Andriy Stavnitser, co-owner of TIS Terminal Group, has announced his intention to rebuild the railway station hotel on the waterfront in Odesa that was damaged by the Russian attack.
“It was my hotel – Kempinski Odesa. I didn’t like this hotel (…) as much as all Odessans, so I dreamed of finally reconstructing it. I dreamed about it for a long time, invested millions of dollars, bought a share from private investors and, despite the war, closed the deal with the state. I have even selected several world-class urbanists and architects. Everything will happen. We will rebuild everything,” Stavnitser wrote on Facebook on Monday.
The businessman also found partners willing to jointly invest in the construction of the waterfront area.
As reported, on the night of September 25, the occupiers attacked Odesa region with drones and missiles. As a result, the Sea Port in Odesa suffered significant damage, and a fire broke out in the building of the non-functioning station hotel.
Earlier in 2021, plans were announced to open an international chain hotel on the site of the defunct hotel.
The four-star, 19-storey Odesa Hotel with a total area of 26.8 thousand square meters and 158 rooms was opened in 2001. It is located at the Odesa Sea Port on 6-a Primorskaya Street. The first operator of the hotel was the international hotel chain Kempinski Hotel Group.
In 2015, the Ukrainian government withdrew the hotel from the management of Premier Hotel Odesa LLC.
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
