Ukraine in January-June 2021 increased imports of coal and anthracite by 17.6% compared to the same period in 2020, to 10.145 million tonnes.
According to the State Customs Service, coal was imported for $984.046 million, which is 4.1% more than in January-June 2020 ($945.346 million).
Coal came from the Russian Federation for $587.543 million (a share in imports – 59.71%), the United States – for $221.273 million (22.49%), Kazakhstan – for $114.96 million (11.68%), other countries – for $60.27 million (6.12%).
Coal exports by Ukraine for the six months of 2021 amounted to 204 tonnes for $25,000, in particular to Hungary – for $11,000, Belarus – for $7,000, Bulgaria – for $7,000. In the same period last year, no export was carried out.
The volume of trade between Ukraine and Russia has dropped by nearly 84% over the past six years, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a joint press conference with European Commission Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight Maros Sefcovic in Kyiv.
“In fact, the volume of annual trade from Russia has dropped over the past six years by nearly 84%, from $37 billion to $7 billion. Trade turnover between Russia and Ukraine is gradually declining. At the same time, the volume of trade [between Ukraine and] Europe has grown to over 40%, which means it has grown by more than fivefold. The replacement of markets is underway, and Ukraine is learning to manufacture goods of higher quality, in line with European standards, which meets the course of our development,” Shmyhal said, when asked by Interfax-Ukraine what share of Ukrainian exports has been affected by Russia’s recently-introduced ban on imports of certain products from Ukraine and how the Ukrainian government would respond to it.
Shmyhal insisted that he was talking not about “trade wars” but about the Ukrainian market’s natural reorientation toward the European and other markets.
As was reported earlier, the Russian government extended a list of products that cannot be imported from Ukraine on June 28, 2021.
The European Union has decided to prolong the economic sanctions against Russia, European Council President Charles Michel said on Friday.
“We have rolled over our economic sanctions against Russia: Moscow must do its part to ensure full implementation of Minsk Agreements,” he said on Twitter.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky by decree No. 264 has put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of June 18 on the extension and introduction of new sanctions against 55 Russian banks, payment systems and the so-called “central banks” from ORDLO at the suggestion of the National Bank of Ukraine.
According to the document posted on the website of the head of state, this list still includes, in particular, Bank of Moscow, Gazprom Bank, Bank Rossiya, Bank VTB, State Corporation VEB.RF, Sberbank Russia, as well as payment systems MoneyTo, BLIZKO, ANELIK, Kolibri.
With regard to banks that have subsidiaries in Ukraine, the restriction is to prevent the withdrawal of capital from the country.
The government is exploring the possibility of strengthening control over visitors from the UK, India, Russia and Portugal to prevent the circulation of the “Delta” (Indian) strain of coronavirus (COVID-19), Health Minister Viktor Liashko said.
“At the Cabinet of Ministers we considered the possibility of strengthening control over people who come from four countries, Great Britain, India, Russia and Portugal, where the greatest circulation of the so-called Delta virus,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
As noted by Liashko, the peculiarity of the Delta strain is that it is transmitted faster and leads to hospitalization faster.
“This leads to the fact that hospitals fill up rather quickly, in particular, we see this in Russia,” he said.
The leadership of the Ukrainian state should return to the idea of creating a separate capable analytical center to study the problems of the Russian Federation, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States (2015-2019) Valeriy Chaly said.
“Scientific analytical centers, serious ones, should work with the NSDC apparatus and, in fact, under the patronage of the president. I would definitely return to the idea and quickly create a capable analytical center on Russian problems. It should be separate, – this is obvious. It is clear that the Institute for Strategic Studies exists, but its ability to submit proposals directly to the president is limited,” Chaly said at a press briefing, titled “NSDC is an Effective Tool that Protects the Interests of the State. New Threats and Challenges to Security” on Wednesday.
At the same time, he emphasized the need to strengthen the vector of foreign policy and international security “from the point of view of forecasts and scenarios in a world that is rapidly changing.”
“We have a weak analysis of what is happening in Asia, that is, in this entire region, which will become key in the next ten years and is beyond our attention,” Chaly said.
In general, in his opinion, Ukraine needs to strengthen the efficiency of public administration.
“I would like to see an increase in the efficiency of public administration through the president’s decision. Today this is a challenge that I would like to draw attention to. In context of an external attack, which comes not only from Russia (from Russia it is an obvious military threat, but there is also from other countries even), the effectiveness of the entire apparatus in the field of security and defense is a key issue that needs to be worked on now,” the diplomat said.
