The bulk carrier PUMA has left the port of Odesa with 30,000 tons of rapeseed and metal, becoming the fifth vessel to use the temporary evacuation corridor from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports since September 15, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Ministry of Reconstruction Oleksandr Kubrakov.
“Due to the blocking of the #BSGI (Black Sea Grain Initiative) and the world’s growing demand for agricultural products, Ukraine is considering the possibility of using the corridor for ships with non-military cargo, especially agricultural products, mainly to Africa and Asia,” he tweeted on Friday.
30 rapeseed, lport, METAL, ODESA, PUMA
The Italian government will help reconstruct the Transfiguration Cathedral, which the Russians destroyed during the shelling of Odesa on July 23, the Italian government said.
“Italian restoration schools, meaning university departments, vocational institutes, studios and laboratories, are today making their traditional expertise available to a project to restore and enhance the walls and frescoes that were hit by the Russian bombs, thereby marking an age-old friendship between two peoples and an effective rebirth for the city,” according to the report on the Italian government’s website.
“The Italian government has involved two of Italy’s most authoritative cultural institutions, the Milan Triennale and the MAXXI museum in Rome, in order to gather the best economic, technical and cultural resources able to contribute to the restoration of the Transfiguration Cathedral,” the report says.
Ukraine exported 1.7 million tons of agricultural products from the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdenny in the first month of the grain initiative, the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine reported on Friday.
According to the release, during August, 68 ships left the unlocked ports, the ports of destination of which are located in 18 countries of the world.
At the same time, 19 vessels departed from the port of “Odesa”, 13 from “Pivdenny”, and the port of “Chornomorsk” sent 36 vessels.
According to the ministry’s announcement, as part of the grain initiative, three times more agricultural products were exported from the ports of Odesa in August than during this month by road transport.
“Only in August, more than 1.7 million tons of food were exported through the ports of Great Odesa. During the same period, almost 1.6 million tons were exported through the Danube ports, about a million tons by rail, and more than 600 thousand tons by road,” commented the Minister of infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov.
According to him, in September, it is planned to reach the rate of transshipment through unblocked sea ports at the level of at least 3 million tons of products. At the same time, it is planned to export at least 8 million tons by all modes of transport.
According to the ministry, in August, Odesa Port exported 419,000 tons of agricultural products, Chornomorsk – 848,000 tons, and Pivdenny – 459,000 tons. At the same time, Ukrainian agricultural products went mainly to Asia (726 thousand tons), Europe (640 thousand tons) and Africa (365 thousand tons). Also, 60.8 thousand tons were sent to Ethiopia and Yemen as part of the UN food program.
According to the ministry, 66.9% of exported agricultural products fell on corn, 21.6% – on wheat, 4.8% – on barley and 6.7% on other agricultural crops: sunflower, rapeseed, bran and pulp.
In turn, Kubrakov emphasized that in August, about 5 million tons of agricultural products were exported from the unblocked and Danube ports, by rail and by road. According to him, this is a record figure since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia.
As reported, on July 22 in Istanbul, at the suggestion of the UN, Ukraine, Turkey and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres signed an initiative on the safe transportation of grain and food products from the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdenny.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, EXPORTED, Grain initiative, ODESA, PORTS
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has become an honorary citizen of Odesa, Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov said in an interview with BBC.
“We very much appreciate the help of your country, your Prime Minister. Therefore, I signed an order to award Boris Johnson with Grigory Marazli Honorary Badges of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd degrees,” Trukhanov was quoted by the press service of Odesa City Council on Telegram.
The presence of all degrees of the award automatically made Johnson an Honorary Citizen of Odesa.
According to Trukhanov, the United Kingdom is the main ally and friend of Ukraine.
“If the entire world community took the same position as the people of Britain, we would have defeated the occupiers long ago,” the mayor of Odesa emphasized.
“I emphasize that this is the struggle of the entire civilized community against fascism version 2.0, and in this struggle, Mr. Johnson will become the first Honorary Citizen of the city – a citizen of Great Britain, since 1862, for the entire existence of the award,” the mayor emphasized.
The hotel operator Ribas Hotels Group (Odesa) has preliminary agreements with developers to expand the network of WOL apart-hotels by opening new facilities in Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa in the next 2-3 years.
As Artur Lupashko, founder of Ribas Hotels Group, told Interfax-Ukraine, according to preliminary agreements with developers, WOL and WOL Black apart-hotels with a total area of more than 20,000 square meters will be implemented in Lviv.
“We also have preliminary agreements to launch WOL apart-hotels in Kyiv and Kharkiv in the next two or three years,” he said.
In addition, it is planned to carry out repair work in the Odesa complex of Aura apartments with the aim of launching an apart-hotel in 2023.
“In addition, two more projects in Kyiv, two projects in Lviv, projects in Uzhgorod, Poltava and Mykolaiv are at the stage of active negotiations with developers,” Lupashko shared his plans.
Ribas Hotels Group is also partnering with developer Asgard in the Duck’s Lake apartment project in Lviv, work on which will start this year.
KHARKIV, KYIV, LVIV, ODESA, RIBAS HOTELS
Private houses in the suburbs of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro and Lviv from July to September 2021 have risen in price by an average of 3-5%, President of the Association of Real Estate Specialists (Realtors) of Ukraine Yuriy Pita has told Interfax-Ukraine. “Over the past three months, a slowdown in the growth rate of their cost has been observed in the market for private estates. At the moment, the demand for private houses has been met by almost 90%,” Pita said. According to him, houses with an area of up to 150 square meters, located in the near suburbs (up to 20 km) of million-plus cities, were actively getting more expensive. The cost of other properties in the third quarter increased insignificantly, within 2.5-3%.
According to the association, a gradual decrease in the demand has been observed since the second half of this year: from July to September, the number of potential buyers decreased by 10%.
“Gradually, the supply begins to prevail over the existing demand, this is a significant factor for pricing in the segment of private houses,” the specialist said.
According to him, by the end of the year the price situation in the segment of private estates will remain stable with insignificant price fluctuations within 1.5% for small houses.
“According to the forecasts of the association, the cost of private houses is the ceiling for the existing demand. And further price increases will not be economically justified. Price stability may last until April 2022,” he said.
According to Pita, prices of land plots for private development in the third quarter increased by an average of 5%. At the same time, more than 60% of the demand is concentrated on plots with an area of 8-15 acres with supplied communications in picturesque locations at a distance of up to 20 km from the city limits. The demand for plots for construction of cottage townships remains stable, but here the choice of options is not very large, the expert notes.
He believes that price stability in the segment of land plots can hold out at least until April 2022, the start of a new active season.
