Oleksiy Arestovych, non-staff advisor to the Head of the President’s Office on strategic communications in the field of national security and defense, announced the planned return of the post of special representative of the State Department of the United States for Ukraine, which was occupied by Kurt Walker in 2017-2019.
“There is strong support, so far informal, from Britain and the United States. The talk is about the fact that there will be a new United States special envoy for Donbas, that is, this post is institutionally returning. There are several statements by the French and German Foreign Ministries that Ukraine is making strong consistent steps on the implementation of agreements, and Russia is not doing this,” Arestovych told reporters after the press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency in Kyiv on Thursday.
He also said that the future administration of United States President-elect Joe Biden is already considering the possibility of introducing tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation. “In the future Biden administration, many people say informally that sanctions will be imposed on Russia, which do not constrain, but cripple, break. Many people say that for every death of our soldier, artillery fire should be opened,” Arestovych said.
In addition, he said that on December 10, a meeting will be held at the level of the heads of EU states, where sanctions against the Russian Federation will be automatically extended. “The point is that they may even be strengthened after this demarche, after Russia once again showed that it is a state that does not fulfill international agreements at the highest level. Putin actually signed these agreements in Paris, and who did not fulfill them? President Zelensky gave a year to fulfill them. Who is to blame? The Russians,” the advisor said.
Arestovych said that Russia accuses France and Germany, the participants of the Normandy format, of playing the role of mediator in an inappropriate way and playing along with Ukraine. “In fact, Russia wants to get out not only from Minsk, but also from the Normandy format now,” he said.
TOP 20 countries Ukraine has posted the highest surplus of trade in goods in Jan-Aug (thsd usd).
SSC of Ukraine
As of November 30, Ukrainian agricultural producers harvested 80.9 million tonnes of basic crops from an area of 23.8 million hectares, in particular, 62.5 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops were harvested from an area of about 15 million hectares (98% of the forecast).
According to a report on the website of the Ministry of Economy, the following crops were harvested: corn – 26.8 million tonnes from an area of 5.1 million hectares (94%), soybeans – 2.8 million tonnes from 1.3 million hectares (99%), sugar beet – 9 million tonnes from an area of 212,200 hectares (98%).
Ambassador of Ukraine to Australia Mykola Kulinich held a number of meetings in Melbourne, the purpose of which is to expand the Ukrainian-Australian cooperation in the trade and economic sphere, the press service of the Ukrainian Embassy in Australia said.
“The meeting with President of the Australian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce Eugene Hawryszko was devoted to the discussion of the prospects for increasing trade between the two countries, the possibility of entering the Australian market for new types of Ukrainian products, as well as the establishment of joint ventures,” the statement says.
In addition, according to the press service of the embassy, during a meeting with head of the Australian-Ukrainian Business Council J. Epp, they discussed attracting Australian investments and technologies to Ukraine, as well as further organizational restructuring of the business council.
The deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-November 2020 halved compared to the same period in 2019, to $3.93 billion from $8.15 billion, in November the foreign trade deficit amounted to $590 million compared to $360 million in deficit in October and $860 million in deficit in November last year. According to the data of the State Customs Service, export of goods from Ukraine for the specified period compared to the same period in 2019 decreased by 3.51%, to $44.45 billion, import by 10.77%, to $48.38 billion.
The State Customs Service clarified that in November this year, compared with October, the volume of exports increased by 2.21%, to $4.73 billion, imports by 6.75%, to $5.32 billion.
At the same time, compared to November 2019, exports increased by 9.15%, imports by 2.43% in monetary terms.
According to the customs data, China remains the largest trade partner of Ukraine in January-November with a trade turnover of $43.9 billion, a deficit of almost $15.6 billion. It is followed by the Russian Federation (a turnover of $39.7 billion, a negative balance of $12.97 billion) and Germany (trade turnover is $28.3 billion, a deficit of $11.86 billion), according to the State Customs Service.
Ukraine will be able to achieve the transfer of entry points for export of gas by Gazprom to the Ukrainian-Russian border only in close cooperation with the European Commission and other European institutions.
This opinion was expressed by representatives of Naftogaz Ukrainy and the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) at an online briefing devoted to five years of gas independence held on Friday.
“We believe that the possibility of transferring entry points is technically possible. But there is no political consent on the part of the Russian Federation, because they understand that the European gas market is declining and do not want additional competitors. Therefore, we believe that it is necessary to fight against the monopoly position of the Russian Federation together with our European partners and institutions. They will allow us to create such conditions to force the Russian Federation to allow the transit of energy resources through its territory and, if European traders have such a desire, to move the gas entry points to the Ukraine-Russia border,” Director General of GTSOU Serhiy Makogon said.
According to him, European traders have already approached the Russian Federation with a similar proposal, but so far received a negative answer.
According to Lana Zerkal, advisor to the executive board chairman of Naftogaz Ukrainy, it is extremely important for Ukraine to involve the European Commission to cooperate in this process.
“It is the involvement of the European Commission as a moderator of such a discussion that is extremely important, since we already have a positive experience of conducting such trilateral negotiations in the gas sector. And here we should not look like a supplicant. We should do our part of the homework, namely: together with the European Commission conduct full screening and full monitoring of Ukrainian legislation on its compliance with the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, which will give us the necessary basis for further joint work,” Zerkal said.
The relocation of Russian gas entry points to the eastern border of Ukraine will allow the country to more closely integrate into the European gas market and, in particular, to even more actively involve European traders in the placement of gas in Ukrainian underground storage facilities, she said.
