Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Ihor Zhovkva had a conversation with Diplomatic Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Portugal, Georges Monteiro, via video link, the press service of the President of Ukraine reported on Tuesday.
Ihor Zhovkva thanked Jorge Monteiro for Portugal’s continued support of our country’s fight against Russian aggression.
“We appreciate Portugal’s practical participation in the tank, aviation and maritime coalitions. It is important that the volume and pace of military support continue to increase,” Ihor Zhovkva emphasized.
In the course of the conversation, the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office informed Georges Monteiro on the situation at the frontline and urgent military needs of Ukraine.
The interlocutors agreed to start negotiations on the conclusion of a bilateral security agreement in pursuance of the joint declaration of the Group of Seven on the support of Ukraine in the nearest future.
Particular attention was paid to Portugal’s support for the Ukrainian peace formula, as well as Ukraine’s European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations. George Monteiro noted Ukraine’s progress in implementing reforms necessary for its future membership in the EU and NATO.
As reported earlier, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister of Portugal Luis Montenegro instructed to start working on the preparation of a security agreement.
Kyiv will increase funding for security and defense forces in 2023 compared to last year from almost UAH 850 million to over UAH 1.1 billion, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has announced.
“This year, Kyiv will allocate more than UAH 1.1 billion to finance the security and defense forces of the capital. This is to help the Armed Forces, border guards, and police. Almost 350 million hryvnias have already been allocated from these funds,” he wrote on his Telegram channel on Thursday.
Klitschko reminded that “last year, Kyiv allocated almost UAH 850 million from the city budget to support the security and defense forces.”
“This money is spent, in particular, on military uniforms, bulletproof vests and helmets. It is also used to purchase drones, radio stations, repair military equipment, and transport. We also send aid to the front line that we raise ourselves – from international partners. We have sent vehicles, drones, Starlink systems, generators, and first aid kits. And we continue to do so,” Klitschko wrote.
Technically, it will take up to two weeks for airports to reopen in Ukraine, but in practice this can be done only with guaranteed security, Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
“We consider Lviv airport as the first airport. I hope that, as it was with the Black Sea Grain Initiative, when we receive guaranteed security, guarantees, first of all, from international partners, from the UN, we will start, I hope,” he said on 17th annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) held by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation at the end of this week in Kyiv.
Answering questions, Kubrakov stressed that the main obstacle to the resumption of flights of civil ships is safety, not technical issues.
As reported, the Ukrainian sky has been closed for flights of civil aircraft since the first day of the full-scale military aggression of the Russian Federation – from February 24 of this year.
At the end of July, the Transcarpathian Regional Council decided to allocate 26 million UAH to the Uzhgorod airport, and the head of the regional council Volodymyr Chubirko expressed confidence that it would be possible to launch it “in a month or two.” According to him, the advantage of the Uzhgorod airport is that the threshold of the runway is located a few hundred meters from the Ukrainian-Slovak border and Slovak airspace is used for instrument landings at this airfield.
However, a few days later, the Head of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration, Viktor Mikita, refuted the statements of the Transcarpathian Regional Council regarding plans for the early resumption of the work of the Uzhgorod airport. “… Now statements about the resumption of the airport’s work are nothing more than wishes and intentions,” Mikita stressed.
Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk said he hoped Austria would realize the strategic role of Ukraine as a guarantor of security for Europe.
“I hope Austria will realize the strategic role of Ukraine as a guarantor of security for Europe as well as economic potential of our country and support Ukraine’s EU aspirations,” he said during a meeting with President of the National Council of Austria Wolfgang Sobotka in Vienna on Tuesday.
According to a statement posted on the website of the Ukrainian parliament, the officials discussed support for Ukraine on its way towards obtaining the status of EU candidate, Austria’s participation in the revival of Ukraine, and punishment for the aggressor country Russia for waging the war against Ukraine.
Stefanchuk stressed the importance of a regular inter-parliamentary dialogue and the recognition by the Austrian parliament of the 1932-1933 Holodomor famine in Ukraine genocide against the Ukrainian people.
He also invited his Austrian counterpart to visit Ukraine.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal met with Prime Minister of Sweden Stefan Leuven on October 13 as part of a working trip to the Kingdom of Sweden, where the parties discussed the development of bilateral relations between the countries.
The press service of the government said on Wednesday evening that Shmyhal expressed gratitude to the Swedish side for organizing the International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Anti-Semitism, as well as for Sweden’s participation in the inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform in August this year.
He also noted the support provided by the Swedish government for the implementation of the decentralization reform and thanked for the assistance provided through the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority for Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
“Diversification of nuclear fuel sources is one of our priorities in the context of ensuring energy security. In addition, Ukraine has met all the technical conditions for joining its integrated power system to the European ENTSO-E network. For us, this will be an important step towards energy independence,” Shmyhal said.
The parties also discussed issues of cooperation in the field of waste disposal and recycling.
The head of government said that investments and an increase in investment activity can become a driver for the development of economic relations between the countries. He urged Swedish companies to continue implementing joint projects in Ukraine, in particular taking advantage of the law on the so-called “investment nannies”.
Shmyhal also said that Ukraine is ready to further develop cooperation in the field of information technology, in particular in terms of digitalization and strengthening cyber security.
