The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has requested $58.5 billion for fiscal 2022 to support the activities of the Department of State and its goals, according to a document published by the U.S. Department of State on Friday. “The President’s Budget for FY 2022 requests $58.5 billion for the Department of State and USAID,” the message reads.
It is noted that this is 10% higher than the final budget of the State Department in fiscal 2021.
“These resources will position us to advance the Administration’s foreign policy agenda on behalf of the American people. It also reflects the importance the Administration places on U.S. global leadership and the fact that diplomacy and development are vital tools for advancing U.S. interests,” the U.S. Department of State said.
According to the document, it is proposed to allocate a total of $665.8 million for spending in the European region and Eurasia, which, in particular, will help strengthening the resilience of countries to foreign malevolent influence and promoting Euro-Atlantic integration, confronting the growing challenges from Russia and China.
Thus, $88 million of this amount is planned to be allocated to support the democratization of Georgia, its economic development and the creation of resilience to resisting the malicious influence of the Kremlin. In addition, $255 million will be spent on aid to Ukraine to strengthen its ability to withstand Russian aggression. To counter Russian influence and disinformation in the Western Balkans, according to the document, $106 million is required.
Kozelshchinska Central District Hospital (Poltava Region) received an oxygen concentrator from Ferrexpo Belanovo Mining (FBM). This equipment will be used in the intensive care unit of the hospital.
“As previously reported according to the Ferrexpo’s assistance program, we constantly monitor the situation with the spread of coronavirus in Ukraine, study the needs of doctors and cover them in line with priority. Unfortunately due to the beginning of cold season the situation with patients in our country has worsened and now it is especially important to continue support of doctors who work extra hard to save lives, ”said Yuri Khimich, General Director of Ferrexpo Belanovo Mining.
According to head of Kozelshchinska hospital intensive care unit Nadiia Ovdienko, now the situation is extremely difficult and the medical institution turns to philanthropists for vital equipment and medicines. “We are very grateful to FBM for this concentrator and for the systematic assistance the company provides to our hospital,” – she added.
This oxygen concentrator compares favorably with analogs with low noise level, light weight and energy saving. The device has a dual flow and is designed to supply oxygen to two patients simultaneously.
Notes to Editors:
Ferrexpo is a Swiss headquartered iron ore company with assets in Ukraine. It has been mining, processing and selling high quality iron ore pellets to the global steel industry for over 40 years. In 2019, the Group produced 10.5 million tonnes of pellets ranking it as the 3rd largest exporter of pellets to the global steel industry with a market share of approximately 8%. Ferrexpo has a diversified customer base supplying steel mills in Austria, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Vietnam and America. Ferrexpo has a premium listing on the main market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker FXPO. For further information, please visit www.ferrexpo.com
CORONAVIRUS, COVID19, FBM, FERREXPO, HELP, KHIMICH, KREMENCHUK
Kazakh businessman Margulan Seisembayev, who was earlier introduced by the chief executive of Ukraine’s National Reform Council, Mikheil Saakashvili, as his partner in the operations of the Office of Simple Decisions and Results, has met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and said that he would help Ukraine in implementing reforms.
“I met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today. Talked with him and his team for about an hour. I presented my offer on increasing the efficiency of the process of introducing reforms and legislation to him. He really liked everything. He said it is so important and necessary so they needed it yesterday. He asked me to accelerate. I promised to start working immediately. Therefore, I won’t be able to come to Kazakhstan soon. I feel I could get stuck here for a long time. The work is extensive, interesting and diligent,” he wrote on Facebook on Monday evening, having added a photograph from the meeting with Zelensky with Saakashvili’s participation to the post.
Seisembayev urged not to politicize his work. “I’m going to help Ukraine here. It has nothing to do with export of color revolutions or opposition activities experience. I’m doing what I love here, ensuring the efficiency of processes. It is a professional challenge for me. I introduced it many times in business and now I want to try introducing this into the work of the state system,” he said.
Seisembayev is a Kazakh entrepreneur, chairman of the Seimar company board in 1991-2009, Alliance Bank shareholder until December 31, 2009, resident of the Kazakh Chess Federation in 2007-2009.
On August 31, Saakashvili, who had previously announced the intention to create an international bureau for reforms in all former Soviet countries, introduced Seisembayev as his official partner in its initiative.
Saakashvili described Seisembayev as an ordinary guy from rural Kazakhstan who managed to create a “vast business empire” and became a multimillionaire and who has been “actively engaged in public work, in particular, reforms of the countries of the post-Soviet area” in the past few years. According to Saakashvili, Seisembayev’s area of responsibility would include increasing the efficiency of the process of introducing reforms and bills, as well as all international activities of the Office of Simple Decisions and Results.
Representatives of the tourism industry have appealed to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, the government and the profile committees of the Verkhovna Rada with the request to create an anti-crisis committee with the participation of tour operators and to facilitate the mirror opening of borders with other countries, the press service of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) has said.
According to the appeal, the tour operators demand negotiations between the Foreign Ministry and the countries that have opened borders for other countries, excluding Ukraine, as well as the introduction of mirror and simultaneous opening of borders with them.
The representatives of the industry insist that inbound and outbound tourism should receive equal support from the state.
“Designate professionals who will understand the difference between inbound, outbound and domestic tourism. These are concepts that cannot be interchangeable. Why are anti-crisis steps today are taken in the format of replacing outbound tourism with inbound tourism? This is not a way out of the crisis for the industry, but only a substitution of concepts, which will lead to even greater decline,” the appeal states.
According to the tour operators, more than 250,000 people work in the industry, and during quarantine thousands lost their jobs. In addition, travel companies incur losses due to penalties for the return of paid and unused tours. At the same time, the industry representatives emphasized that they do not require financial subsidies or provision of jobs.
The appeal was prepared by representatives of the tourism industry together with the anti-crisis council of public organizations and the ULIE.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has reported that he urged the large business to help the country, which “has been feeding it for many years” with finances, namely a separate fund will be set up for purchase of medicine and other necessary means during coronavirus spreading.
“We urgently need 50 ambulances. This is the amount that is not enough for our hospitals. We talked about certain means … Honestly, I spoke frankly with them that this country has been feeding them for many years – it’s time you (large businessmen) to help the country,” he said on the air of the Freedom of Speech program on ICTV.
Zelensky said that a separate fund was setting up “and UAH 12-13 billion is needed from businessmen for medicine.”
The crew of a Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) jetliner that crashed in Iran never reported an emergency on board, Associated Press said on Thursday with reference to an initial report released by Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization. According to the report, the crew also did not make a radio call for help and were trying to turn back for the airport when the plane went down.
In turn, Bloomberg reported that Ukrainian investigation team has arrived in Tehran on Thursday.
According to Bloomberg, the UIA aircraft disappeared from radar detection at 2,440 meters.
UIA’s Boeing 737-800 crashed shortly after take-off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran on January 8, 2020 in the morning.
Some 167 passengers and nine crew members were on board. All of them died.
The plane, which was carrying out the PS752 flight from Tehran to Kyiv, disappeared off the radars two minutes after takeoff.
