the proper execution of government contracts, building effective cooperation with law enforcement agencies,” AOZ said on its Facebook page.
Sytnyk headed the National Anti-Corruption Bureau in 2015-2022. Subsequently, he worked as Deputy Director of the National Anti-Corruption Agency, where he was responsible for interaction with law enforcement agencies, financial control, special inspections, prevention of conflicts of interest.
“We are very much looking forward to his work on building processes that will prevent any manifestations of corruption and ensure efficient procurement and reliable supplies of weapons to the Armed Forces,” Director of the Defense Procurement Agency Marina Bezrukova said on Facebook on Friday.
Sytnik, in turn, expressed hope that his experience “will help strengthen the Agency and minimize possible risks in its work.”
The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has won a tender of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for the supply of almost 28 thousand cubic meters of wood, the company’s CEO Yuriy Bolokhovets said on Facebook.
“The bidding took place on Prozorro. The final price was UAH 3,750 per cubic meter. According to the terms of the contract, the supplier fully ensures the delivery of products. That is why the price is slightly higher than at exchange auctions,” he wrote.
The Director General added that in 2024, SE “Forests of Ukraine” provided the Defense Forces with almost 75 thousand cubic meters free of charge and fulfilled all the requests received by the company from military units.
“We believe it is right that the timber will be supplied to the military directly from the manufacturer under the tender procedure. This will allow us to optimize budget expenditures, guarantee the quality and timeliness of deliveries,” Bolokhovets said and added that since 2023, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has provided the Armed Forces with almost 200 thousand cubic meters of lumber and raw wood worth more than UAH 330 million.
As reported, Ukraine launched a forestry reform in 2016. As part of it, the sale of unprocessed timber at electronic auctions has already been introduced. Since 2021, an interactive map of wood processing facilities has been operating in a test mode in a number of regions.
The industry has implemented the Forest in a Smartphone project, which contains a list of logging tickets for timber harvesting and allows you to check the legality of logging on the agency’s online map.
On June 1, 2023, Ukraine launched a pilot for the electronic issuance of logging tickets and certificates of origin of timber. In addition, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has launched a pilot project to procure timber harvesting services through the electronic platform Prozorro.
The plane of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine with evacuees from Afghanistan landed at Boryspil airport.
The broadcast is hosted by the Ukraine24 television channel. It has not yet been reported how many people were evacuated.
According to the Foreign Ministry, about 90 Ukrainians were expected to be evacuated in Afghanistan. Ukraine has already exported more than 250 of its citizens, their family members and foreigners.
Ukraine and Great Britain have agreed on the joint construction of warships and bases for the domestic Navy, the press service of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine has said.
“On June 21 in Odesa aboard the HMS DEFENDER missile destroyer of the Royal Navy, Defence Procurement Minister of Great Britain Jeremy Quin and Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Myroniuk signed a memorandum on maritime partnership projects between the UK industry consortium and the Ukrainian Navy,” the ministry said.
In particular, the memorandum provides for the joint design and construction of warships in Ukraine and Great Britain, the reconstruction of Ukrainian shipbuilding enterprises and the construction of two bases of the Ukrainian Naval Forces.
In addition, the ceremony was attended by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov; First Sea Lord of Great Britain, Admiral Tony Radakin and British Ambassador to Ukraine Melinda Simmons.
The ceremony participants watched the joint exercises of the Ukrainian, British and U.S. servicemen aboard the warship.
The HMS DEFENDER destroyer arrived in Odesa last Friday, June 18. This is the second Royal Navy warship to visit Odesa in the last few weeks, after HMS TRENT.
Twenty state-owned enterprises of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry are to be liquidated and fifteen others are to be reorganized based on the results of 2020-2021, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ihor Khalimon said.
“Over the course of 2020-2021, 20 state enterprises should be liquidated, 15 reorganized, and three prepared for privatization (the 209th Operations Officer’s Directorate, the 417th Operations Officer’s Directorate, and the Druzhbivsky Quarry of Nonmetallic Minerals Kvarts),” Khalimon said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
In line with a list of state-owned assets endorsed by the Defense Ministry order of September 11, 2020, which envisions the optimization of the state enterprise management system, 42 of the 111 Defense Ministry enterprises (40 related to the ministry’s Main Directorate and the other two to its Main Intelligence Directorate) will remain operating, Khalimon said.
“We’re talking about optimizing the system of management of state enterprises by determining a list of economic assets to be engaged in meeting the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” he said.
The Defense Ministry currently manages 109 economic entities, which generated losses of over UAH 53,000 in 2019, Khalimon said.
“Based on the results of economic activities in 2020, the enterprises transferred UAH 269.235 million to the Ukrainian state budget, which is 12% more than in the previous period, the enterprises’ aggregate revenue grew by 23% to UAH 1.069 billion, and the net sales revenue grew by 19.6% to UAH 984.7 million,” Khalimon said.
According to him, after the reorganization of the state-run enterprise Ivano-Frankivsk Military Timber Industrial Complex and the state-run enterprise Lviv Military Forestry Complex, 11 newly established forestry enterprises, based on the results of financial statements, worked profitably, with no wage arrears.
