Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba states that the strategic partnership between Ukraine and the United States will develop regardless of who wins the American presidential election.
“My only wish regarding the American elections is that they end as soon as possible, the U.S. president-elect take the oath and we could move on in developing a strategic partnership between our countries, which, I am sure, will develop under any president. The only question is the speed of development,” said the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
He stressed that Ukraine was, is and will be on the sidelines of the U.S. presidential campaign. “We were, are and will be on the sidelines of this campaign. We believe that American democracy is mature enough to make decisions and make choices that are in the interests of the American people,” Kuleba said.
The minister also pointed out that Ukraine’s largest asset in the United States is bipartisan support.
“In fact, there is a clear position of the president, which has been stressed many times, there is a clear position of the Foreign Ministry that Ukraine’s largest asset in the United States is bipartisan support. This is the fundamental principle of our policy towards the United States. The president’s surname or party affiliation does not matter as long as Ukraine is equally supported by both democrats and republicans,” Kuleba added.
The postal and logistics operator Trade House Meest Express LLC (Meest Express, Lviv) has launched air delivery from the United States to Lviv.
“Meest is the first Ukrainian postal and logistic company with its own air delivery from the United States. Today we met the charter flight we rented in Lviv – Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner of the LOT airline – with parcels of our dear customers,” President of Meest Rostyslav Kysil wrote on his Facebook page.
He also said that this flight was the first transatlantic flight in Lviv.
The Lviv international airport said in a report that the Polish airline LOT performed the first test flight for Meest Express.
“We are very pleased with the opening of long-haul cargo transportation to Lviv. Since the onset of the aviation crisis, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have actively switched to finding alternative sources of income… Today, we have a beautiful Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner cargo aircraft from the airline LOT, performing a test presentation flight. Next, we will continue to work on which airline will deliver goods to Lviv,” Director General of the Lviv airport Tetiana Romanovska said.
According to her, the opening of such flights will save the situation with the financial condition of the enterprise and will provide an opportunity to improve it in the winter.
“From now on, the Lviv airport becomes not only a passenger, but also a cargo aviation hub,” Romanovska said.
Meest Group is part of Meest Corporation Inc. (Toronto, Canada). It provides postal and logistics services in 20 countries: Canada, the United States, Ukraine, Australia, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Poland, China, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Israel.
Nova Poshta Global (NPG), a member of Nova Poshta group of companies, launches scheduled flights from/to the United States and China.
The company’s press service said on Tuesday that flights by the order of Nova Poshta Global will be operated several times a week and deliver both parcels from Ukraine and purchases made by Ukrainians in online stores of these countries.
Together with partners, the company has already launched six scheduled flights, namely, five flights to/from the United States and one to/from China. Four flights in the direction of Warsaw-New York-Warsaw are operated by European airlines Lufthansa and LOT, and one weekly direct flight Kyiv-New York-Kyiv of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA). Nova Poshta Global launched another weekly flight to/from China in cooperation with the Ukrainian company SkyUp.
“We launched scheduled flights with our regular partners Lufthansa, LOT and UIA, and last week we began cooperation with Ukrainian airline SkyUp. The first flight of this airline has already delivered 1,801 parcels for our customers with a total weight of 17 tonnes, including both individual orders and commercial goods. This is only part of the parcels that Nova Poshta Global delivers to Ukraine from China weekly. We deliver on average about 25,000 parcels weighing more than 38 tonnes per week from the United States,” the press service said, citing Nova Poshta Global CEO Yuriy Benevytsky.
According to Nova Poshta Global, orders from the United States increased by 4.7 times in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, which was due to cooperation with the American online store iHerb, namely, some 230,000 parcels with a total weight of 360 tonnes were delivered from that store for the first quarter of 2020.
According to the data provided, the number of deliveries of NP Shopping service has also increased in particular some 81,000 parcels were delivered in the first quarter, which is 32% more than in the same period in 2019.
However, the company’s customers began not only to order more from abroad, but also to send abroad. Thus, for the first quarter of 2020, the volume of export shipments of individuals increased by 12%, and business customer shipments doubled compared to the same period in 2019. Almost 78% are parcels and goods, some 12% are documents.
Nova Poshta Global (formerly Nova Poshta International) has been providing international express delivery services since 2015, and is part of the Nova Poshta group of companies. Nova Poshta Global is developing the NP Shopping service – the delivery from online stores in the United States, China, Britain and Poland, provides import and export services for businesses and the ability to ship from any Nova Poshta branch to most countries of the world.
Ukraine from October 30, 2019 will return to the U.S. General System of Preferences, according to a proclamation of U.S. President Donald Trump. “On Saturday Kyiv time or on Friday night in Washington, the news came out that Trump has completely returned Ukraine to the General System of Preferences,” Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, Ukraine’s trade representative Taras Kachka said at a press briefing on Monday.
He said that all 155 types of goods that were removed from the system of preferences, again will receive the possibility of duty-free trade in the United States.
“These are mainly food processing products – confectionery product… [and also] industrial products, especially complex engineering products,” Kachka said.
He said that the return to the system of preferences was made possible thanks to the progress in introducing new legislation on collective management organizations (CMOs).
“This is unlikely to affect trade statistics, since these are not mass products, but will positively influence small and medium-sized businesses,” Kachka added.
As reported, in 2018, the United States suspended the General System of Preferences, which allows the import of more than 3,500 types of goods to the United States duty free, for 155 types of Ukrainian goods due to systematic copyright violation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in the United States to participate in the 74th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, the press service of the Office of the President reported in the Telegram channel.
“Zelensky will deliver a speech during the general debate of the UN General Assembly, and will also take part in the Sustainable Development Goals Summit,” the press service said.
In New York, Zelensky will hold a series of bilateral meetings with foreign leaders, including with U.S. President Donald Trump.
In addition, during the visit, the head of the Ukrainian state will meet with leaders of the Ukrainian community in the United States, as well as with representatives of American business circles.
The United States and Ukraine continue to prepare for the visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to the United States, Kurt Volker, the Special Representative of the U.S. State Department for Ukraine Negotiations, said. “We are working on President Zelensky visit to the White House,” Volker said at a briefing in Kyiv on Saturday.
As reported, on July 25, U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a telephone conversation agreed to substantively discuss practical issues of Ukrainian-American cooperation during the visit of the Ukrainian head of state to the United States.
