The total amount of pledges to help Ukraine with humanitarian demining, confirmed on Wednesday by participants of the first such special high-level international donor conference in Zagreb, is almost EUR0.5 billion, said Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović.
“The 34 participating states expressed their clear political support for Ukraine in the field of mine action and maintained their political commitments… The total amount of these contributions is almost EUR0.5 billion,” he said at a briefing after the first day of the conference.
According to him, additional contributions have been and will be made in the form of equipment, materials and expert assistance.
“Some countries have also made commitments that will be implemented in cooperation with international organizations, such as the United Nations Development Program,” Bozhynovych added.
He emphasized that the conference made it clear that Ukraine’s partners will join forces and act together at the national, European and international levels to identify as soon as possible the threats to the status quo posed by mines and explosive remnants of war.
“We emphasize the importance of using the most modern technologies, knowledge and experience, fully realizing that this is vital for the safety of Ukrainian citizens, as well as for the economic, social, environmental and all other aspects of post-war recovery and development of Ukraine,” said the Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Croatian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
He reminded that the EU Council is currently discussing a 4-year EUR 50 billion Ukraine Facility program to help Ukraine, and once approved, it will be very important to allocate part of these funds for demining.
“We hope that the conference that took place today confirmed these expectations and that it will be properly reflected in the upcoming rounds of negotiations in the Council and approved by the European Commission,” added Bozhynovych.
He also welcomed Switzerland’s announcement to organize, as a follow-up to the Zagreb event, the next international donor conference on humanitarian demining in Ukraine next October in Geneva.
On Thursday, the second day of the conference, there will be an expert discussion of detailed demining measures and activities in Ukraine.
According to a study conducted by the World Bank, the Ukrainian government, the European Commission and the UN, the cost of humanitarian demining in the year after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion was estimated at over EUR34 billion out of the total cost of reconstruction and recovery of EUR383 billion. At the same time, the full extent of the contamination remains unclear due to the ongoing hostilities and occupation of the territory.
In the spring, the Ukrainian government estimated the priority funding needs for humanitarian demining this year at $400 million.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will allow NPC Ukrenergo to change the purpose of a EUR50 million loan for emergency liquidity support, and the European Fund for Sustainable Development will provide a guarantee to cover the first losses.
“This support is part of the EUR1 billion that the EBRD plans to implement in Ukraine this year in cooperation with donors and partners,” the bank said in a press release on Wednesday.
The EBRD notes that EUR50 million will ensure a stable electricity supply in the country, whose economy was significantly negatively affected by the Russian military invasion in February.
“At a time when Ukrainians are resisting Russian aggression, it is important to ensure proper electricity supply in their country, and therefore support the critical role of Ukrenergo. We are also preparing support with the EBRD for other important areas of the Ukrainian economy, which will be provided in the coming weeks , in particular to meet the liquidity needs of the railway and pharmaceutical industries,” Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice President of the European Commission, is quoted in the bank’s message.
He joined EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso to sign a European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD) guarantee on the loan, which will reduce the bank’s credit risk in the current war conditions, the release said.
According to him, Ukrenergo’s support is part of a total EUR1 billion support that the EBRD plans to implement in Ukraine this year in cooperation with donors and partners. In order to meet the most urgent needs of Ukraine, the bank has identified five priority sectors of the Ukrainian economy: trade finance, energy security, vital infrastructure, food security (providing liquidity through banks for farmers for the spring planting campaign, as well as for agricultural companies and grocery retailers), and maintaining liquidity for pharmaceutical companies.
As reported, in July 2019, the EBRD agreed to provide Ukrenergo with EUR149 million to upgrade key elements of the electricity transmission infrastructure to support system stability and synchronization with European electricity grids, as well as to help Ukraine bring its legislation and operating principles in line. with the Third Energy Package of the EU. This loan has been partially disbursed.
Following a Russian-led war, the EBRD and Ukraine agreed to change the purpose of part of an existing loan for emergency liquidity support.
The EFSD is the financial mechanism of the EU’s External Investment Plan, which provides support for investment in Africa and the EU’s partner countries.
The EBRD immediately condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and promised to stand with Ukraine. On April 4, the Bank’s Board of Governors voted to suspend indefinitely Russia’s and Belarus’ access to EBRD financing and technical assistance. The bank is closing its offices in these two countries. In addition to the EUR2 billion resilience package, the EBRD has pledged to help finance the recovery of Ukraine when conditions permit/
All EBRD investments in Ukraine under the resilience package for Ukraine and neighboring countries affected by the war will involve risk sharing with partners.
The biopharmaceutical company Biopharma begins to conduct EIA (enzyme immunoassay) tests for availability of COVID-19 antibody assay for all plasma donors, EIA testing will identify those who have the disease in a latent form.
“Biopharma purchased 12,000 EIA tests manufactured by Roche and on May 18 we will begin testing donors for antibodies on our hardware base,” Kostiantyn Yefymenko, the co-owner of the company, said on his Facebook page.
He recalled that Biopharma has begun collecting plasma from donors who have undergone COVID-19.
“The first liters of such plasma have already been prepared, and our team is doing a very difficult job. We understood that it would not be easy. Very difficult,” he wrote.
Yefymenko noted that the number of potential donors is very limited. So, out of 4,700 people who recovered (at the time of publishing the post of Yefymenko) in Ukraine, 40% are older than 60 years and cannot be donors, 20% cannot be donors according to their indications.
“There remain 1,800 people in a large, forty-million country, who need to be found, and not all, but volunteers who are ready to become a donor,” he explained.
As reported, Biopharma has begun the development of a hyperimmune immunoglobulin based on plasma of people who had COVID-19, this drug can be effective for specific treatment of COVID-19.
Biopharma is a Ukrainian biotechnology company, the only plant in Eastern Europe that has modern technology, has been manufacturing and developing drugs from donated plasma for almost 50 years.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, municipal enterprise Kyivteploenergo and international partners – the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – have signed a memorandum on the development of the heat and energy complex, under which Kyiv city will receive $100 million.
The press service of the Kyiv City Administration reported on Thursday that the document envisages international cooperation in modernization and development of the Kyiv’s heat and energy complex.
According to the report, under the memorandum, it is planned to build up an interim financial package of $100 million, which will finance the priority work on modernization.
“Kyiv lays the foundation for international cooperation in the modernization and development of the heat and power complex of the city. We are designing a plan to turn Kyivteploenergo into a European-level company that will provide high-quality services,” Klitschko said.
Klitschko said that the city is ready to overcome possible risks and barriers, given the imperfection of the current legislation and the difficult situation in the sphere of the country’s power system.
Foreign Service Officer at the USAID Farhad Ghaussy said that the United States actively supports the creation of an adequate level of Kyiv’s energy security.
He said that the USAID is actively cooperating with Kyiv city. It will be very difficult for the city to carry out modernization of the heat and power complex, but thanks to the assembled team it would be possible to transform it, he added.
