President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has signed an application for Ukraine’s membership in the European Union, Deputy Head of the President’s Office Andriy Sybiha said.
“President of Ukraine Zelensky has signed a historic document – an application for Ukraine’s membership in the European Union,” he said on Facebook.
A joint statement was signed with Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
“Documents are on their way to Brussels! Congratulations, Ukraine, congratulations to all of us! History is being made now!” Sybiha added.
…President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky says that the government understands all the risks, but believes that there is too much information in the information space regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I believe that at present there is too much information in the information space regarding a deep, full-scale war on the part of the Russian Federation. They even name the appropriate dates,” he said in Kherson region on Saturday.
“We understand all the risks, we understand that these risks exist,” he added.
Zelensky expressed his conviction that Ukraine should rely primarily on itself. “Count on your military and your citizens,” he said.
“And if you or anyone else has any additional information regarding a 100 percent invasion, give us this information,” the president said, addressing reporters.
Answering a journalist’s question about whether he believes in the possibility of a Russian invasion, the president notes that the dissemination of information about a possible invasion by the Russian Federation provokes panic in Ukrainian society, which plays into the hands of the enemy.
“It may happen any day, as I said earlier. From the very beginning, we did not believe in it, from the very beginning of the war in the east of our country in 2014. That is why I have to analyze all the information that we have. We have a lot of information, because we are on these borders, these are our borders, this is our territory. I have to address our people as president and tell people the truth, and the truth is that we have different information. And now the best friend for enemies is panic in our country. And all this information only provokes panic and does not help us,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky watched special exercises of the Interior Ministry units on the border with the temporarily occupied Crimea on Saturday in Kherson region.
The Office of the President is planning a large-scale reboot of the Ukrainian Financial Housing Company (UkrFinZhytlo), Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Rostyslav Shurma has said.
“Our goal is to make an accessible and understandable mortgage product with an effective cost of about 5% per annum in hryvnia in three to four months… As for instruments, we are planning a large-scale restart of UkrFinZhytlo as one of the main drivers of mortgage lending,” he said during the 2022 – Time to Lend forum on Friday.
According to Shurma, UkrFinZhytlo should work both directly and in partnership with banks.
Oleksiy Kireev will head UkrFinZhytlo, Shurma added.
“We plan to launch a whole block of programs to support different sectors of the economy in different priority areas in 2022,” the deputy head of the President’s Office said.
As reported, on December 24, the Ministry of Finance terminated the powers of the head and members of UkrFinZhytlo, Viktor Katrenych, Liudmyla Shemelynets and Natalia Marchenko. On January 14, the duties of the head of the board were assigned to the director of the legal department, Dmytro Verbytsky.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky intends to submit to the Verkhovna Rada a bill on multiple citizenship for Ukrainians living in the countries of the European Union and the United States.
“An important component of our international policy is the support of world Ukrainianness. I know how important the issue of multiple citizenship is for Ukrainians living in the United States, Canada and the EU. Today I am submitting a relevant bill to parliament,” Zelensky said speaking in the Verkhovna Rada with his annual address on the internal and external situation of the country.
According to the president, this will for the first time allow Ukrainians from all over the world “to feel themselves not a diaspora, not just people of Ukrainian origin, but of Ukrainian citizenship.”
The first flight of the national air carrier Ukrainian National Airlines (UNA) will be in 2022, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“The first flight of the national carrier will be performed in 2022. By 2025, the airline’s fleet will be completed – at least 20 aircraft. Regular flights, both internal and external, will be launched,” the head of state said, speaking in the Verkhovna Rada with his annual nation address.
He also added that the Ukrainian carrier should be seen not only in Ukraine, but all over the world. And this, according to him, will be greatly helped by the Common Aviation Area Agreement, which Ukraine signed with the European Union.
“Therefore, UNA will definitely land in the EU. And such great plans are really inspiring,” he said.
Speaking about the construction of airports, the president said that now it is underway in 16 cities of the country. “We also want to build an international airport in Zakarpattia region, between Uzhgorod and Mukachevo, and two airports in eastern Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
DTEK Energy has called the statements made by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky as unfair and groundless.”Statements that have been made by the top leadership of the state today, DTEK considers to be unfair and groundless,” the website of energy holding said on Friday evening, November 26.At the same time, the company said that instead of the necessary support in the context of the global crisis, it faces pressure and discrimination.”DTEK always helps the state and also needs support during the unprecedented global crisis. Instead, we face constant pressure, fabricated accusations, and discrimination,” the company said.According to the company’s estimations, today, the state’s total debt to DTEK reaches over UAH 15 billion.The company, in particular, said that DTEK was the only one out of almost 1,000 companies to which the state has not repaid the debt yet for the produced green electricity “for unknown reasons”.As reported, the rate of DTEK Energy eurobonds maturing in 2027 collapsed by 11.6% on Friday immediately after the accusations of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky against the company and its owner Rinat Akhmetov at a press conference on Friday.According to information in the Bloomberg terminal, the fall reached 13.3%, but then it was won back somewhat.They reacted with a 0.5% decline to the president’s words and the quotations of DTEK Renewables bonds maturing in 2024, but then they almost returned to their previous level, falling short of only 0.1%.With regard to eurobonds of the Metinvest mining and metallurgical group maturing in 2029, of which Akhmetov is also the majority owner, their rate fell by 1.4%.Zelensky said that he had undercover information that they were discussing Rinat Akhmetov’s participation in the coup d’etat in Ukraine with representatives of Russia.The president said that businessman Rinat Akhmetov is being “set up”. “I believe that this is a set-up of businessman for Rinat Akhmetov. I believe that this is an operation, he is being dragged into a war against the state of Ukraine. I believe that he started it, and unfortunately, it will be his big mistake, because one cannot fight against your people, against the president who was elected by the people of Ukraine.”On the issue of coal supplies to Ukraine for thermal power plants, the president said that it was possible to provide them from the United States thanks to his agreements at the highest level in this country, while he called on private generation to unite efforts to ensure the passage of the heating season.”This should be solidarity work. If it’s bad with this or that country and they officially cannot sell you some kind of coal, then a private structure should come, help and buy. If I agree at the highest level, I repeat, at the highest level from the United States, so that 11 ships of coal would sail here. Do you think that I said that you should give us, but don’t give DTEK? Nothing of this kind. I say ‘us.’ The heating season is in our country,” Zelensky said at the same press conference.Earlier, Zelensky announced the supply of coal to Ukraine in the amount of seven Panamax ships (about 500,000 tonnes), which should protect Ukrainians, in his opinion, from consumption restrictions.DTEK, for its part, said that these supplies from the United States and Colombia were contracted by it. The first ship for PJSC Centrenergo arrived in Ukraine on November 20, another six are expected in November-January.
