Three bulkers loaded with corn, wheat and vegetable oil departed from Ukrainian ports on Sunday, the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) said.
“The Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) reports that three vessels left Ukrainian ports today [December 18], carrying a total of 54,464 tonnes of grain and other food products under the Black Sea Grain Initiative,” the JCC said.
MV Lady Ayana (25,250 tonnes of corn) and MV Barbaros Hayrettin V (5,214 tonnes of vegetable oil) are destined for Italy. MV AK Halima is transporting 11,100 tonnes of wheat and 11,900 tonnes of corn to Spain.
“Grains that reach a destination may go through processing and be trans-shipped to other countries,” the JCC said.
Five ships, which transited the maritime humanitarian corridor on Sunday, are headed to Ukrainian ports.
“As of 18 December, the total tonnage of grain and other foodstuffs exported from the three Ukrainian ports is 14,194,211 tonnes. A total of 1,128 voyages (565 inbound and 563 outbound) have been enabled so far,” the JCC said.
The European Commission (EC) approved on Tuesday the Horizon Europe work program for 2023-2024 to allocate about 13.5 billion euros to support researchers and innovators in Europe.
It is about finding “breakthrough solutions to environmental, energy, digital and geopolitical problems.”
“As part of the broader €95.5 billion EU Horizon Europe research and innovation program, funding for 2023-2024 will support the EU in achieving its climate goals, building resilience and developing basic digital technologies,” the European Commission said in a communiqué published in Brussels.
The document said it would also “consider targeted actions to support Ukraine, build economic resilience and promote sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Brussels explained that the targeted assistance to Ukraine is in addition to the 70 million euros earmarked for special measures already initiated in 2022. The additional support foresees the enhancement of access of Ukrainian scientists to European research infrastructures, continuation of the assistance to Ukrainian medical scientists, assistance in the struggle against climate change and assistance in reconstruction of several Ukrainian cities with the participation of the EU mission on climate-neutral and “smart” cities.
The EC communiqué also notes that over 42% of the 2023-2024 work program budget, or €5.67 billion, is earmarked for climate change and digital transformation projects. Some 970 million euros will be invested “to accelerate the transition to clean energy in line with the European REPowerEU plan and increase Europe’s energy independence.
The number of refugees from Ukraine registered for temporary protection or similar national protection schemes in Europe reached 4 million 751.07 thousand as of November 22, 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on its website.
In the month since Oct. 25, the increase was 324,32,000, up from 242,900 and 214,300 in the previous two months, respectively, and about 1.8 million in total since the end of May.
The largest increase over the past month showed Germany – about 206.5 thousand, Poland – about 38.9 thousand, France – about 14 thousand, Romania – 11.7 thousand and the Czech Republic – about 9.5 thousand.
According to data of the UNHCR, collected from the national governments, the most refugees with the status of temporary protection in Poland – 1 million 507.89 thousand, given that the country from Ukraine, according to the Polish border service, since the war arrived 8.008 million people, and in the opposite direction went to Ukraine 6.196 million.
They are followed by Germany and the Czech Republic, where the number of registered for temporary protection of refugees from Ukraine was 1 million 21.67 thousand and 462.41 thousand, respectively.
Italy still occupies the fourth place – 164,17 thousand (3,5 thousand more), and Spain closes the third place – 154,46 thousand (5,2 thousand more).
Great Britain follows after that – 146.2 thousand (7.8 thousand increase), and Bulgaria with amount of 146.03 thousand (3.3 thousand growth) – the only country where the number of registered with temporary protection is much more than the number of registered refugees from Ukraine – 51.86 thousand.
There are more than 100 thousand Ukrainians registered for temporary protection in two countries – France and Slovakia: 118.99 thousand (data as of October, 21) and 101.24 thousand (increase by 2,7 thousand).
From 50 thousand to 100 thousand refugees from Ukraine with temporary protection status are also in Romania – 87.89 thousand, Austria – 86.90 thousand (an increase of 2.1 thousand), the Netherlands – 79.25 thousand (data of September 30), Lithuania – 70.67 thousand (an increase of less than 2 thousand, as for other countries below, where the dynamics are not specified)
Switzerland is also among them – 69.61 thousand (an increase of 2.8 thousand), Ireland – 64.28 thousand (an increase of 3.8 thousand), Belgium – 59.53 thousand and Portugal – 52.88 thousand (data of October 3).
Sweden comes next with indicators of 25 to 50 thousand – 48.36 thousand, Finland – 43.81 thousand, Latvia – 42.82 thousand (an increase of 2.1 thousand),
Estonia – 38.73 thousand, Denmark – 34.95 thousand, Hungary – 32.27 thousand, Norway – 32.10 thousand are also in this category.
From 10 to 25 thousand refugees from Ukraine with temporary protection status in Greece – 20.0 thousand, Croatia – 19.13 thousand and Cyprus – 18.29 thousand.
In addition, the UN statistics on refugees from Ukraine received temporary protection status in Slovenia – 8.07 thousand, Montenegro – 6.96 thousand, Luxembourg – 6.76 thousand, Iceland – 1.77 thousand, Malta – 1.54 thousand, Serbia and Kosovo – 1.09 thousand and Liechtenstein – 0.36 thousand.
The UN also indicates countries with registered refugees from Ukraine, but no data on their status: Turkey (data of May 19) – 145 thousand, Moldova – 96.65 thousand, Georgia – 25.20 thousand, North Macedonia – 6.39 thousand, Azerbaijan – 3.94 thousand, Albania – 2.51 thousand, Armenia – 0.36 thousand and Bosnia and Herzegovina – 0.13 thousand.
The UN separately indicates Russia and Belarus, where the Ukrainian border was crossed by 2 million 852.4 thousand and 16.71 thousand people, respectively, but since October 3, the data for Russia are no longer updated, while for Belarus they are even older. According to the UN, the Russian Federation recorded all who crossed the border, while 16.43 thousand – in Belarus. There are no data on their status, as well as data on the Ukrainian border crossing in the opposite direction.
According to the UNHCR data as of November 22, a total of 15.592 million people left Ukraine since the beginning of the war (not counting the flow of people into the country), of which 7.584 million left for Poland, 2.852 million for Russia (data of October 3), 1.782 million for Hungary, 1.557 million for Romania, 953.9 thousand for Slovakia, 697.9 thousand for Moldova and 16.7 thousand for Belarus.
At the same time, according to the UN, from February 28 to November 22, 7.939 million people entered Ukraine (excluding Hungary, Russia and Belarus).
“Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, almost a third of Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes. To date, this is one of the largest displacement crises in the world. In Ukraine, some 6.5 million people were internally displaced as of Oct. 27 as a result of the war,” indicates UNHCR, which increased its estimate of internally displaced people by 0.3 million.
UNHCR indicates that by mid-2021, there were only 53,47,000 Ukrainian refugees worldwide seeking appropriate status, including 36,49,000 in Europe.
The Ukrainian diaspora in the world as of mid-2020 was estimated by UNHCR at 6.1 million, including 5 million in Europe.
For 2 days 9 vessels with 162 thousand tons of agricultural products for the countries of Africa, Asia and Europe departed from Big Odessa ports, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine informs.
“In particular, the bulk carrier BOZBURUN – M with 40 thousand tons of wheat for Ethiopia departed today. This is already the eighth vessel chartered by the UN World Food Programme as part of the assistance to countries in Africa and Asia,” the Telegram channel said.
In the ports of Greater Odessa under the processing of 26 ships. They are loaded with 1 million tons of Ukrainian agricultural products.
Since August 1, 475 ships left the ports of Big Odessa, which exported 11.2 million tons of Ukrainian food products to Asia, Europe and Africa.
Energy Minister of Ukraine Herman Haluschenko called on Europe to use the free capacity of Ukrainian underground gas storages (UGS).
“Gas prices are at the lowest level in several months. A great opportunity to use Europe’s largest underground gas storage facilities with 15 billion cubic meters of free capacity. Additional gas volumes will be needed this winter,” he wrote on Twitter.
According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, as of October 24, gas reserves in the EU’s UGS facilities rose to 93.79%. The growth for the last reporting day amounted to 0.16 percentage points. In absolute terms, more than 100 billion cubic meters have been accumulated in UGS.
Also, LNG stocks in the tanks of receiving terminals increased to the maximum level in three years. European LNG terminals in October operate at around 61% capacity. In September and August – 59%.
France, Germany and Spain are faced with another increase in the number of people infected with coronavirus, and the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that the pandemic is not over yet and control of the virus is necessary, El Mundo newspaper writes.
“The World Health Organization and the European Union warned this week that the pandemic is not over yet and that people’s health must be protected, especially among the most vulnerable populations. The WHO is again seeing a growing number of covid infections in Europe, this indicates another wave of the virus,” writes edition with reference to the organization.
In addition, WHO held a new quarterly meeting on the situation with COVID-19, which discussed the issue of maintaining an international state of emergency due to the pandemic. The decision will be announced in the coming days.
According to the organization, 3 million cases of COVID-19 infection were confirmed in the world last week, the lowest figure this year. The number of deaths was 8.8 thousand, this is the second lowest figure in 2022.
Meanwhile, according to El Mundo, in Spain, all indicators of COVID-19 have increased over the past week: the incidence is skyrocketing in people over 59, many of them end up in hospitals in intensive care units.
The Ministry of Health of the country again publishes weekly statistics on coronavirus, according to which 587 patients with covid have been admitted to hospitals in Spain since last Friday. In total, there are 3.3 thousand people, 174 of them are in the intensive care unit.
The situation is no better in Germany: people with the Omicron strain BA.4 and BA.5 are hospitalized there. According to the Association of Hospitals of the country, medical institutions are now working at the limit of their capabilities.
In this context, discussions on the mandatory wearing of masks indoors have resumed in Germany, and the Minister of Health of the Republic, Karl Lauterbach, has called on the federal states to reintroduce the mask regime in the indicated places.
In turn, France is launching a free flu vaccination campaign in the hope of reducing the number of cases, especially at a time when the number of people infected with coronavirus is rising. First of all, people over 65 years of age, pregnant women, people with third-degree obesity (BMI over 40) and patients with certain chronic diseases, such as diabetes, are recommended to be vaccinated.
