Against the background of the war and with the aim of reconstruction, Switzerland will strengthen support for Ukraine, Swiss President Ignazio Cassis said.
“Switzerland will double the funding in the framework of bilateral cooperation with Ukraine to more than 100 million francs by 2023 … Responding to the call of the Prime Minister (Denis Shmyhal), we will allocate at least 15 million francs for digital transformation,” he said at the Conference on the restoration of Ukraine in Lugano on Tuesday.
The President added that Switzerland also allocates funds to Ukraine on a multilateral basis through the UN, the World Bank, the EBRD and other organizations.
Cassis noted that the principles formalized later on Tuesday in the Luhansk Declaration would make it easier for Ukraine to raise funding for the Recovery Plan.
Transit of natural gas through the GTS of Ukraine in June 2022 amounted to 1.25 billion cubic meters. m, which is the minimum monthly volume since 1991.
According to the GTS Operator of Ukraine, the volume of transit for the last month is three times less than in June 2021 (3.72 billion cubic meters), and a quarter lower than in May 2022.
At the same time, Gazprom in June used only 38% of the booked capacity (3.29 billion cubic meters) under a long-term contract. “Combined with the restriction of transit through the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, this leads to a “drainage” of the EU gas market and an increase in prices. As a result of the manipulative actions of Gazprom, gas prices in Europe have increased by almost 42% since the beginning of June,” noted in OGTSU.
“Obviously, Russia continues to blackmail Europe with a reduction in gas supplies, which is why its exchange price today already exceeds $1,600. “with the redirection of flows through Ukraine and Poland,” added the head of the operator Sergei Makogon.
As reported, the transit of natural gas through the GTS of Ukraine in 2021 amounted to 41.6 billion cubic meters. m, which is 25.4% less than in 2020 (55.8 billion cubic meters). In general, the transit capacities of the Ukrainian GTS in 2021 were used by less than 30%.
On the Ukrainian gas transport corridor in 2021-2024. there is a mandatory “reservation” for “Gazprom” – 40 billion cubic meters. m (109.6 million cubic meters per day) after 65 billion cubic meters. m (178 million cubic meters/day) in 2020.
Ukrainian exports in January-June 2022 decreased by 23.7% compared to the first half of 2021 and amounted to $22.8 billion, Deputy Economy Minister – Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka said.
“Over the first half of this year, exports from Ukraine decreased by 23.7% compared to the first half of 2021 and amounted to $22.8 billion. At the same time, export volumes in the second quarter amounted to $8.782 billion, which is 37.4% less than in first quarter of 2022,” Kachka wrote on Facebook.
Compared to the second quarter of last year, the reduction in exports in the second quarter of this year was even more than 45.8% (-$7.42 billion), he noted.
At the same time, in physical volumes, the decrease in quarterly exports was even more significant – 55.6%, that is, by 20.8 million tons. In the second quarter, we exported 16.6 million tons of cargo,” Taras Kachka said.
He added that the main reason for the fall in exports is the blocking of Ukraine’s seaports by Russia.
“The reduction in shipping by sea in the second quarter compared to the first amounted to 86.5% (minus 21.6 million tons). At the same time, it is important to note that the situation with exports has stabilized and even improved by months,” the trade representative emphasized.
Exports resumed growth in May and June after a sharp fall in March. At the same time, exports grew both in terms of value and volume, according to data from the Ministry of Economy. So, in June, Ukraine exported 5.8 million tons of cargo worth $3.177 billion.
“At the same time, one should pay attention to the fact that in June there was a significant decrease in the export of iron ore – 1.75 million tons against 2.27 million tons in May. At the same time, exports of sunflower seeds increased significantly to 537 thousand tons in June. At the same time, oil remains the most profitable export item – $437 million,” Kachka said.
According to him, the top 10 export commodity positions of Ukraine in June included: oil, corn, sunflower seeds, ore, steel (semi-finished products), wires, poultry meat, pipes, cast iron, soybeans.
“Trade remains diversified. Exports of 223 items at the four-digit level exceeded $1 million during the month. Geographically, exports are fully focused on the EU. 78% of our exports in the second quarter of 2022 were to the EU. The total value of exports to the EU in the second quarter is $6 .86 billion, up 6.4% from the second quarter of last year,” the sales representative wrote.
However, he noted that trade with other countries of the world decreased in April-June compared to the second quarter of 2021 by 80%.
Wheat and its mixture with rye (meslin) are excluded from the list of goods whose export is subject to licensing, the Cabinet of Ministers made the corresponding decision at a meeting on Friday, Taras Melnychuk, a government representative in parliament, said.
“The commodity items “Oats” and “Mineral or chemical, nitrogen fertilizers” have been excluded from the volume of quotas of goods whose export is subject to licensing. These items are included in the List of goods whose export is subject to licensing,” he added in his telegram message.
As reported, on March 7, the Government of Ukraine expanded the list of goods the Ministry of Economy will issue export permits for: wheat, corn, poultry meat, chicken eggs and sunflower oil were included in the list of licensed exports.
Already in March, corn and sunflower oil were excluded from this list, but wheat remained, despite the requests of market participants.
As for oats, on March 5, a ban was introduced on its export in the form of a zero quota.
Nitrogen fertilizers were also banned for export at first, but at the end of March the government allowed their export within the quarterly quota of 210,000 tons, or 70,000 tons per month.
In June this year, Ukraine managed to increase grain exports by 23% by May – up to 1.4 million tons. In terms of crops, corn accounted for 86%, wheat – 10%, barley – 3%.
For the fourth day in a row, the number of people entering Ukraine through its western border significantly exceeds the number of those leaving, the net inflow for these days amounted to 26,000 people and completely blocked the net outflow of 11,000 over the past working week, according to data from the State Border Service on Facebook.
According to them, on Tuesday, June 28, almost 36 thousand people left the country compared to 33 thousand the day before, while 41 thousand arrived in Ukraine against more than 43 thousand on Monday.
Such data is confirmed by the Polish border service. According to her information on Twitter, on June 28, 24.5 thousand entered Ukraine from Poland compared to 32.2 thousand the day before, while in the opposite direction the flow amounted to 21.4 thousand against 20 thousand the day before.
In general, since the beginning of the war, the flow to enter Poland from Ukraine amounted to 4.408 million, and in the opposite direction – 2.452 million.
The State Border Service of Ukraine clarified that the number of registered vehicles with humanitarian cargo has grown to 100-120 per day, while at the same time the number of cars passing through the border on the eve of the cancellation on July 1 of privileges for their import into Ukraine remains fairly stable at 19-20 thousand.
As reported, the flow to enter Ukraine through its western border after May 9 exceeded the flow to exit for 30 days. The total net inflow to Ukraine over these days amounted to about 188 thousand people, which returned the net outflow since the beginning of the war to the level of the end of March.
After that, for almost three weeks, the days when the entry flow exceeded the exit flow alternated with days when, on the contrary, the exit flow was greater than the entry flow, and in total both flows were approximately equal. However, in recent days the number of entrants has again become noticeably larger.
According to UNHCR data, as of June 21, a total of 8.007 million people have left Ukraine since the beginning of the war (excluding the entry flow), of which 4.146 million went to Poland, 1.305 million to Russia, 814.6 thousand to Hungary, and 691 to Romania. .4 thousand, Moldova – 507.6 thousand, Slovakia – 525.6 thousand, Belarus – 16.7 thousand.
At the same time, according to the UN, from February 28 to June 21, 2.837 million people entered Ukraine (excluding data from Hungary, the Russian Federation and Belarus).
Passenger traffic across the western border of Ukraine, thous.
Date from Ukraine incl. to Poland to Ukraine incl. Ukrainians number of humanitarian trucks, pcs.
Jun 28 36 20 41 38 20 120
Jun 27 33 19 43 40 19 100
Jun 26 38 23 46 42 20 96
Jun 25 43 23 46 40 21 94
Jun 24 45 26 44 40 21 90
Jun 23 45 25 40 37 20 90
Jun 22 45 25 40 37 20 103
Jun 21 38 22 36 32 19 117
Jun 20 37 21 39 37 18 100
Jun 19 40 24 40 37 18 101
Jun 18 44 25 43 39 20 153
Jun 17 41 25 40 36 20 110
Jun 16 36 21 38 34 19 125
Jun 15 40 24 37 34 19 151
Data: State Border Service
A special agreement on transport liberalization between Ukraine and the European Union will be signed on Wednesday in Lyon, France, as part of the European Commission’s Transport Directorate’s “Connecting Europe Days 2022” meeting, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Mustafa Nayem said.
“On June 29, Ukraine will finally receive “transport visa-free” with the countries of the European Union,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Nayem stressed that this event is of great importance for Ukrainian carriers.
“Taking into account the almost five-fold increase in road transport, already in September of this year, due to a lack of auto permits, the export of Ukrainian goods could stop at least in the direction of two neighboring countries. This is hundreds of millions of dollars of losses every month; and more than a billion at the end of the year,” the Deputy Minister gave an example .
According to him, this agreement will also help European consumers to reduce the shortage and increase in prices for Ukrainian goods, as well as many European companies whose offices and production bases continue to operate in Ukraine.
