The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has allocated an additional UAH 6.5 billion for the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19, the Ministry of Finance said.
“On April 14, a government resolution was adopted on an additional direction from the state budget of funds in the amount of UAH 6.5 billion for the purchase of vaccines against acute respiratory disease COVID-19. This decision was agreed on the same day by the Verkhovna Rada budget committee,” the statement said.
As the ministry noted, taking into account the corresponding expenses in the past year, the total amount of state budget expenditures for the purchase of vaccines is UAH 11.4 billion.
The Ministry of Finance also indicated that it is planned to vaccinate 24 million people, or 70% of the adult population, by the end of 2021. However, this requires almost 6 million vaccinations every month from May to the end of the year (on average, over 250,000 vaccinations per day), which the Ministry of Finance considers a challenge for the Ministry of Health in the context of timely procurement and delivery to Ukraine, as well as organization of vaccination.
“For this, it is necessary to ensure the receipt of almost 48 million doses of vaccines, taking into account 8 million doses that should be received free of charge under the COVAX mechanism,” the ministry said.
Ukrainian insurance companies in 2020 collected UAH 215.3 million of premiums under insurance contracts concluded through resident brokers, which is 24.3% more compared to 2019 (UAH 169.1 million).
According to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), during this period 10,747 contracts were concluded through resident brokers, while in the same period a year earlier, according to the former regulator of the National Commission for Financial Service Markets Regulation it was 24,724.
The amount of remuneration for the provision of such intermediary services for the specified period decreased 28.8%, to UAH 20.02 million.
Reinsurance payments received by resident insurers under 166 contracts amounted to UAH 30.747 million, while a year earlier under 128 contracts it was UAH 12.660 million.
According to the NBU, nonresident reinsurers through brokers received UAH 1.085 billion for reinsurance under 244 contracts, while in the previous year it was UAH 920.7 million under 258 contracts.
Insurance payments compensated by nonresident reinsurers for the reporting period amounted to UAH 422.519 million, which is 2.9 times more.
The NBU does not provide indicators of remuneration for brokers for the reporting period; at the end of 2019, they amounted to UAH 34.619 million.
Ukrainian specialists will take part in the NATO mission in Iraq and the Maritime Guard operation in the Mediterranean sea, said Yuriy Vasyliev, deputy director of the department, head of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration department of the International Defense Cooperation Department of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. “Ukraine has been a contributor to international security throughout its years of independence, and we continue, despite the aggression that we have, our contributions to missions and operations under NATO command. Now we have specialists who are in a Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan and in the forces in Kosovo. But taking into account our recent proposals that have been accepted, we are now preparing to send our specialists to another two operations: the NATO mission in Iraq and the Alliance’s operation Maritime Guard,” Vasyliev said at an online conference on Tuesday.
He stressed that the Ukrainian military, hardened in battles to defend independence and territorial integrity, will be participants in these operations.
Vasyliev also pointed out that, given the status of a partner with expanded capabilities, Ukraine will be involved in five NATO exercises, which will be held on the topic of collective defense.
In addition, he noted that work is now underway to increase the level of Ukraine’s representation in the governing bodies and command structures of the Alliance.
“We are entering a new stage and will work this year, hopefully in the second half of the year, to send our civilian representative of the Ministry of Defense as a so-called voluntary national contribution,” Vasyliev explained.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has established the National Investment Fund of Ukraine in the form of a state-owned enterprise with an authorized capital of UAH 100 million.
The corresponding government decree of March 31 was published in the Uriadovy portal.
According to the decree, the Ministry of Economic Development must, within a month, develop a bill on the National Investment Fund, which, in particular, provides for mechanisms for creating joint investment projects with the sovereign funds of the United Arab Emirates, the State of Qatar and other states, as well as a bill on amendments to the law on the state budget for 2021.
U.S. President Joe Biden in a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he expects the opportunity to visit Ukraine again and assured him of his support in reforming the country, Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak said.
“President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky held a telephone conversation with President of the United States of America Joe Biden. President Biden supports Ukraine in everything, and his team highly appreciates everything that President Zelensky does in reforming the country. Joe Biden said that he is waiting for the opportunity to visit Ukraine again and also remembered his speech in the Ukrainian parliament,” Yermak wrote on his Facebook page.
Earlier, President of Ukraine Zelensky, following the conversation with U.S. President Biden, said that he appreciates the support of the United States and intends to seriously reform the country.
During the Ukrainian-Moldovan political consultations, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vasyl Bodnar and State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova Dumitru Sokolan discussed the status of implementation of the agreements reached during the visit of President of Moldova Maia Sandu to Kyiv in January 2021.
“The parties ‘synchronized watches’ regarding the nearest political contacts at the highest and high levels. Vasyl Bodnar informed about the preparations for the inaugural summit of the Crimean platform and the celebrations on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the restoration of Ukraine’s independence on August 23-24,” the statement on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website said on Thursday, March 25.
It is reported that considerable attention was paid to the implementation of cross-border infrastructure projects, primarily the construction of a bridge across the river Dniester in the area of Yampil-Koseuts settlements, the parties positively noted the progress in this case.
“Bodnar and Sokolan emphasized the importance of an early resumption of negotiations between the authorized authorities in order to resolve the entire range of issues related to the functioning of the Dniester hydroelectric complex, as well as to complete the process of demarcation of the Ukrainian-Moldovan border,” the Foreign Ministry said.
The parties checked their positions on expanding the legal framework between the two states in various fields.
A separate topic of the consultations was regional security issues, in particular the threats associated with the presence of Russian military units in the Transnistrian region of Moldova.
The Deputy Minister said that Ukraine is determined to continue supporting territorial integrity and sovereignty of Moldova within the internationally recognized borders, as well as to be an active participant in the negotiation process on the Transnistrian settlement.
“We regard the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of the Transnistrian region of Moldova as a matter of national and regional security,” the ministry’s press service quoted Bodnar as saying.
The parties discussed steps to strengthen bilateral trade and economic cooperation and implement energy projects.
In addition, it is reported that in context of humanitarian cooperation development, Bodnar asked to accelerate the ratification by the Moldovan side of the agreement signed on December 17, 2009 between Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova on cooperation in ensuring the rights of persons belonging to national minorities (Ukraine ratified it on October 5, 2010).
The parties discussed ways to deepen cooperation with the EU in context of implementation of the two countries’ course towards European integration. The diplomats also exchanged views on the efforts of the governments of Ukraine and Moldova to counter the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic.
