Losses among civilians since February 24, when Russia started the war against Ukraine, until April 1, 2022, amounted to 3342 civilians (in the report a day earlier – 3257), including 1325 dead (1276), reports the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Saturday. “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 and Volnovakha (Donetsk region), Izyum (Kharkiv region), Popasna (Luhansk region), Irpin (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, 268 men, 189 women, 36 boys and 20 girls died, while the gender of 64 children and 748 adults has not yet been determined. Among the 2017 injured, 39 girls and 35 boys, as well as 94 children, whose gender has not yet been determined. Compared to the previous day, five children were killed and eight more were injured, according to the UN. OHCHR indicates that in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as of midnight on April 2, there were 381 (358) dead and 793 (772) injured in government-controlled territory, and 67 (67) dead and 246 (246) 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 877 (851) dead and 978 (963) injured . The summary also states that, according to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, as of 08:00 on April 2, 158 (153) children were killed and 254 (245) were injured. The increase in indicators in this report compared to the figures in the previous report should not be attributed only to new cases that occurred on April 1, since OHCHR also verified a number of cases that occurred in previous days during the day, the document specifies.
The terms related to the protection of intellectual property rights, as well as the procedures for acquiring these rights, are suspended for the duration of martial law, such a law “On the protection of interests in the field of intellectual property during martial law” (No. 7228) was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on April 1, 321 votes with the required minimum of 226 votes.
“The opportunity has been offered for authorized persons to submit documents (applications, petitions, objections, responses, etc.), the provision of which is required by special laws in the field of intellectual property and other by-laws, within 90 days from the date of the lifting of martial law, without paying a fee for extension or renewal of the relevant deadlines,” the explanatory note to the document says.
The law itself states that proprietary intellectual property rights that expire during martial law remain in effect until the day following the day martial law is lifted.
“Stopping the flow of deadlines for taking actions related to the protection of intellectual property rights, as well as the deadlines for procedures for obtaining these rights, does not terminate the force of intellectual property rights,” the adopted document says.
The Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) is in a “critical” position with food and fuel as the Russia-Ukraine war continues to unfold, World Bank Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships Mari Pangestu told Al Arabiya TV channel.
“Our forecast team has been estimating that if we see high food and fuel prices last for six months to a year,” she said, “it could negatively impact growth.”
In the global context, “availability and affordability” of food is the UN-backed organization’s concern, according to Pangestu. However, she said that unlike the global food crisis in 2008, the World Bank official clarified that “we actually don’t have a shortage of production.”
“There’s sufficient production of… wheat, rice or other grain products,” she said.
She also said that the food issue goes beyond the Ukraine war.
“Food security and price drops are something that’s not going to go away even after we have resolved the current situation,” Pangestu said.
Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Medi 1 that Russia’s war in Ukraine is affecting food supplies and energy prices around the world.
Some 85% of 355 business representatives polled by Gradus Research with the support of the Kiev School of Economics (KSE) as part of their study partially or completely suspended the work of their companies due to the war.
“The war has made significant changes in the work of Ukrainian business: about 85% of the business stopped working in partial operation or even stopped work altogether, among which 1% stopped their activities and do not plan to resume, and 35% suspended it, waiting for better times,” the authors of the study said. release on the CSE website.
At the same time, sectoral transformation as one of the ways to save a business from closure turned out to be relevant for 37% of the enterprises that took part in the study – in 21% of cases, a business is in the process of sectoral transformation. At the same time, 16% of respondents have completely or partially transformed, and the same number can potentially join this process.
“The most popular business areas since the beginning of the war have been the retail trade in food and non-food products – in total, up to 24% of the businesses that took part in the study account for these two areas,” the release says.
According to Gradus, 86% of businesses are operating with less workload than before the war, but there are those whose workload has even increased.
“As the difficulties that arise in organizing the work of a business, half of the audience cites a lack of orders. Up to a third of respondents (29%) complain about problems with logistics,” the researchers said.
With regard to government assistance, 37% of respondents, according to the results of the study, are counting on tax holidays.
Other expectations include assistance with organizing logistics, access to cheaper finance, product promotion and keeping key employees from going abroad, military service.
The authors of the study note that the difficult times of business significantly affect the financial support of employees and suppliers – 3-5% of businesses pay relatively large payments, 14-19% make payments at the pre-war level. Other businesses have either reduced the share of payments or stopped altogether – 39% do not pay wages, and 29% do not pay suppliers.
The report clarifies that the survey was conducted by the method of self-completion of the questionnaire in a mobile application in cities with a population of more than 50 thousand people, the sample was 355 respondents.
During the summit of the leaders of the European Union and China, which will be held on April 1, the main topic of discussion will be the war waged by Russia against Ukraine and its negative impact on the global security, economic and trade systems.
This was announced by the European Commission on the eve of the summit.
“Given the severity of recent developments, discussion during the summit is expected to focus on Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked aggression against Ukraine and its negative impact on the rules-based system, global security and economy,” the press release said.
In addition, the EU and Chinese leaders will review a comprehensive bilateral agenda between Brussels and Beijing, including trade and investment relations, climate action, digital technology, human rights, post-pandemic economic recovery, and regional issues.
The summit will be held in the format of a videoconference. The EU will be represented by the Presidents of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the Presidents of the European Council Charles Michel, with the participation of High Representative Josep Borrell, China – Prime Minister Li Keqiang.
The European Commission begins negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the Life for Climate and Environment Program, which will allow receiving EU support in restoring the ecosystem after the war waged against it by Russia.
“Today, the European Commission begins negotiations with Ukraine to offer the country the opportunity to join the Life for Climate and Environment Program,” European Commission spokesman Adalbert Janz said at a briefing on Thursday.
According to him, by joining the Life Program, Ukraine will benefit from European support in rebuilding its environment after the destruction caused by the Russian attack. In particular, we are talking about heavy pollution and damage caused to the ecosystem. “This will be useful in order to secure the long-term well-being of the country and its sustainability,” he stressed.
