As of June 14, according to the incidence rates of COVID-19, Ukraine entered the “green” zone according to the EU criteria, the Coronavirus-info Telegram channel reported.
According to the report, the country has reached the lowest incidence rates in the last year, in particular, an indicator of 74.71 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population was recorded, with the EU criterion of 75 cases per 100,000 population.
As reported, last week all regions of Ukraine entered the “green” epidemic zone of COVID-19 in accordance with the requirements of Ukrainian legislation.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has recommended that EU air carriers and non-EU airlines avoid Belarusian airspace, Western media outlets reported on Wednesday, citing the EASA.
Non-EU airlines authorized by the EASA when conducting operations to, from, and within the EU are advised to avoid operating in Belarusian airspace, it said.
The agency cited safety reasons following the May 23 Ryanair flight incident, which called into question the ability of the Belarusian authorities to provide safe air navigation services.
A Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was forced to land at the Minsk airport while passing through Belarus’s airspace on May 23. It was reported that the plane landed after the Belarusian security services were warned of a bomb threat. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered that a MiG-29 fighter jet be scrambled to shadow the passenger plane, which was carrying Roman Pratasevich, editor of the Telegram channel Belarus Golovnogo Mozga (Belarus of the Brain) and former editor of the Telegram channel Nexta, both designated as extremist in Belarus, and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, a Russian citizen and student of the European Humanities University based in Vilnius. The Belarusian authorities have detained both of them.
The European Union (EU) has invested EUR 1 billion in vaccine research and EUR 2.9 billion in expanding production capacity, the press service of the German Embassy in Kyiv said. “The study now needs support to protect the world from new strains of viruses. At the same time, Germany is also helping within the EU. The EU has already invested EUR 1 billion in vaccine research and EUR 2.9 billion in expanding production capacity,” the message reads.
The press service noted that the rapid development of vaccines against COVID-19 became possible thanks to international scientific cooperation.
“One example is the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, which was the first to be registered in the EU. The German married couple of researchers Ozlem Tureci and Professor Ugur Sahin and their team developed a vaccine in Germany in a very short time with funding from the federal government,” the press service said.
Ukraine, as a European country, has the right to become a member of the EU, but must first fulfill the Association Agreement and the reform program, a high-ranking European official has said.
“We are linked with Ukraine by the Association Agreement signed in 2014, including the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) Agreement, and now we must do everything possible to make it a success story,” he said, announcing the participation of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in a videoconference of EU foreign ministers.
He noted that this agreement has a huge potential in terms of the economy and social development of Ukraine, while Brussels and Kyiv should focus their efforts on its implementation.
“Ukraine is a European country and in this capacity it can become a member of the EU,” he told journalists.
“But this is not what is on the agenda right now. Today we are talking about the implementation of the Association Agreement, about holding reforms, about things that usually precede the process of joining the union,” the official said.
He said that on Monday Kuleba will join the video meeting of the foreign ministers of the EU countries and will talk with them for about an hour.
“The Ukrainian army has been constantly on alert for seven years, Ukraine spends 6% of its GDP on defense, which it more needs on other budget items,” the official stressed.
In his opinion, Ukraine will be able to move forward, overcoming the conflict in the east of the country and actively pursuing reforms. At the same time, the EU is ready to provide financial and economic support to Kyiv.
“We will continue to do this, because we see this as the only possible way to ensure that Ukraine is a truly independent, sovereign country,” the EU official said.
The European Union (EU) is confident that Ukraine, as a European country, has the right to be a member of the community, but now the issue of reforms is on the agenda.
This is how a European diplomat commented on the prospects for Ukraine’s membership in the EU on Friday in Brussels. He said that what the EU has with Ukraine is the Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, and what the EU is seriously investing in now is to make this agreement a success. It has huge potential for the economy, for the social development of Ukraine, he said.
At the same time, the European diplomat is confident that Ukraine is a European country, and as a European country it has the opportunity of joining the EU.
But this is not what is now on the agenda, he said. Now it is about the implementation of this agreement, it is about reforms, about what precedes accession, he said.
Most Ukrainians believe that Ukraine needs to join the European Union. This is evidenced by the results of a survey conducted by the Razumkov Center in March 2021. Ukraine’s accession to the European Union is supported by 59% of respondents, while 26% are of the opposite opinion. The share of those who support EU accession exceeds the share of those who adhere to the opposite point of view in the west (84% and 8.5%, respectively) and in the center of the country (63% and 19%, respectively). In the east, there are slightly more of those who believe that there is no need to join (38.5% and 46%, respectively), and in the south, the shares of the former and the latter do not differ statistically significantly (41.5% and 42%, respectively).
Accession to the European Union is mainly supported by young people (76% “for” in the age group from 18 to 29 years old, some 44% “for” among respondents over 60). At the same time, in all age groups, the share of those who support accession to the EU exceeds the share of those who oppose it.
In the event of a referendum on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, some 59% of those polled (80% of those who intend to take part in the referendum) voted in favor of joining, and, respectively, 26% and 17% were against. At the same time, among fans of joining the European Union, some 96% of those polled expressed their readiness to vote in the referendum, and among opponents some 46%.
The share of those who intend to vote for accession to the EU exceeds the share of those who intend to vote against in the western (84% and 8%, respectively) and in the central regions (64% and 18%, respectively). In the eastern regions, there are slightly more of those who are going to vote against joining (39% and 46%, respectively), and in the south, the shares of the former and the latter are the same (42% each).
Among respondents aged 18 to 29 years, some 75% intend to vote for accession to the European Union, among respondents over 60 years old some 44%.
Among the representatives of the electorate of the European Solidarity party some 91% intend to vote for joining the European Union (against some 5%). Among the respondents who intend to vote for the Servant of the People party at the parliamentary elections were 78% and 13%, respectively, for the Batkivschyna party some 60% and 21%, respectively. At the same time, the overwhelming majority among the representatives of the electorate of the Opposition Platform – For Life party would vote against 15% and 73%, respectively.
The share of those who believe that relations between Ukraine and the EU will improve is highest in the western region (34.5%), lower in the central (27.5%) and lowest in the southern (22%) and eastern (17.5%) regions. In the same regional sequence, the share of those who believe that they will worsen is growing (4%, 6%, 15% and 21%, respectively). Optimism is more often expressed by representatives of young people (34% among respondents from 18 to 29 years old, some 19% among respondents over 60 years old).
The research was conducted by the sociological service of the Razumkov Center from March 5 to March 9, 2021 using the method of face-to-face interviews at the place of residence of the respondents. A total of 2018 respondents aged 18 and over were interviewed in all regions of Ukraine, with the exception of Crimea and the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, according to a sample representing the adult population in terms of basic social and demographic indicators. The theoretical sampling error (excluding the design effect) does not exceed 2.3% with a probability of 0.95.
