Power supply has been restored to the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) site after repeated damage from hostilities, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
“Ukraine has informed the IAEA that external power had again today been restored to the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant after line had been again damaged by the occupying forces,” the IAEA said in a tweet on the night of Monday to Tuesday.
Other details are not reported.
The IAEA website notes that the “regulatory authority” informed the agency about the resumption of power supply to the Chornobyl nuclear power plant on the afternoon of March 14.
“The regulatory authority told the IAEA that at 13:10 CET external power had again been restored and that staff at the Chornobyl NPP had restarted operations to reconnect the NPP to the grid,” the agency said.
The city council of Slavutych, a satellite city of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, on its Facebook late on Monday evening announced that the city’s power supply had been resumed and the connection of residential buildings would be carried out gradually.
As reported with reference to NPC Ukrenergo, on March 14, Russian invaders again damaged the high-voltage line supplying power to the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and Slavutych, after the company had repaired it.
The NPP site and Slavutych were de-energized on March 9 due to shelling of energy infrastructure by Russian troops.
JTI Ukraine, a large tobacco company, after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and ministers on Thursday has said that it resumes production at its factory in Kremenchuk (Poltava region) following the similar announcement made by British American Tobacco Ukraine.
“After yesterday’s fruitful meeting with the President of Ukraine, we decided to fully resume production of cigarettes at the Kremenchuk factory. From Monday, November 11, the JTI Ukraine factory will resume production at all lines,” Director Corporate Affairs at JT International Ukraine Gintautas Dirgela told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.
As reported, British American Tobacco Ukraine after a meeting with Zelensky and ministers on November 7 has announced the resumption of production at the B.A.T.-Pryluky plant (Chernihiv region), starting from November 8, 2019.
“We heard words of support and assurances about an early solution to the problem that has damaged our industry and the country’s economy as a whole. Therefore, despite some uncertainty about the fate of bill No. 1049, but relying on the president’s guarantees, we plan to gradually restore production in Pryluky, starting as early as November 8, 2019,” the company said in the statement.
British American Tobacco Ukraine on October 11, 2019 stopped production at B.A.T.-Pryluky plant. The company explained its decision by the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of bill No. 1049 with the norm on the state regulation of the trade margin on cigarettes. Then the company turned to the State Fiscal Service to withdraw 25 million excise stamps and return UAH 505 million paid for them.
JTI Ukraine, one of the largest tobacco companies in Ukraine, on October 22 said that it refused to pay for 16 million excise labels worth UAH 350 million in connection with the reduction of production over the adoption of bill No. 1049 containing a requirement of regulating the cigarette markup. The company cut production by 73% compared with its plans in the second half of October.
Earlier Philip Morris Ukraine, British American Tobacco, JTI and Imperial Tobacco in Ukraine are mulling the possibility of decreasing production and later closing the tobacco factories on the territory of Ukraine over the adoption of the legislative requirement on the government regulation of markup on their goods by the Verkhovna Rada.
Bill No. 1049, passed at second reading, introducing a single account for paying taxes and duties, the single social security contribution, sets a fixed markup for wholesale and retail traders of tobacco products at 7% and 13% of the maximum retail price per package.
Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday passed at second reading bill No. 6027-d amending some Ukrainian laws regarding resumption of lending. According to a posting on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), the adoption of the document would ensure the solving of existing problems creating systemic obstacles for resumption of lending to the economy and bringing additional risks for operations of national and foreign investors.
“In the conditions of the enhanced protection of rights of creditors banks would be able to announce more balanced requirements to borrowers. This, of course, would help to spread lending, cut the cost of borrowed funds and ease the access to bank products for economic entities and natural persons,” the NBU said.
Verkhovna Rada in the middle of May 2018 passed at repeated first reading bill No. 6027-d for resumption of lending. During the finalization of the bill, the requirement was clarified, in particular, regarding the banks’ access to the public register of civil status assets. This access is proposed to be provided with the written consent of the individual concerned.
In addition, the creditor’s deadline for submission of claims to heirs from the date of receipt of a certificate of inheritance was reduced from 12 to 6 months. In this case, this rule excludes the situation when the bank did not know and could not know that the moment the inheritance becomes available.
