Ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of Poland Andriy Deschytsia says that about 1.5 million Ukrainians work in Poland today and about 50,000 Ukrainian students are studying.
“What is the situation in Poland now. We have an increase in the number of labour migrants. If we talk in comparison with 2014, this is approximately two or three times. Now we are talking about 1.5 million Ukrainians who work in Poland,” he said at the Ukraine 30. Human Capital all-Ukrainian forum on Tuesday.
He said that approximately 600,000 Ukrainians officially pay taxes to the Social Insurance Fund, while the rest work on labour contracts and do not pay taxes.
In addition, the ambassador said that in 2014 there were 680 companies in Poland, where owners were Ukrainians, and in 2021 there were 16,000 enterprises in Poland where the owners or co-owners are Ukrainians.
Among other things, Deschytsa said that at the moment about 50,000 Ukrainian students are studying in Poland.
On July 15-18, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland Marcin Przydacz will pay a visit to Ukraine. Meetings with Deputy Minister Vasyl Bodnar at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Sybiha are scheduled. In addition, a meeting with the leadership of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission and acquaintance with the security situation in the frontline zone in Luhansk region, as well as a meeting with local Poles are planned. In the second part of the visit, Deputy Minister Marcin Przydacz will take part in the pilgrimage celebrations in Berdychiv, which will also be attended by the Secretary of State, Government Commissioner for the Polish Diaspora and Poles Abroad, Mr. Jan Dziedziczak, Secretary of State Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Jarosław Sellin.
In 2021, Polish company PCC Intermodal S.A. plans to increase the number of container train connections between Poland and Ukraine from one to three per week, according to the company’s website on the occasion of the first anniversary of the service, which connects several cities in Poland with the Ukrainian station of Mostiska.
“We did the first tests and tried to launch regular services to Ukraine already in 2011. The economical and political situation in Ukraine has stopped this project, until last year. In the spring of 2020, we successfully returned with the project. In the spring time 2020 we have successfully came back with the Ukrainian project! The customers being satisfied while having easy access to the alternative logistics solution, using rail connections, keep us developing the intermodal services to Ukraine. We have already booked the new platforms for this connection and are happy to welcome everyone on board of our regular trains,” the company’s press service said.
Curently, the company offers regular intermodal connections, once a week to/from Mostyska in relation with: to Gdańsk, Gdynia, Central Poland, Upper Silesia, Lower Silesia, Berlin, Hamburg, Duisburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp.
The most common goods transported to/from Ukraine at the moment are: chemical products, polymers, fertillizers, ferroalloys.
The neighboring countries of Ukraine, in addition to Poland, Belarus and the Russian Federation, are in the “red” zone for COVID-19, according to data published on the website of the Ministry of Health as of December 24.
The “red” zone includes countries with an incidence rate per 100,000 population over the past 14 days higher than in Ukraine (374). There are 45 countries in total.
Of the closest neighbors of Ukraine, the “red” zone includes Slovakia (634,900 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population), Moldova (460,400), Romania (400,300) and Hungary (521,700).
Lithuania, Georgia, Slovenia, U.S., Montenegro, Sweden, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Great Britain, Turkey, Austria, Germany are also among the countries of the “red” zone.
The list of countries of the “green” zone includes, in particular, Italy, Israel, Belgium, France, Canada, Spain, Greece, Japan, India, and Egypt.
Of the closest neighbors of Ukraine, the “green” zone includes Belarus (279 cases per 100,000 of the population), the Russian Federation (206,900) and Poland (366,700).
Ukraine has fulfilled all the obligations assumed during the meetings of the Mixed Commissions on International Road Freight Transport, but the Polish side does not honor the agreement at the presidential level, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine has said.
As reported on the website of the Ministry of Infrastructure, a working meeting of the Ministers of Infrastructure of Ukraine and the Republic of Poland Vladyslav Krykliy and Andrzej Adamczyk was held in Kyiv on Monday, during which the Ukrainian minister pointed out the fact that Ukraine’s fulfillment of its obligations led to a significant increase in the share of use of permits for 2019 by Polish haulers.
Krykliy reiterated that Poland should lift transit restrictions for Ukrainian haulers, since this negatively affects not only trade relations between the two countries, but also with other EU countries.
At the same time, he said that Ukrainian haulers are ready to compete in the two-sided market.
The ministers of Ukraine and Poland also discussed the work of crossing points across the Ukrainian-Polish border, in particular, the Korcheva-Krakovets point.
In addition, Krykliy said that currently the Verkhovna Rada is expected to consider at second reading a bill that solves the problem of VAT payment by work performers and service providers under the so-called “Polish loan,” but asked the Polish side to speed up the work of the construction company to repair the crossing point.
The Ukrainian minister suggested that the Polish side conduct a joint audit to determine the possible reasons for the appearance of queues at the border crossing points with the involvement of a third independent party, and introduce general border and customs control at crossing points to increase their efficiency.
The bus operator FlixBus will open three new routes on November 4 and on November 5: Kyiv – Warsaw – Szczecin (both are in Poland), Chernivtsi – Warsaw and Lviv – Ostrava (the Czech Republic).
As Managing Director of FlixBus in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic States Michal Lehman said at a press conference on Tuesday, route number 3222 Kyiv-Warsaw-Szczecin, which will be operated jointly with private entrepreneur Serhiy Sherstiuk, will also pass through the following cities: Zhytomyr, Rivne, Lutsk, Lublin, Lodz, Poznan and Gorzow Wielkopolski. The trip frequency is twice a week.
Route 3241 Chernivtsi – Warsaw (partner – IV-AUTO) will pass through Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Lublin. The frequency is three times a week.
Route CUA025 Lviv – Ostrava (partner – ACIK, Poland) will pass through Krakow, Katowice and Bohumin. Its frequency is twice a week.
“The first two lines are fully compliant with the green FlixBus standards. The third line will be fully operated by ACIK, but we will also sell tickets for these trips. There are separate seats on ACIK buses, which are marked with a green sticker, which will be assigned to FlixBus passengers,” he said.
According to him, to date, the FlixBus network connects 16 cities of Ukraine from 12 regions with 48 cities in Europe (six countries).
