Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has announced a message to the Verkhovna Rada on the external and internal situation of Ukraine
“Soon I will present my view on the implementation of these tasks in the annual message to the Verkhovna Rada on the external and internal situation of Ukraine. I want this message to be not a report, but our conversation with you about the next year,” he said in a video message on Tuesday.
According to him, “This week will be politically important for Ukraine. We’re going into next year and we have to maintain a common understanding of our national goals.”
“Of course, it is the liberation of our land from the enemy, as well as the reconstruction of Ukraine, the return of our people home, the further rapprochement of our state with key partners, the opening of new opportunities for Ukraine in the world – this is the task for the near future. And not only for the state, but also for each of us,” Zelensky said.
A dry cargo ship with more than 32,000 tons of corn left a Ukrainian port on Friday, the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) reported.
“On December 16, the vessel Almeray left the port of Odessa, it is carrying a total of 32.4 thousand tons of corn to Libya as part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative,” the report said.
There are two dry-cargo ships headed for Ukrainian ports, which on December 16 passed through the maritime humanitarian corridor.
“As of December 16, the total tonnage of grain and other agricultural products exported from the three Ukrainian ports is 14,023,297 tons. A total of 1,112 vessels were allowed to move so far: 556 to arrive at Ukrainian ports and 556 to leave them,” summarized the JCC.
It is noted that from December 1 to 15, more than 1.6 million tons of Ukrainian food products were shipped to other countries.
As many as 13 million tons were shipped on December 5, 12 million tons on November 26, 11 million tons on November 16, 10 million tons on November 3, 9 million tons on October 28, 8 million tons on October 21, 7 million tons on October 12, 6 million tons on October 5 and 5 million tons on September 28.
Ukraine ranks seventh in the world in terms of Internet traffic.
“Ukraine is actively developing traffic exchange points. For four years now, the country has ranked seventh and is ahead of many other states that are much larger than Ukraine,” Bill Woodcock, Executive Director of Packet Clearing House (PCH), said at the UADOM conference in Kyiv on Thursday .
He also noted that PCH has been cooperating with the UA domain registry by Hostmaster since 2004.
“During this time, best security practices have been introduced in the Ukrainian domain, and now Ukraine is among the 25 most developed countries in the world that use the most advanced security technologies,” the PCH executive director emphasized.
Packet Clearing House is an international non-profit organization responsible for providing operational support and security for critical Internet infrastructure, including Internet data exchange points and the core of the Domain Name System.
The “.UA” domain was delegated by the international organization IANA (later renamed ICANN) to Dmitry Kokhmanyuk and Igor Sviridov in 1992 in the interests of the entire Ukrainian Internet community. For a long time, the administration and development of the domain on a voluntary basis was carried out by specialists who united the Ukrainian Network Coordination Group (UA NCG) and created in 2001 a specialized enterprise Hostmaster LLC, which currently performs the functions of an administrator.
US Permanent Representative to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield has arrived in Ukraine on a visit, said Nate Evans, Director of Communications and Press Secretary of the US Mission to the UN.
“The US Ambassador to the UN is in Kyiv for a day of meetings to reaffirm the unwavering US support for Ukraine as it defends its freedom and sovereignty in the face of Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion,” Evans tweeted on Tuesday.
While in Kyiv, Thomas-Greenfield will meet with Ukrainian government leaders to discuss the unwavering US commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence, according to the US Embassy in Ukraine. She will oversee efforts to document and preserve evidence of atrocities committed by Russian forces and hear first-hand accounts from survivors.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield will also discuss the global food security crisis exacerbated by Russia’s invasion and stress the urgent need to extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative into next year. She will also meet with humanitarian organizations working to meet the winterization needs of vulnerable populations affected by Russian attacks on energy and other civilian infrastructure.
More than EUR66 million will be allocated under the first Interreg NEXT European cross-border cooperation program for Hungary, Slovakia and Romania’s partnership with Ukraine in health, environment and good governance, the European Commission (EC) announced Friday. “This program is part of the EU’s overall support and unwavering solidarity toward Ukraine. By implementing a cohesion policy, Interreg will help Ukraine and its bordering member states to face common challenges and seize joint opportunities,” said Elisa Ferreira, EC member for cohesion policy and reforms.
The program covers the period of 2021-2027. Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine are expected to work together to ensure equal access to health services and improve the sustainability of their health systems.
The program will support climate change adaptation and disaster risk prevention solutions. The participating countries will cooperate to protect nature, develop “green infrastructure” and tourism.
It is also a question of aligning Ukraine’s norms with EU member states in the area of effective public administration. Relevant projects will promote legal and administrative cooperation to remove common barriers to interaction in border areas, while supporting cooperation between citizens, civil societies and state institutions, according to a communiqué from the European Commission.
CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION, HUNGARY, ROMANIA, SLOVAKIA, UKRAINE
The Cabinet of Ministers offers the Verkhovna Rada to ratify the framework agreement between the governments of Ukraine and Austria on economic cooperation in the development of projects.
As the representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk said in Telegram on Friday, the corresponding decision was made at a government meeting on Friday.
Approved, in particular, the draft law “On the ratification of the framework agreement between the government of Ukraine and the government of the Republic of Austria on economic cooperation in the development of projects.”
It is noted that the ratification of the framework agreement will create a legal basis for economic cooperation between countries in the development of priority projects, in particular, for the construction (reconstruction) and equipping of the National Children’s Specialized Hospital “Okhmatdet” in Kyiv, the construction and equipping of a clinic in Kyiv, the creation of a National Rehabilitation Center in Lvov.
