France has increased defense spending, some of which will be invested in production in Ukraine, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the French Republic to Ukraine Gael Vesierre has said.
During the 16th annual Kyiv Security Forum founded by Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s Open Ukraine Foundation, the Ambassador noted that France’s defense spending exceeded 2% of GDP.
Regarding investments in defense, the diplomat stressed that investments are also needed to produce in Ukraine what the Ukrainian Armed Forces need.
“We say: if we can start such production in Ukraine, we should do it,” Vesier said.
He also called for supporting Ukraine to achieve victory.
“Let’s imagine for a second if Russia wins. It means that Russia can destroy a neighbor and the international community can do nothing in response. It means that many countries will say: we now need to join the nuclear club because our security is at risk. It will be a more risky and unstable situation than today,” the French diplomat emphasized.
The 16th annual Kiev Security Forum, organized to mobilize transatlantic support for Ukraine, is taking place March 21-22.
The State Property Fund (SPF) of Ukraine has sold Kholminsky distillery in Chernihiv region for UAH 45 million at an auction in the system “Prozorro.Sales”, which is 2.9 times higher than the starting price, said the chairman of the SPF Vitaliy Koval.
“Three participants competed for the object. Its cost has increased in 2.9 times of the original”, – he wrote in Facebook and added that the FGI will continue denationalization of the alcohol industry.
The head of the FGI specified that the funds transferred by the winner of the auction to the state budget will be directed to the financing of the Defense forces of Ukraine.
According to Prozorro.Sales, the winner of the auction was Terminal Frost LLC.
According to the online resource youcontrol.com.ua, the company was registered in 2017 in Kiev. Specializes in non-specialized wholesale trade, providing financial and consulting services, renting its own or leased property. The authorized capital of the enterprise is 155 thousand UAH. The beneficiary of the enterprise is Anastasia Bashtova.
It is stated that the postal operator or express carrier must submit an additional register of international mail or express shipments if the goods are not subject to export duty or are not subject to restrictions provided for in Article 197 of the Customs Code.
Head of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Daniil Getmantsev in Telegram expressed hope that these changes will help to reduce business costs and speed up logistics.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada adopted as a whole the bill No. 9456 on amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine regarding customs clearance of biomethane.
Kholminskyy Distillery, PROZORRO.SALES, State Immunity Fund, STATE PROPERTY FUND, UKRAINE
Polish authorities have agreed with farmers on subsidies per ton of grain and temporary closure of the border with Ukraine from April 1 for the transit of some agricultural products, polskieradio24.pl reported.
According to the newspaper, the document was signed by representatives of the protesting farmers, Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Seckerski and the ministry’s state secretary Michal Kolodziejczak.
The agreement envisages maintaining the current embargo on agricultural products from Ukraine, which has been in place since mid-September last year. It concerns in particular wheat, corn, wheat flour, rapeseed and sunflower.
In addition, the Minister of Agriculture must ask the Council of Ministers of the European Union to suspend the transit of these products through Polish territory as of April 1 this year.
Both sides in the signed document also consider it necessary to develop detailed rules for agri-food trade between Poland and Ukraine, but also note that the difficult situation in agriculture is the result of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
Farmers’ representatives in the agreement declare their government’s support for the changes to the Green Agreement. It is primarily about replacing the mandatory transfer to a voluntary ecosystem and simplifying other rules for farmers.
AUTHORITIES, BORDER, FARMERS, GRAIN, POLAND, transit products, UKRAINE
Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Igor Klymenko held a meeting with Ambassador of the Slovak Republic in Ukraine Marek Shafin, during which the parties discussed issues of bilateral cooperation, the press service of the Ministry.
” Igor Klymenko held a meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Slovak Republic in Ukraine Marek Shafin. They discussed issues of bilateral cooperation and support of Ukraine in resisting Russian armed aggression. In particular: Transfer of Bozena mechanized demining vehicles for the State Emergency Situations Service this fall, which will facilitate the process of demining of Kherson region”, – stated in the message published in the Telegram channel on Tuesday.
In addition, the parties discussed the search for relatives of people who went missing, the exchange of experience with international partners in this area, as well as the preparation of readmission agreements, the fight against crime and cooperation in the field of chemical, environmental and nuclear safety on the border.
The interlocutors also discussed issues of migration policy, because at the moment about 130 thousand Ukrainian citizens are officially staying in Slovakia.
The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Kateryna Pavlichenko, Police Attaché, official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Slovakia at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Ukraine Ludvik Šoltes and representatives of the Ministry.
Ihor Klymenko, Minister of Internal Affairs, SLOVAKIA, UKRAINE, Марек Шафін
The EU countries have not yet been able to agree on the upper limit of duty-free imports of Ukrainian grain, as well as the need to extend restrictions to other products from Ukraine, the German edition of n-tv reported. “In the debate on the upper limit of duty-free imports of Ukrainian grain, the 27 EU countries continue to disagree,” the publication said.
The German media cite information from European diplomats who say that there is also no clear majority among member states on the European Parliament’s proposal to extend the restrictions on poultry meat, eggs and sugar from Ukraine proposed by the European Commission in January.
Polish Radio’s correspondent in Brussels, Beata Plomecka, also confirmed that the European Parliament, influenced by farmers’ protests across Europe, last week backed an amendment to the regulation on Autonomous Trade Measures submitted by Polish MEP Andrzej Galicki.
MEPs agreed to impose import restrictions on sensitive goods, notably honey, a range of cereals, poultry meat, chicken eggs and sugar.
Poland is also lobbying to tighten import quota requirements for Ukrainian sensitive agri-commodities by using data on Ukrainian imports not only for the years 2022-2023, but also 2021, before Russia’s full-scale invasion, when there were no massive shipments of agricultural products from Ukraine.
“However, this support is absent among member states. Only Poland and the ‘frontline’ countries are demanding that the demands of the European Parliament be taken into account. At best, most countries want to reduce from three weeks to two the Commission’s mandate to impose a ban on EU imports of products whose imports destabilize the market situation,” Polish Radio stressed.” Negotiations on a possible restriction of imports of Ukrainian agricultural products in the European Council are scheduled for Tuesday evening.
As reported, in many EU countries since January 2024 there have been mass protests of farmers, who express dissatisfaction with the “green” course of the European Commission and the rise in the price of material and technical resources. One of their demands is to strengthen control over alleged unfair competition from Ukraine. Farmers claim that Ukrainian products that were once destined for Africa or the Middle East now remain in Europe, undermining the position of local producers. They also point out that Ukrainian producers are not subject to the EU’s higher environmental and social standards.
The work of the non-governmental National Association for Humanitarian Demining has been launched in Ukraine, its head Meri Hakobyan said on Monday during the presentation of the association.
“The key mission of the association will be to promote the rapid and professional clearance of Ukraine’s territories of explosive hazards with the involvement of all interested stakeholders, including mine clearance equipment manufacturers, accredited demining operators, and government agencies,” she said.
Among the main directions of Hakobyan’s activity she singled out joining efforts and communication with state authorities on humanitarian demining, development of recommendations on improvement of normative-legal support in the sphere of humanitarian demining, assistance in improving the quality of professional training of industry specialists, development, discussion and making proposals on reasonable types of classifiers, standards, operational reliability and safety of demining, raising public awareness,
The primary task of the Association will be the preparation of the state professional standard of the new profession “Humanitarian Demining Deminer”, as well as the creation of a system and methodology for training such deminers, preparation of amendments to the law of Ukraine on “Mine Action” and communication with the media.
As Deputy Minister of Economy Ihor Bezkaravaynyy emphasized, the National Association for Humanitarian Demining is an initiative coming from business and civil society and may become a precondition for the formation of a demining market in the state.
In particular, he said, there are currently 32 humanitarian demining operators in the country, of which about 20 are Ukrainian in the status of Limited Liability Companies.
“This shows that the Ukrainian business goes into the sphere of demining, is ready to invest resources, money, to develop in this direction and develop the market,” – said the Deputy Minister.
In turn, the Ambassador of Japan in Ukraine Kuninori Matsuda said that one of the priorities of the Japanese government is precisely the provision of assistance to Ukraine in the field of humanitarian demining.
“We have been working with the Cambodian demining center for 25 years. We have developed many methodologies and will share our own developments and technologies with Ukraine … Japan will support the entire Ukrainian demining sector until the last mine in Ukraine is cleared,” he said.
He recalled that the Japanese government has already transferred to Ukraine 30 special tractors, dozens of wagons and pickup trucks to locate mines and another 22 special mine clearance vehicles will be transferred in June this year.
Ruslan Beregulya, head of the Main Directorate of Mine Action of the Defense Ministry, said that 950 people have been affected by explosive objects since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Of these, 289 have died and 661 have been injured or maimed.
