Romania, Hungary and Slovakia will not limit the transit of agricultural products from Ukraine, but negotiations continue on the issue of imports into the countries’ territory. Imports into Poland in transit mode will resume with a T1 declaration, with the use of the SENT system to track the movement of cargo through Poland and cargo seals, said Agrarian Policy Minister Mykola Solsky at an extraordinary meeting of the Coordinating Council under the Agrarian Policy Ministry on Tuesday evening.
According to him, shipments of agricultural products, which will be delivered to Poland in transit, will continue to move across the country’s territory at 00:00 on April 21, accompanied by Polish customs officers.
The issue of transit by rail with the transshipment from wide-rail wagons (for tracks 1520 mm) to narrow-rail (for tracks 1435 mm) is still open. Market participants are expected to receive details of the procedure tomorrow at the Coordinating Council of the Ministry of Agriculture, which is scheduled for 10:30 a.m.
The ban on imports of agricultural products in accordance with the list in the annex to the order of the Minister of Development and Technology of Poland Waldemar Buda from April 15, 2023 has not been canceled.
Earlier it was reported that Ukraine and Poland agreed on the resumption of transit of banned for importation agricultural products: it will work at night from April 20 to April 21, 2023. Additional control measures will be applied to the transit. According to the Ministry of Agriculture of Poland, customs, tax and other services will accompany the transport to its destination. In addition, the SENT mechanism and electronic seals will be applied, by means of which each consignment of goods will be tracked.
Poland on April 15, after the farmers’ congress, made a unilateral decision to temporarily prohibit the import of any agricultural products from Ukraine until June 30, 2023. This happened despite the fact that on July 7, a bilateral agreement was reached with Ukraine on the temporary suspension of exports of only four crops – wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower, while transit continued, but with stricter conditions, which the parties planned to agree on quickly.
Hungary and Slovakia made similar decisions afterwards.
Slovakia has handed over to Ukraine all 13 MiG-29 fighter jets that were promised, the press service of the Ministry of Defense of the Slovak Republic reports.
“Slovakia has already handed over all 13 MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine. After four units were piloted by Ukrainian pilots in March this year, the remaining nine units were also successfully handed over to Ukrainian forces,” the statement posted on the website on Monday said.
Slovakia’s Defense Minister Jaroslav Nagy noted that “this transfer was carried out by land, taking into account the maximum possible safety.” He also expressed his gratitude to “all the components involved, because in such cases it is a really important and complex logistical operation.”
Nagy emphasized that the MiG-29 fighters “represent a significant support for Ukraine” against the Russian aggressor and to protect human lives.
“In addition, unlike our neighbor, these aircraft were unsuitable for us. We are doing the right thing,” the minister said.
Ukraine on April 17, may start exporting electricity to Slovakia in the amount of 200 MW per hour, said NEC “Ukrenergo”.
According to its message in the Telegram channel on Saturday, the relevant auction for the allocation of capacity of interstate sections in the direction of Slovakia was held today for the delivery date of April 17.
The auction allocated 100 percent of the available capacity on that direction to four bidders.
According to Ukrenergo’s auction platform, DTEK Zakhidenergo (115-135 MW per hour), DE Trading (47-49 MW per hour, Le Trading Ukraine (5-20 MW per 18 hours), TES (20 MW per hour) shared all 200 MW of the section.
At the same time, for the first time since the opening of exports since April 11, the companies did not just book the section, but competed on the price for it. As a result, the minimum price per MWh was 307.5 UAH/MWh, while the maximum was 1.3 thou UAH/MWh.
In total, companies in 24 hours on Monday have to pay almost 3.4 million UAH for the cross-section to Poland.
At the same time, electricity exports to Moldova rose by 59.2% on Saturday to 1,777 MWh, and to Poland, after a two-day break, to 1,775 MWh per day, according to data on the website of the continental European Network of System Operators ENTSO-E.
According to the information on the website, supplies to Moldova will be carried out 18 hours a day with a minimum of 99 MW and a maximum of 130 MW, while supplies to Poland will be 75 MW at all hours, except for the first hour of the day, which was 50 MW.
As of April 15, 289-290 MW of the offered 650 MW of the hourly capacity of the section to Moldova were booked by 6 companies: Ukrhydroenergo PJSC (100 MW for each hour), D. Trading (99 MW per hour), Artlex Energy (40 MW per hour), DE Trading (30 MW per hour), ERU Trading (20 MW per hour) and EES (1 MW per 4 hours). The state energy trader “EKU”, which used to book 150 MW per hour for several days, did not participate in the auction this time.
As reported, exports to Moldova were 150 MWh on April 11, 497 MWh per day on April 12, 965 MWh on April 13 and 1116 MWh on April 14. Poland has so far only been supplied with 1,625 MWh on April 12. At that time, DTEK Zakhidenergo reserved all of the offered 75 MWh per hour.
After a break on April 13-14, this company booked the same capacity for April 15.
The Ministry of Energy resumed electricity exports by a decision of April 7, after which the NEC Ukrenergo began auctioning cross-section capacity for exports to Moldova and Poland, and decided to open exports to Slovakia.
The Ministry of Energy notes that the export will be carried out in conditions of a surplus of electric power and only if the priority of supplies to Ukrainian consumers is observed. Exports have been halted since October 11 after the start of massive attacks on the energy system.
The maximum throughput allowed by ENTSO-E for electricity exports to Europe is 400 MW. “Ukrenergo is working with its European colleagues on the possibility of increasing this volume.
Slovakia has suspended processing of a batch of Ukrainian wheat due to a high concentration of pesticides, acting Slovak Agriculture Minister Samuel Vlchan has said.
Vlchan recalled that back in July 2022, he ordered to strengthen controls over Ukrainian grain. “Even before we started sealing all transit trucks with Ukrainian grain, a relatively large sample of Ukrainian grain was intercepted, and three independent accredited laboratories confirmed the presence of increased pesticide residues in it,” Vlchan was quoted by SME.
The batch of Ukrainian grain, which contained high levels of pesticides, was processed at one of the largest mills in Slovakia. The remaining 1.5 thousand tons of grain from this batch will not be processed.
By the end of this week the Slovak authorities will receive the results of the inspection of the found wheat batch, and it will be clear whether pesticide residues in it can affect human health.
If Ukrainian grain were to enter Slovakia through an EU member state, such as Poland, the control system created would make it possible to trace the purchase, Vlchan said.
“So we are trying to find the source of such wheat. However, if the wheat has already been milled, for example in Poland, we can no longer trace it. At the same time, we conduct spot checks even for such imports (of flour),” the acting minister of agriculture added.
Vlchan urged grain processors to be careful when purchasing agricultural products from countries outside the EU, including those legally imported into Slovakia.
Leaders of five Central and Eastern European countries have urged the European Commission to take action in connection with a surplus of grain and other Ukrainian food on their territory, the Associated Press reported from Warsaw.
“We call on the European Commission to study the possibility of buying accumulated grain from EU member states bordering Ukraine for humanitarian needs,” reads a letter addressed to EC President Ursula von der Leyen on behalf of the prime ministers of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
“We also reiterate our call for financial support from the EU to accelerate the development of transport infrastructure (for the export of grain – IF),” it says.
It is pointed out that such products remain on the shelves of these countries in excess, reducing prices, and do not reach the countries that are ready to buy them outside the EU.
The European Commission earlier said that it intended to quickly launch an assistance mechanism for countries that faced an influx of Ukrainian products.
Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob have arrived in Kiev, where they will participate in a summit to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Buča. Slovak Prime Minister Heger arrived in Ukraine on Friday and will meet with President Vladimir Zelenski, the Slovakian news agency TASR reported.
Along with Heger, Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nagy arrived in Ukraine. The time and place of the meeting are not disclosed in advance for security reasons.
According to Heger, Zelenski invited him to visit Ukraine in a telephone conversation after Slovakia approved the transfer of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine.
For his part, Nagy is scheduled to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Alexey Reznikov during the day.
In addition, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic arrived in Kyiv on Friday morning. He is scheduled to meet with Zelensky, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal and Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk. Also with the Croatian prime minister arrived Minister of Veterans Affairs Tomo Medved.
According to the Croatian government’s website, together with Zelenski, Heger, Golob and Moldovan President Maia Sandu, they will take part in a summit on “Bucha – Russian Responsibility for Crimes in Ukraine” in Kiev to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Bucha (Kiev region). A joint press conference will follow.
This is Plenkovic’s second visit to Ukraine since the Russian aggression began on February 24, 2022. Last May, he met with the Ukrainian leadership in Kiev and visited Irpen and Bucha.
The Slovenian newspaper Delo, for its part, reported on the arrival of Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob in Kiev on Friday. He also intends to meet with Zelenskyy.
For the Slovenian prime minister, this is his first visit to Ukraine since coming to power. His goal is to reaffirm his support for Ukraine, which has been a victim of Russian aggression since last February.
Golob will also be received by Shmygal and Stefančuk .
