Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group has sent another batch of assistance worth UAH 7 million to the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front militarized initiative.
According to the company’s press release, Metinvest has been supporting the GUR since the first days of the full-scale invasion of Russia. Previously, the reconnaissance personnel received special forces ammunition kits, a variety of tactical equipment and machinery. This time the company handed over 20 generators, 50 drones, 19 thermal imagers, as well as a “pickup truck” to ensure uninterrupted power supply.
“Metinvest” provided, in particular, drones Mavic 2, Mavic 3 and Autel.
It is recalled that since the beginning of the full-scale war, Metinvest Group has provided support to the army and military for more than 1.4 billion UAH.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical companies. The group’s enterprises are mainly located in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
The major shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%) that manage it jointly.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
The Verkhovna Rada Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Committee has recommended that the draft laws on the cancellation of VAT and customs duties on imports of generators and other energy equipment, as well as Starlinks, be passed in the second reading, the head of the parliamentary committee for financial, tax and customs policy Daniil Getmantsev said.
“The purpose of the bills is to introduce short-term tax and customs incentives for the restoration of energy infrastructure, namely exemption from import duty and value added tax (VAT) on imports of generators and other components until May 1, 2023,” he wrote in Telegram.
The corresponding bills № 8196 and № 8197 were voted for by 23 members of the committee.
People’s Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak (faction “Voice”) noted that the bills will go to the session hall during this session and may be adopted.
He specified that the documents also take into account the exemption from payments for postal and express consignments and provide the opportunity to store fuel without a license up to 2 thousand liters.
Nardep noted that the import of equipment under the Energy Community technical assistance is also exempted from VAT and duties.
About 3 thousand generators are already working in the medical system of Ukraine, said Deputy Minister of Health Alexei Yaremenko.
“We understand that there are mass outages. About 3 thousand generators are already working in the medical system now,” he said on the air of the National Telethon on Thursday.
At the same time, Yaremenko noted that “a huge amount of fuel, at least 1,600 tons per day,” is needed to provide the generators.
“Providing fuel is the responsibility of the hospital and local administrations. However, given that hospitals are classified as critical infrastructure, they are the first to be included (in the grid – IF-U) and it is done so that hospitals can be led as much as possible on a fixed power grid. If there is no light in the hospital, generators are turned on automatically or manually,” he said.
Yaremenko reminded that equipping surgical clinics with generators has been an obligatory condition for several years, in order to be contracted by the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU) to participate in the Medical Assistance Program.
At the same time, Yaremenko specified that in the case of power outages, therapeutic patients who are not life-threatening will be advised to continue treatment at home.
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aikhan Hajizada said Azerbaijan provided Ukraine with 50 generators and 45 power transformers as humanitarian aid.
“Azerbaijan continues to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine. 45 power transformers and 50 generators provided by Azerenerji were sent to Ukraine. As of today, Azerbaijan has provided more than 30 million manats (more than $50 million) in aid to the needy population,” Hajizada tweeted on Sunday.
Azerenerji is the largest producer of electricity in Azerbaijan.
Exchange rate according to the Ministry of Finance on December 10: $0.59/AZN, AZN1.7/$1.
Ukraine has imported power generators and generator equipment worth $60m over the last two weeks, First Deputy Economy Minister Denis Kudin said.
“The second item of imports for the last two weeks were generators and generator equipment. Second only to fuel. We’ve imported $60 million worth of such equipment in those two weeks, and judging by what we know from the companies, the volume of generators that are on the road waiting for delivery in the second half of December, January, February and March is just off the charts,” he said during a discussion at the Center for Economic Strategy on Thursday.
Kudin added that, according to his data, Lviv and Kyiv are compensating businesses for 75 percent of the cost of generators.
The Ukrainian bakery industry has applied for the provision of electricity generators from international partners, organized for representatives of the Ukrainian agro-industrial complex by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the equipment can be delivered to Ukraine within one to two months.
At the same time, there is a shortage of generators all over the world, and the equipment purchased now can be delivered to Ukraine in January, Yuriy Duchenko, the First Vice President of the All-Ukrainian Association of Bakers and Director of Kyiv Khlib LLC (the Kyivkhlib brand), told Interfax-Ukraine.
“We have submitted applications to cover the needs for generators, the partners have responded, but this issue has not yet been resolved. We are promised them perhaps in a month, perhaps in two. Unfortunately, it is not known when the next shelling will take place and what it threatens us with. That is, this question the ministry is engaged in, but 99% of decisions need to be made independently and their decision falls on the shoulders of the producers,” the director specified.
According to him, the company has recently purchased 650 kW generators for its mill and bakery for more than EUR100,000 to ensure emergency operation, but he noted that such a solution does not allow powering the production for a long time. In addition, the electricity they produce costs 3-4 times more than electricity from the network.
“For bakeries, working on generators is an emergency mode. It is possible for half a day or a day. But it is impossible to ensure the constant operation of the enterprise on a generator. This also applies to technological issues, and such that generators need to be constantly maintained and refueled. It is very difficult now organize. But we have to provide it for emergencies,” Duchenko stressed.
According to him, the issue of selling bread and bakery products during planned and emergency power outages is not as acute as with other perishable products, and the main problem is the lack of communication and access to the Internet during a power outage.
“The main difficulty today arises in the fact that when the power goes out, the connection disappears. This is very critical. Even if we organize emergency operation of stores and production on generators, it is difficult to accept an order and ship products. It’s all tied up through computer networks. We had a case, that we made the products, but could neither print invoices nor contact the store,” the expert explained.
