The European Commission will soon submit a report on the readiness of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia to join the European Union, European Council President Charles Michel said.
“We discussed in detail the issues of EU enlargement a few months ago, at the conference in Versailles. After that, three countries applied for accession. We made a decision very quickly, instructing the European Commission to carry out work and prepare reports on these countries. We made a decision in a few days, although it usually took 8-9 months. By the end of June, the European Commission will publish this report, and we will decide how to proceed further,” Michel said at a joint press conference with Moldovan President Maia Sandu during a visit to Chisinau.
He stressed that the EU will continue to act promptly.
“We will act immediately to strengthen ties with Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia, to support them in the current difficult situation. This will be a political process in the context of how we see the development of the European Union. In the next two months, we will give a clear signal of what we want to enlarge the European Union,” the President of the European Council said.
For her part, Moldovan President Maia Sandu stressed that “European integration is the choice of the country, the choice of the people.” “On April 22, we submitted to Brussels the first part of our responses to the European Commission’s questionnaire. In the near future we will also pass on the second part. We understand that integration into the EU is a long process, we are not looking for short and easy ways. We intend to continue reforms. Most importantly – peace is needed for this, everything must be done to restore peace,” Sandu stressed.
SkyUp Airlines (Kyiv) is planning to transport large volumes of cargo from China to Ukraine via Poland, Romania and Moldova, and is also developing a concept for transporting cargo from the United States, for which it is necessary to go through a special procedure for obtaining FAA permits.
According to the company’s website, the company is also in dialogue with Southern Airways Express (the USA) regarding the branding of their aircraft in the colors of the Ukrainian flag and is discussing the possibility of creating “sister airlines” that could attract SkyUp employees to work on an outsourcing basis.
According to the airline’s website, in March, SkyUp performed 21 evacuation flights on the Chisinau-Tel Aviv route and transported 2,835 refugees to Israel under the repatriation program, as well as their 124 pets.
Today, SkyUp is working on the possibility of performing evacuation flights to Portugal, Sweden and the UK under the Israel-Romania program.
In addition, SkyUp agreed with Suceava Airport (Romania) on the possibility of transporting cargo. This is the closest point to the border of Ukraine.
The company has now also confirmed shipments of humanitarian supplies from Portugal and Israel to Ukraine via Poland, including helmets and clothing for the army.
It is noted that during this time the company transported 112 tonnes of humanitarian cargo. The cargo included medicines, including insulin, baby food, personal hygiene and household chemicals, blankets, diapers, etc. The cargo was distributed according to its intended purpose: for the needs of Ukrainian refugees in Chisinau and various cities of Ukraine.
The EU has developed a plan for reverse gas supplies to Ukraine and Moldova in case these countries experience interruptions in supplies from Russia, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson.
“She told reporters in Vienna that the EU in the current situation cannot consider Russia a trustworthy partner, and therefore interruptions are not ruled out,” the agency writes.
In addition, Simson noted that Brussels is assessing what difficulties the economies and citizens of the EU countries will face if this integration association imposes an embargo on oil supplies from Russia.
On April 8, 41,000 people crossed the state border from Ukraine to the EU and Moldova, compared to 34,000 the day before, about two-thirds came to Poland, which is in line with the average values, the State Border Service said in a Facebook post on Friday.
According to the data of the Polish border service on Twitter, on April 8, 27.5 thousand people entered the country from Ukraine, which is 17% more than the day before, but over the first 7 hours of Saturday, the flow decreased by 4.4% to 6.5 thousand 16.6 thousand people left Poland for Ukraine on Friday.
According to the State Border Service, the flow of people entering Ukraine on April 8 increased slightly – from 25 thousand to 26 thousand, including citizens of Ukraine – from 22 thousand to 23 thousand.
All checkpoints on the western border (except “Dzvinkove” – from 8:00 to 20:00 and “Kosino” – from 8:00 to 24:00) operate around the clock.
The State Border Service also reported that over the past day the number of registered vehicles with humanitarian cargo increased to 660 from 550 the day before.
According to UNHCR data, at 13:00 on April 8, a total of 4.36 million people left Ukraine since the beginning of the war, of which 2.56 million went to Poland, 745.07 thousand to Romania and Moldova, and 431.89 to Hungary. thousand, Russia – 389.85 thousand, Slovakia – 310.99 thousand, Belarus – 19.1 thousand.
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk is disappointed with the positions of Moldova and Georgia on neutrality in the issue of imposing sanctions against the Russian Federation. “I once thought that what unites Ukraine most of all with Georgia and Moldova is that our countries are territorially “bitten” by the Russian Federation. But today’s position of official Tbilisi and Chisinau regarding their neutrality in imposing sanctions against Russia has disappointed me,” Stefanchuk wrote. He stressed that friends are known in trouble, “but it’s good that our peoples have a different opinion.”
SkyUp Airlines (Kyiv), in cooperation with The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, operated 8 flights from Moldova to Israel from March 6 to March 17, which allowed 1,248 Ukrainians to evacuate to Israel under the repatriation program.
According to the company’s website, 83 pets went to Israel with the passengers.
SkyUp noted that in active cooperation with The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews the company will continue to organize evacuation flights. In particular, flights are already planned for another 1,500 Ukrainians.
“As a conscientious company, we understand that we must continue our operations for the good of the country – in order for Ukraine to have a bright future. I express my deep gratitude to The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Moldova, the esteemed Ambassador Mark Oleksandrovych Shevchenko and personally to Serhiy Mykhailovych Humeniuk, who worked tirelessly to help our compatriots, as well as all those thanks to whom these flights take place. We are honored that our company can become a kind of bridge between Ukrainians and friendly countries, where people can feel security,” SkyUp Airlines CEO Dmytro Seroukhov said.
