Since February 24, 1.9 million people have left Ukraine for Poland, the Polish Border Guard Service has said.
“Since February 24, some 1.95 million people have arrived from Ukraine to Poland. Yesterday, March 16, border guards registered 60,000 people, a decrease of 11%,” the border guard said in a statement on Thursday.
Pumping capacity via the Ukrainian gas-transit corridor has remained at yesterday’s level for European consumers.
“Gazprom is supplying Russian gas for transit via Ukraine as usual as per the bookings of European consumers at 94.6 million cubic meters on March 17,” Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told reporters.
According to the data of the Gas Transmission System (GTS) Operator of Ukraine, the nomination for March 17 is 95 million cubic meters, and bookings for March 16 totaled 94.5 million cubic meters.
The Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, which pumps gas through Belarus and Poland to Germany, switched to reverse mode on Tuesday and will continue pumping gas from Germany to Poland on Wednesday. Gazprom did not book any capacity along the Polish section of the pipeline either for the regular session or for the additional night session. Gas supplies from Germany to Poland, meaning off-take of additional volumes from the main European hubs, are another component of the current high prices in the EU.
Electricity generation from renewable sources is declining once again this week. The contribution of wind generation to the energy balance of Europe averaged 17% for the week of March 7 to 13; on Monday, and it has averaged 12% over the three days of this week, according to data from the WindEurope association. The weather forecast for the next few days should be calm.
Real Madrid Football Club will donate EUR1 million as part of the Everyone with Ukraine campaign, which was launched by the Real Madrid Foundation on March 5 to help meet the humanitarian needs of displaced people in Ukraine, together with other international non-governmental organizations.
The Spanish club said on Wednesday the aid will be sent to the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNHCR, as well as to the fund’s partner in Ukraine, the public organization Epicentr for Children for children and to support the reception of refugees in Spain.
Among the places in Ukraine where this aid will go, Real named Chernivtsi, Kryvy Rih and more than ten Salesian missions in Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr regions and Odesa.
Real Madrid recalled that it has been working with Epicentr for Children since 2018 in seven social sports schools in the cities of Ternopil, Irpin, Khmelnytsky and Kyiv, and now this program covers 800 children.
“The Real Madrid Foundation’s “Everyone with Ukraine” campaign will continue as long as necessary to provide a direct donation channel that helps provide for the needs of the displaced population both in Ukraine and in the bordering countries as well as welcoming refugees in Spain,” the report says.
The United Nations Refugee Agency reported that since February 24, more than 3 million people have been forced to leave the country and at least 2 million more have become internally displaced persons within the country. The agency indicated that in just over two weeks, companies, foundations and philanthropists contributed more than $200 million to the emergency response in Ukraine, out of the $510 million requested for primary emergency care.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the EU members for completing the synchronization of the Ukrainian and European power systems.
“Ukraine has become a member of the Energy Union. The unification of Ukrainian & European energy systems has been completed. Now Ukrainian electricity flows in the EU & vice versa. Grateful to EU members, personally to Ursula von der Leyen, Kadri Simson & everyone, thanks to whom we now have a single energy system!” Zelensky said on Twitter.
ENERGY UNION, EUROPEAN POWER SYSTEMS, MEMBER, SYNCHRONIZATION, UKRAINE
Sowing season in Ukraine due to cold weather is shifted to the end of March – beginning of April, this will allow farmers to better prepare for going into the field and accumulate additional resources, however, despite the favorable temporary backlash, sowing season 2022 will be the most difficult in history of Ukraine due to the military invasion of the Russian Federation.
The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Roman Leschenko wrote about the shift in the sowing season to the end of March – the first decade of April on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, citing the latest data from the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center.
“Temperature marks are still negative at night, and in the north and east they reach -12-10°C. Why is this good news? The weather gives us the opportunity to accumulate resources, organize work and at the same time meet the optimal agrometeorological deadlines. Our task is to make the most of this additional time, attract internal and external assistance and optimally prepare for going into the field,” the minister said.
He said that winter crops are still in a state of winter dormancy, so frosts, despite the relatively warm February, should not harm them.
“The amount of moisture in the top layer of soil leaves much to be desired and, most likely, it is not worth waiting until March 20. Well, let this be our biggest problem,” Leschenko said.
The Minister recalled that the upcoming sowing campaign-2022 could become the most difficult and important in the time of independent Ukraine. Its significance is no longer measured by the categories of “yield” and “price”, while it is about the survival of the country.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal says that the new tax system will start working this week. “In close cooperation with the president, MPs, we will completely reform the economic model of Ukraine… Within a few hours after the laws come into force, the Cabinet of Ministers will adopt all the necessary by-laws to make the new tax system work this week,” Shmyhal said in his address Tuesday afternoon.
Thus, among the changes adopted by the Verkhovna Rada during martial law for medium and large businesses, the opportunity to use the single tax option will be significantly expanded.
In particular, enterprises with a turnover of up to UAH 10 billion will be able to switch to paying a social single tax, and all other restrictions on the number of workers and types of activities (except for excisable goods and gambling business) will be lifted.
Instead of VAT and income tax, entrepreneurs will pay only 2% of their turnover.
The draft law also contains many other positive innovations, including: individual entrepreneurs of the 1st and 2nd groups will pay a single tax on a voluntary basis, as well as individual entrepreneurs will not pay social single tax for their mobilized employees, as well as for martial law period individual entrepreneurs will not pay social single tax if they do not receive income.
In addition, the amendments provide that: sanctions for violation of the cash register law will not be applied until the end of martial law; from February 24 until the end of the year, payers on whose territories hostilities are being conducted are exempted from payment for land; VAT will not be paid for goods destroyed during the war, as well as for goods, transferred for defense needs; the excise tax on fuel will be abolished, and the VAT rate on these items will be reduced from 20% to 7%.
According to the prime minister, the government will make a decision today to ban inspections of businesses, except for those related to the safety and health of citizens.
“At the same time, the requirements for obtaining permits for a significant part of entrepreneurial activity will be abolished,” the prime minister said.
