The delivery of a next batch of AstraZeneca (CoviShield) vaccine to Ukraine may be postponed for a certain period due to the active information campaign that was launched against the Indian vaccine in our country, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Public Health, Medical Assistance and Medical Insurance Mykhailo Radutsky (the Servant of the People faction) said.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has received a letter from the Indian Embassy, which emphasizes the inadmissibility of defamatory statements about India as a manufacturer of medicines and the AstraZeneca [CoviShield] vaccine supplied to Ukraine,” Radutsky wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.
He said that, as noted by the Indian side, the AstraZeneca vaccine (CoviShield) is an absolutely safe and effective drug, which has been confirmed by the World Health Organization.
“Only in Europe and India, about 50 million doses of this vaccine have already been used. Significant volumes of the drug have been contracted by countries such as Canada, Great Britain, Brazil and others,” the MP said.
He said that Ukraine has contracted 1.5 million doses of vaccine produced in India, but for the manufacturer “it is not a problem to transfer this batch to other customers”, since the demand for vaccines in the world significantly exceeds the production capacity.
“According to my information, President Volodymyr Zelensky instructed Ministers Maksym Stepanov and Dmytro Kuleba to find additional ways to speed up the delivery of the next batch of CoviShield vaccine to Ukraine. The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine should do everything necessary as soon as possible to convince Indian partners that the state and Ukrainian society are not involved in discrediting the vaccine supplier,” Radutsky said.
He said that both odious pro-Russian politicians and pseudo-patriotic political leaders who are doing everything to return to power, amid the destabilization of the country, worked to disrupt cooperation with India.
“We all remember the shameful statement of one of these figures, which he made during a meeting of the conciliation council of the Verkhovna Rada. It was a deliberate cynical game to disrupt the supply of vaccines and block the vaccination campaign. This man doomed thousands of Ukrainians to death in order to satisfy his own political ambitions,” the MP said.
As previously reported, the first batch of 500,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca (CoviShield) vaccine was delivered to Ukraine on the morning of February 23
Nova Poshta, the leader of express delivery in Ukraine, has launched the Kharkiv Innovation Terminal in a test mode.
The company said this terminal became the fourth innovative terminal of the company in Ukraine and the second largest after the Kyiv Innovation Terminal.
The construction of an object with an area of more than 19,000 sq m lasted 1.5 years. Like other innovative terminals of Nova Poshta, the Kharkiv terminal is equipped with automated equipment from the Dutch company Vanderlande, capable of handling 8,500 parcels per hour. The terminal is also equipped with 31 special telescopic conveyors, with the help of which items are unloaded and loaded directly into the vehicle. The total capacity of the terminal is up to 20,000 parcels per hour.
“Investments in infrastructure is a necessity for the company to effectively sort parcels, the volumes of which are growing significantly from year to year, and this year the figure has already grown by 30%. The opening of the Kharkiv terminal will help us distribute logistics flows in the east and maintain the speed of delivery,” CEO of Nova Poshta Oleksandr Bulba said.
The Kharkiv terminal will sort shipments for Kharkiv, as well as Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
At present, the terminal is operating in a test mode, all processes of Nova Poshta’s terminal logistics are synchronized: the logistics directions and information structure are changing, and the flow of shipments is being distributed.
Nova Poshta plans to launch it on a regular basis next week.
The Fora supermarket chain expects that in 2021 the number of orders from the chain’s retail outlets through delivery services will double in comparison with the results of 2020.
“We believe that delivery and express delivery from retail next year will double compared to this year. According to our vision of the market, the number of purchases with small and medium check will grow especially rapidly,” Director for Digital Technologies at Fora Yevhen Trishyn said at a briefing last week.
He also said that Fora has stores in Kyiv, which provides almost full coverage.
“We have several bricks-and-mortar stores in the center of Kyiv, where the turnover through Glovo reaches 10%. This is a very good, serious indicator after six months of working through one digital service. And we expect that the number of such stores will only grow,” Trishyn said.
According to General Manager of Glovo in Ukraine Dmytro Raskovsky, the service has already outstripped other delivery services from supermarkets in terms of the number of deliveries.
“According to our estimates, if we compare the number of deliveries from supermarkets in our country and that of any other player on the market, we are now number one. Most of the large retail chains are already working with us. Of the large chains, we now only lack ATB… We have also more coverage and more partners than any other delivery service,” Raskovsky said.
The postal and logistics operator Trade House Meest Express LLC (Meest Express, Lviv) has launched air delivery from the United States to Lviv.
“Meest is the first Ukrainian postal and logistic company with its own air delivery from the United States. Today we met the charter flight we rented in Lviv – Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner of the LOT airline – with parcels of our dear customers,” President of Meest Rostyslav Kysil wrote on his Facebook page.
He also said that this flight was the first transatlantic flight in Lviv.
The Lviv international airport said in a report that the Polish airline LOT performed the first test flight for Meest Express.
“We are very pleased with the opening of long-haul cargo transportation to Lviv. Since the onset of the aviation crisis, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have actively switched to finding alternative sources of income… Today, we have a beautiful Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner cargo aircraft from the airline LOT, performing a test presentation flight. Next, we will continue to work on which airline will deliver goods to Lviv,” Director General of the Lviv airport Tetiana Romanovska said.
According to her, the opening of such flights will save the situation with the financial condition of the enterprise and will provide an opportunity to improve it in the winter.
“From now on, the Lviv airport becomes not only a passenger, but also a cargo aviation hub,” Romanovska said.
Meest Group is part of Meest Corporation Inc. (Toronto, Canada). It provides postal and logistics services in 20 countries: Canada, the United States, Ukraine, Australia, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Poland, China, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Israel.
Nova Poshta Group of Companies opened its 7,000th office in Ukraine in October 2020.
According to the company’s press release, the company’s network currently has 7,145 offices, 4,100 of which operate in villages.
“This year we have already opened 1,300 new offices. That means, on average, Nova Poshta opened five offices a day, four of which are in villages where the company was not previously represented,” the press service quotes CEO of Nova Poshta Oleksandr Bulba.
The company noted that in 2020 the network was also expanded in resort areas. In particular, offices appeared in Henicheska Hirka (Kherson region), Mykolaivka, Prymorske (Odesa region), Tatariv (Ivano-Frankivsk region), Oriavchyk (Lviv region) and others. In general, Nova Poshta already operates in more than 100 resort areas.
At the same time, according to the company, the leader in network expansion in 2020 was Ivano-Frankivsk region, where more than 100 new offices have appeared since the beginning of the year. The top five regions also include Lviv, Odesa, Zaporizhia and Rivne regions.
The Swedish company IKEA, the world’s largest retailer of furniture and household goods, on May 14 officially launched the possibility of ordering goods from an online store in Ukraine, distribution points will operate in the Kyiv shopping center Auchan Rive Gauche and Metro Cash & Carry.
“Remaining faithful to its desire to create a better everyday life for many people in Ukraine, IKEA is pleased to announce the start of work in the Ukrainian market and the launch of an online store. Currently, the Swedish retailer offers Ukrainian customers about 3,600 functional home goods of all categories and styles with attractive design and prices. An order can be made on the website www.ikea.ua,” the retailer said in an official statement.
It says buyers will be able to choose where and how to pick up their goods: in one of the points for receiving orders in Kyiv for free or using the home delivery service.
“Today two points are ready to start work – at Auchan Rive Gauche and Metro Cash & Carry. The delivery service is organized in cooperation with DB Schenker. We do everything to ensure smooth online purchases, however we will be grateful for your patience and understanding in case of possible delays during the first few days of work,” the press release says.
It emphasizes that the functioning of the company is organized in accordance with IKEA security measures, as well as in accordance with the requirements and instructions of the government of Ukraine. All employees will have access to the necessary protective equipment and will work in compliance with recommendations on social distance.
After the launch of the online store, IKEA plans to open its new city store in Kyiv as soon as possible. The company has recently signed a lease agreement with Blockbuster Mall”, the company confirmed.
