Ukraine and the Slovak Republic have signed an intergovernmental agreement on the provision of aviation operational services by their Ukrainian supplier in a certain part of the Slovak airspace relative to Uzhgorod airport.
According to Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy, the document was signed by him and Minister of Transport and Construction of Slovakia Andrej Dolezal.
“The full operation of Uzhgorod airport will be restored. Just now, together with my Slovak colleague, Minister of Transport and Construction of the Slovak Republic Andrej Dolezal, we signed an appropriate bilateral intergovernmental agreement. Finally, after so many months of inactivity, we will connect Zakarpattia by air service with other regions and with abroad,” he wrote on his Telegram channel on Thursday.
According to the press service of the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine with reference to the head of the department, the signing of this agreement will also help strengthen mutual bilateral relations in the civil aviation sector between the countries and in terms of expanding the possibilities of international air transportation.
However, Krykliy expressed hope for the early completion of the coordination of technical issues related to the implementation of the agreement and the signing by the parties of the implementation protocols within a month.
The ministry said that the agreement was initialed by both countries during negotiations in Kyiv on December 18, 2019. The document takes into account the security and defense aspects arising from the membership of Slovakia in NATO, as well as from the fact that the Ukrainian-Slovak border is also the external border of the Alliance.
According to the ministry, the agreement was concluded for an indefinite period and comes into force from the date of receipt through diplomatic channels of the last written notification of the completion of the domestic procedures necessary for its entry into force.
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy and Minister of Transport and Construction of the Slovak Republic Andrej Doležal signed a memorandum of cooperation within the Silk Road Economic Belt.
The press service of the Infrastructure Ministry said on Thursday that the document will contribute to creating conditions for the further development of multimodal transport in transfer between Asia and the EU through Ukraine and Slovakia, as well as for increasing the number of container block trains that will be used for combined freight transport; putting into practice the implementation of the project on the creation of multimodal logistics centers that will handle cargo on the Silk Road route, which will make it possible to form an appropriate bilateral working group and create a basis for negotiations with the Chinese side; developing a common approach to organizing the movement of container trains running between Asia and the EU through Ukraine and Slovakia.
“Both Ukraine and Slovakia are extremely interested in developing their transit potential and improving the processes of organizing the delivery of goods in containers from the EU countries to China and vice versa. In early September, we held consultations with the Slovak side to intensify cooperation in the development of the Silk Road through the territory of Ukraine and Slovakia. Today we are fixing them with the relevant memorandum,” the press service said, citing Vladyslav Krykliy.
The ministry said that the memorandum has been drawn up for an indefinite period and will enter into force on Thursday, September 24.
In addition, according to the ministry, during a meeting with the Slovak side, the Minister of Infrastructure confirmed the readiness to intensify the work of the Ukrainian and Slovak sides on the development of logistics terminals in Chop, Mukacheve and Košice and proposed a joint search for financial resources for the implementation of the Creation of Multimodal Logistics Center Between Ukraine and Slovakia Based on the Existing Terminal in Chop project.
Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air will resume flights from Kyiv and Lviv to Bratislava (Slovakia) from October 2.
The cost of tickets starts from UAH 309, the press service of the company reported on Wednesday.
“The restoration of flights depends on the decision of the authorities to leave or remove Slovakia from the list of countries in the ‘green’ zone. If it is excluded from the list, flights connecting Ukrainian cities with Bratislava will be postponed,” the company said.
Slovakia has handed over a humanitarian aid to Ukraine to wind up consequences of a natural disaster in the population areas of Ivano-Frankivsk region.
According to the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, tents, pumps, generators and other rescue equipment will be handed over to help people in the most affected areas of the region.
As reported, as of July 6, five residential locations (349 at the beginning) in Chernivtsi region, 14 cellars (7,225 at the beginning), including eleven in Ivano-Frankivsk and three in Ternopil regions, 47 housing plots, including 38 in Chernivtsi, seven in Ternopil and two in Ivano-Frankivsk regions, are still flooded.
Some 549 kilometers of roads (654 kilometers at the beginning) and 213 bridges (266 at the beginning) in Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi and Lviv regions are damaged.
Three people died in Ivano-Frankivsk region.
Ukraine boosted its electricity exports by 4.9% in 2019, to 6.469 billion kWh, the Ministry of Energy and Environment Protection has told. Electricity supplies from the Burshtyn TPP energy island to Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania rose by 17.1%, to 4.448 billion kWh.
Exports to Poland fell 2.4%, to 1.377 billion kWh.
Exports to Moldova fell 32.6%, to 644 million kWh.
In July, Ukraine resumed commercial imports of electricity. The year’s total was 2.699 billion kWh, including 909.8 million kWh from Slovakia, 851.3 million kWh from Belarus, 630.1 million kWh from Hungary, 286.3 million kWh from Russia, and 21.1 million kWh from Romania.
Due to crossflows related to the parallel work of the united energy system in Ukraine and systems in bordering countries (accounted for under contracts signed by Energomarket), Ukraine imported 41.6 million kWh of energy from Russia and 1 million kWh from Belarus in 2019.
BUYERS, ELECTRICITY, HUNGARY, MOLDOVA, POLAND, ROMANIA, SLOVAKIA
Ukraine and Slovakia have approved the contents of the agreement determining the conditions of the use of airspace of Slovakia at the Uzhgorod international airport, the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine has reported on its website.
The parties discussed the provisions of the intergovernmental agreement determining the conditions of the use of part of the airspace of Slovakia for the provision of air traffic services by a certain Ukrainian air navigation services prov
ider at the Uzhgorod airport and agreed on the draft version of the agreement.
“Prior to signing by officials authorized by the respective governments, the agreement is subject to domestic approval procedures in accordance with the procedures for the formal functioning of international agreements that exist in each country,” the ministry said.
Minister Vladyslav Krykliy said that the Ukrainian side would ensure the passage of domestic approval procedures as quickly as possible and hoped for the same actions by the Slovak side. м
He also said that during the visit of Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová to Ukraine on September 16, 2019, the heads of state confirmed the need to intensify the work of the parties in order to conclude the relevant agreement as soon as possible.
