The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved a framework program of up to EUR2 billion under the EBRD’s Sustainability Package, the bank’s broad strategic approach in response to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“The framework program will use various types of financial instruments for private clients, sovereigns, municipalities, municipal companies and other state-owned enterprises and financial intermediaries (including state-owned banks) in Ukraine and neighboring countries affected by the influx of Ukrainian refugees,” the message says. bank website on Thursday.
According to him, the Board of Directors made a decision on April 4. He included Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia among the affected countries.
Subprojects will be provided at the expense of the usual resources of the bank, including its financing under the guarantees of donors, the report specifies.
The overall goal of the program is to help support service delivery and protect business activity in Ukraine and affected countries, with the ultimate goal of preserving livelihoods, the EBRD said.
“For Ukraine, the framework covers all sectors, with a particular focus on energy security, vital infrastructure, food security and pharmaceutical supply chain support,” the release notes.
In the case of the affected countries, refugee-related issues will be addressed, and will mainly cover areas such as energy security, municipal and national infrastructure, and liquidity through capital markets and financial intermediaries.
“As a result of the war in Ukraine, the market for liquidity and long-term financing is practically closed, and in the affected countries is significantly limited, as both local and international financial institutions tighten risk appetite. provides greater financial security driven by unprecedented adverse market conditions and heightened uncertainty,” the paper concludes.
For the period from mid-March to April 13, Ukrainian banking institutions provided loans to farmers under the state program to support the sowing campaign-2022 for a total of UAH 5.43 billion, including loans and portfolio guarantees for the week of March 6-13. UAH 3.64 billion
The relevant data on the financing of the sowing campaign in the context of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine was published on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine on Thursday.
“In fact, over a week, loans were issued for more than UAH 3.6 billion for more than a thousand farmers. Banks took a rather fast pace to cover the needs of our agricultural producers, who are now undergoing a sowing campaign. Today, agricultural loans can be issued by 22 Bank, and the goal of the state is to increase lending to the agricultural sector up to UAH 40 billion, that is, almost eight times more,” the department quotes its head, Mykola Solsky.
It is specified that 80% (UAH 4.41 billion) of the provided borrowed funds were portfolio guarantees, while 2.08 thousand agricultural producers received access to financing in total (1.18 thousand in the last week).
Most of the loans for the sowing campaign were attracted by the agrarians of Kirovohrad region – UAH 1.81 billion (+UAH 1.4 billion for the week), Vinnitsa region – UAH 944 million (+UAH 579 million), Dnepropetrovsk region – UAH 738 million (+UAH 471 million), Odesa – UAH 549 million (+UAH 388 million) and Lviv – UAH 348 million (+UAH 189 million) regions.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, loans up to UAH 60 million under this program are issued at 0% per annum (under the state financial support program “Affordable loans 5-7-9%”). The term of such lending is up to six months, and after its completion, the interest rate for borrowers will be 5% per annum. Agrarians falling under the definition of an agricultural producer can use the loan.
“Ukraine understands its defining role as a guarantor of the food security of the world, so we must harvest to feed ourselves, and also prevent food shortages and hunger in the world,” Solsky summed up in the message of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
The agency recalled that the government program to support the sowing campaign is being implemented by the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy, the National Bank and the banking sector.
As reported, at the end of March, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine expanded the procedure for issuing guarantees for agricultural producers on loans on a portfolio basis for the purchase of the resources they need for the sowing campaign in 2022, since due to the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, part of the farmers lost working capital for carrying out spring work.
Thus, within the framework of portfolio lending to agricultural producers, they will be able to obtain loans for the purchase of fertilizers, plant protection products, pesticides and agrochemicals, fuel, spare parts for agricultural equipment, as well as for replenishment of fixed assets and intangible assets, wages, rent of real estate and movable property, works and services for its operations.
The total budget of this program to support the 2022 sowing season is UAH 50 billion.
Education and Science Minister Serhiy Shkarlet says nearly 22,000 Ukrainian teachers have moved abroad because of the war.
“Today, according to statistics, we are constantly updating it, there are almost 22 thousand teachers who have moved outside the territory of Ukraine,” Shkarlet said in an interview on the air of the national telethon on Thursday morning.
The minister also noted that today in Ukraine more than 10 million people are in the status of temporarily displaced people, of which about 3.5 million people are abroad.
“Approximately 25% of them are children of school age or students. Thus, we have 2.5 million students and schoolchildren who were forced to move,” he added.
Shkarlet said that in one way or another all the countries of the European Union help Ukrainian teachers, pupils and students, but he especially noted Greece, France, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic countries, and Slovenia.
As a result of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, 197 children were killed, 351 children were injured, the press service of the Office of the Prosecutor General reports.
“More than 548 children have suffered in Ukraine since February 24, 2022 as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. At the same time, 197 children died and more than 351 were injured of varying severity. According to the data received by juvenile prosecutors, children in the Donetsk region – 115, Kiev – 105, Kharkiv – 81, Chernihiv – 54, Mykolaiv – 40, Kherson – 38, Luhansk – 36, Zaporizhzhia – 23, the capital – 16, Sumy – 16, Zhytomyr – 15,” the report said on Thursday morning.
Nova Poshta joined the UN World Food Programme (WFP), as part of cooperation, the company receives food from European countries, forms food packages from them and delivers them to settlements according to the UN vision, primarily to Ukraine’s hot spots.
As the Nova Poshta press service reported on Wednesday, the company provided its production facilities in western Ukraine for the needs of the UNHCR and the UN Refugee Agency.
It is noted that the UN is compiling a list of priority cities and towns, focusing on the places of hostilities and regions that are threatened with a humanitarian catastrophe.
As of the beginning of April (in one week of cooperation), Nova Poshta prepared and delivered about 25,000 food packages to Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.
In addition, the company transported more than 420 tonnes of household goods from the UNHCR to the IDPs.
Until the end of this month, Nova Poshta plans to deliver about 300,000 more sets to Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
“According to statistics, more than 10 million of our citizens have already been forced to leave their homes, hundreds of thousands still remain in dangerous cities and in conditions close to a humanitarian catastrophe, and we cannot stand aside. Even at the beginning of the war, we began transporting humanitarian aid across country and from abroad. We are now joining the UN programme. We are doing everything possible to make life at least a little easier for the Ukrainians most affected by the war,” Oleksandr Bulba, CEO of Nova Poshta, is quoted as saying.
In the nearest plans of the company – to start cooperation with other international organizations to provide Ukrainians with universal assistance.
Losses among civilians from February 24, when Russia started the war against Ukraine, until 24:00 on April 9 amounted to 4232 civilians (in the summary of the day before – 4149), including 1793 dead (1766), reports the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Sunday.
“OHCHR believes that the actual figures are much higher as information is delayed from some areas of intense fighting and many reports are still awaiting confirmation,” the document says.
According to him, this applies, for example, to Mariupol (Donetsk region), Izyum (Kharkiv region), Popasna (Luhansk region) and Borodianka (Kyiv region), where there are reports of numerous civilian casualties. They are subject to further verification and are not included in the above statistics.
“The majority of civilian deaths or injuries were caused by the use of explosive devices with a wide area of effect, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as rocket and air strikes,” the report says.
According to confirmed UN data, 458 men, 294 women, 46 boys and 27 girls died, while the sex of 69 children and 899 adults has not yet been determined.
Among the 2,439 injured were 47 girls and 46 boys, as well as 136 children whose gender has not yet been determined.
Compared to the previous day, three children were killed and 14 more injured, according to the UN.
OHCHR indicates that in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as of midnight on April 10, there were 571 (560) dead and 963 (944) injured in government-controlled territory, and 71 (70) dead and 275 (269) injured in territory controlled by self-proclaimed “republics”.
In other regions of Ukraine under government control (in Kyiv, as well as in Zhytomyr, Zaporozhye, Kiev, Sumy, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnepropetrovsk, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions), the UN recorded 1151 (1136) dead and 1201 (1170) wounded .
The report also states that, according to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, as of 08:00 on April 10, 176 (176) children were killed, 336 (324) were injured.
The summary traditionally states that the increase in indicators in it to the previous report should not be attributed only to cases that occurred on April 9, since during the day OHCHR also verified a number of cases that occurred in previous days.
