Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal discussed with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo the development of bilateral trade and the reduction of trade barriers.
“Denis Shmihal noted the importance of continuing and strengthening sanctions pressure on Russia in order to reduce its ability to finance the war against Ukraine. An important blow to bleed the Russian economy and the Russian military machine should be the sanctions of the energy sector. According to the head of government, this concerns the imposition by partner countries of an embargo on the import of oil, gas, coal and nuclear fuel from Russia,” the government’s press service said in a statement.
Shmyhal urged countries to look for ways to diversify sources of nuclear fuel supplies to reduce dependence on Russia.
The prime minister also focused on the need to identify and eliminate any loopholes and potential opportunities for Russia to circumvent the already imposed sanctions.
“Russia is trying to adapt to some sanctions with the help of certain countries and companies. We will work with our partners to eliminate such opportunities for Russia,” he stressed.
It is noted6 that one of the most important tracks, according to Shmyhal, is a large-scale restriction of Russia’s trade opportunities while expanding the opportunities for unhindered trade for Ukraine by reducing import quotas and barriers for strategic sectors of Ukrainian industry.
According to him, along with the financial support of international partners, it is equally important for Ukraine to open new markets for Ukrainian-made products, in particular, this applies to products of the steel industry and the agro-industrial complex.
In particular, Shmyhal noted that the release of Ukrainian steel from US duties would allow for a stable supply of metallurgical enterprises with orders, and thousands of Ukrainian metallurgists with jobs.
COOPERATION, PM, UKRAINE, US
Ukraine is negotiating a potential issue of “peace bonds” designed for retail investors from the US and European diaspora, Bloomberg reported citing sources.
“Ukraine is in talks with the EU and the US to issue so-called ‘peace bonds’ to retail investors to fund the war effort and reconstruction,” the agency said, citing a source familiar with the discussion.
The European Commission has proposed recommendations and the role of an intermediary regarding the control of new bonds. According to the source, Ukraine and the EU held relevant negotiations.
Earlier, the Treasury Department indicated that it was discussing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission the possibility of allowing US citizens to buy Ukraine’s war bonds. According to the source, the Ukrainian government is represented by an international law firm in the placement of bonds on the US market. At present, war bonds have allowed the Ministry of Finance to raise $1.53 billion, the IMF – $1.4 billion, the NBU – $1.3, the World Bank – $1 billion, EU – $0.79 billion, the report says.
The United States is launching a new program for the admission of refugees from Ukraine, which is designed to supplement the ways of entry for them into the country, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday.
“We have already accepted tens of thousands of Ukrainians, and today I am announcing the Unite for Ukraine program, a new program that will allow Ukrainians seeking refugee status to travel directly from Europe to the United States,” he said.
“This new program will complement the existing routes of entry available to Ukrainians,” Biden said.
Earlier, the United States announced its readiness to accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
U.S. President Joe Biden intends next week to send a request to Congress for an additional budget for military assistance to Ukraine.
At the White House on Thursday Biden said that next week, he will send a request to Congress for an additional budget to keep the flow of weapons and ammunition to the brave Ukrainian fighters uninterrupted. He explained that this is also necessary to continue economic support. According to the president, he will appeal to Congress, as the previously allocated budget for assistance to Ukraine is running out.
The U.S. President believes that Congress will quickly respond to his request.
The United States will provide the government of Ukraine with another $500 million in direct economic assistance, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday.
“Today, the United States is announcing that we intend to provide an additional $500 million in direct economic assistance to the Ukrainian government,” Biden said. According to him, the government of Ukraine will be able to use this money to stabilize the economy, support the population and pay salaries to employees.
He said that, thus, the total U.S. economic support to Ukraine over the past two months amounted to $1 billion.
Russia’s war against Ukraine, which began on February 24, has forced 5 million 34,44,000 people as of mid-day April 19 to leave the country in search of safety, protection and assistance, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has released this data.
It also for the first time made public data on the flow into Ukraine, citing the State Border Guard Service, according to which from February 28 to April 18, it was 948,500 people, while spokesman Andriy Demchenko on Wednesday estimated it since February 24 at 1.1 million.
Department specifies that the Ukrainian-Polish border accounted for 56.1% of all exits: 2 million 825,460. According to the Polish Border Agency’s data made public on Wednesday morning, 2.9 million people have entered the country from Ukraine since the war began, and 756,000 have passed in the opposite direction.
Romania and Moldova received 821,052, some 471,008 arrived in Hungary, and 342,081 in Slovakia.
The number of people, crossing the border between Russia and Belarus, has been growing at an accelerated rate compared to the EU and the Republic of Moldova over the past month: April 19, it reached 549,081 and 23,076, respectively.
For comparison: if since March 15, the number of those who entered Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia increased by 58-78%, then to Russia – 3.8 times, to Belarus – 19 times. According to Ukrainian authorities, a significant part of Ukrainian citizens were displaced to the territory of Russia and Belarus from the war zone or from the occupied territories against their will due to the absence of humanitarian corridors to Ukraine.
In general, the flow of people leaving the country has slowed down considerably compared to the beginning of the war and is gradually stabilizing: if in the first 19 days of the war 3 million people left Ukraine, it took first six days to increase by another half a million, then nine, and for the next two increases of half a million, eleven days each.
During the European Easter holidays, for the first time since the beginning of the war, the State Border Guard Service recorded a greater flow of people entering Ukraine at its western border on some days than exiting. In total, over the past seven days, about 250,000 people left the country and 225,000 entered.
UNHCR indicates that as of mid-2021, there were 53,047 Ukrainian refugees around the world seeking the appropriate status, including 36,049 in Europe.
The Ukrainian diaspora in the world by mid-2020 was estimated by UNHCR at 6.1 million, including 5 million in Europe.
The organization specifies that the right to free movement within the Schengen area means that there are very few border controls in the European Union, so data on arrivals in Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia reflect only border crossings in these countries, but the UN estimates that large numbers of people have moved to other countries.
In addition, UNHCR does not count people from border countries leaving Ukraine and returning home.
