During a visit to India, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba pointed to positive changes in bilateral relations between Ukraine and India, Interfax-Ukraine reports, citing the Foreign Ministry’s press service.
Kuleba emphasized that India is gradually changing its understanding of Russia’s war against Ukraine and clearly realizes that Ukrainian-Indian relations have a great future.
“If we compare the state of our relations in the first year of the war and now, we can observe important positive changes. New Delhi has seen Ukraine as an important partner,” he emphasized.
The minister emphasized that Ukraine appreciates India’s desire to establish sustainable peace in our country and its comprehensive participation in meetings on the implementation of the Peace Formula of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. According to him, Ukraine is working together with India and other countries to involve them in the Global Peace Summit to be held in Switzerland.
Summarizing, Kuleba named three key tasks for the development of relations between Ukraine and India.
“The number one task is to return the level of cooperation in trade and politics to the pre-war level. The pre-war level means multibillion-dollar trade between our countries, which means, first of all, attracting money to the Ukrainian economy, creating jobs, selling Ukrainian goods in the world; it means promising joint developments in high-tech industries; it means the arrival of Indian companies to the Ukrainian market,” the minister explained.
The second task is to work on new projects and programs that should bring Ukrainian-Indian relations to a new level, he said.
“Task number three is the Peace Formula. India’s further participation in the implementation of the Peace Formula will be an important signal to many countries in the region that are focused on New Delhi, convincing them to join this initiative of President Zelensky,” the minister emphasized.
Kuleba also said that Ukrainian diplomacy is working to organize visits by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Ukraine and by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to India.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has imposed penalties on TAScombank, as well as financial companies “Ap. Mi. Finance” and “Hertz” for a total amount of UAH 272 thousand, stated on the website of the regulator.
“TASkombank” was fined for UAH 170 thousand for providing the NBU with statistical reporting data in violation of the procedure for their formation, which led to repeated provision within six months of reporting data with insignificant errors.
Meanwhile, Ap. Mi. Finance” and “Hertz” were fined UAH 51 thousand each for late submission of reports: for December 2023 and January of the current year, respectively.
These decisions were made on the basis of the results of off-site monitoring within the framework of the payment infrastructure oversight function and came into force on March 25, 2024.
Violators are obliged to pay the fine within five business days from the date of receipt of the relevant decision of the regulator.
Ap. mi. Finance, Hertz, NATIONAL BANK, NBU, TASCOMBANK, UKRAINE
Ukraine has sent the second batch of humanitarian cargo within the framework of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s initiative Grain frоm Ukraine to Sudan with the help of the World Food Organization, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food has reported.
According to the report, the MV Future ID vessel with 14.6 thousand tons of flour made of Ukrainian wheat has already arrived in Sudan. It will be distributed in the form of food packages for 2 million people in Sudan affected by the war.
“Now in Sudan, almost 18 million people are facing acute food shortages. Of these, about five million are estimated by the UN to be in an emergency level of hunger (IPC4). The harvest of the main cereal crops (sorghum, millet and wheat) is 41% below the 5-year average. Therefore, food aid under the Grain frоm Ukraine initiative is extremely important to save lives and prevent an even worse situation,” the Ministry of Agrarian Policy emphasized.
As reported, the first batch of humanitarian cargo was delivered to the port of Khartoum (Sudan) on February 22, 2024. The vessel MV Ocean Dream delivered 7665 tons of flour made of Ukrainian wheat.
The donors of the shipment of two consignments were Germany, which provided $15 million, as well as Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia and Spain, which allocated $23.8 million for the shipment of the second consignment of flour.
Grain from Ukraine, HUMANITARIAN CARGO, UKRAINE, VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, Судан
The volume of revenues of telecom operators from international roaming services in Ukraine in 2023 increased 1.3 times compared to 2022 – up to UAH 3.96 billion and 3.3 times more than in 2021, follows from the report of the National Commission carrying out state regulation in the spheres of electronic communications, radio frequency spectrum and provision of postal services (NKEC) on Thursday.
“The above is due to the forced migration of the Ukrainian population to other countries of the world, primarily to the EU member states, due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation,” the report said.
Revenues from mobile services in 2023 increased by 9% to UAH 61.7 billion. Of this amount, UAH 41 billion (66.4% of the total_ came from data transmission. Including Internet access – UAH 7.4 billion (12%) were voice telephony services, UAH 1.1 billion (1.8%) were number portability services.
Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak held a meeting with the US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink.
“Held a meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States in Ukraine Bridget Brink. Told about massive Russian shelling of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and the difficult situation in several regions of our state,” Yermak wrote in his Telegram channel on Saturday.
“Thanked for Ukraine’s support in these super difficult times,” Yermak added.
Andriy Yermak, Brigitte Brink, Office of the President, U.S. AMBASSADOR, UKRAINE
The number of passengers who used buses to travel abroad in 2023 decreased to 7.5 million passengers, compared to 8.5 million in 2022.
Such data Deputy Minister of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Sergiy Derkach made public, opening the forum of the reform of international bus transportation.
According to him, in 2020 only 1.1 million passengers traveled abroad by buses.
“This is a large passenger traffic today for Ukraine. For example, Ukrzaliznytsia carried 2 million passengers last year,” Derkach said.
He emphasized that bus service today, given the lack of air service, has become one of the main for trips from Ukraine abroad.
The average duration of travel by bus in international traffic is 31 hours of which about 7 hours passengers spend waiting at the border.
“This is exactly what the state should change and what you and I should change. That is why today we will present our reform: electronic tools that will primarily help the passenger and carriers,” Derkach said.
According to him, the register of international transportation will soon be available for passengers, in which each passenger will be able to find his route, check the carrier and going to his site to buy a ticket. A carrier’s office is being created for carriers, where they will be able to quickly open new routes without paperwork and bureaucratic procedures.
Deputy Minister expressed hope that the reform of intercity bus transportation will help to increase budget revenues. According to his data, about 25% of carriers operate in the market without paying taxes, and the budget receives up to UAH 500 million annually.
