Ukraine has canceled special restrictions on entry into the country from India, introduced on May 2 this year due to the widespread of COVID-19 in this country. Resolution No. 611 dated June 16 was published in the Uryadovy Kurier newspaper on Thursday.
Since May 2, a complete ban was introduced on the crossing of the Ukrainian border by foreigners and stateless persons who arrived from India or stayed on its territory for at least seven days over the past 14 days.
An exception was made only for citizens of Ukraine and foreigners who permanently or temporarily reside in the territory of Ukraine, who are spouses or children of citizens of Ukraine, for whom the requirement of mandatory self-isolation was established, regardless of the presence and result of PCR testing. However, now this requirement has also been annulled.
The State Concern Ukroboronprom and the Indian company Adani Group have signed a memorandum to expand military and technical cooperation.
According to the press service of the state concern, the document was signed on February 23 by Director General of Ukroboronprom Yuriy Husev and President of Adani Defense & Aerospace Ashish Rajvanshi. The memorandum is related to the development, exchange of technologies and the production of various weapon systems and military equipment.
“The memorandum is the first step towards fruitful cooperation, which we agreed on during the Aero India 2021 exhibition. The document will soon be filled with important projects,” Husev said.
According to him, this is about cooperation, in particular, in the aircraft building and radar areas.
The parties also agreed to develop a roadmap for the implementation of future projects.
Adani Group is an Indian diversified business conglomerate with six companies in the fields of energy, logistics, agribusiness, real estate, financial services, defense and aerospace
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the Indian partners for the delivery of the first batch of Oxford/AstraZeneca (CoviShield) vaccine to Ukraine.
In a statement on Twitter on Tuesday, the head of state also promised to start vaccination of the population against coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ukraine “as soon as possible.”
“The first 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in Ukraine. We appreciate the Indian partners for their support. We will start vaccination as soon as possible. We need to fight COVID-19 together,” Zelensky said.
The COVID-19 crisis has taken a heavy toll on human life, as well as damaged economies and livelihoods. Vaccines have emerged as the best way to ensure not only public health security, but also restore economic sectors affected by the crisis. In this context, the Government of Ukraine had reached out to the Government of India for support.
Given India and Ukraine’s multifaceted and strong bilateral relations, the Embassy of India in Ukraine, with the support of the Government of India, has facilitated the supply of vaccines to Ukraine in February, in order to initiate Ukraine’s public vaccination drive. Ukraine is one of the early countries to receive vaccine from India in February.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a personal request to Prime Minister Modi. In addition, sustained efforts by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine in collaboration with the Ambassador of India in Ukraine Partha Satpathy have ensured that necessary agreements and permissions could be concluded on time for supply the first tranche of vaccines- 500,000 doses of Astra-Zeneca and Serum Institute of India developed COVISHIELD vaccine.
Going forward, larger quantities of Made in India vaccines are expected to be supplied as production is ramped up in India. There is regular contact between the Governments of Ukraine and India, and with vaccine manufacturers, to secure more vaccines for Ukraine. This supply of vaccine is another exemplar of the major role played by Indian pharmaceutical industry in ensuring the health security of Ukraine.
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Ambassador’s meeting with Health Minister Maksym Stepanov
India may soon make a big economic leap and Ukraine should develop relations with it more, Kost Bondarenko, the head of the Ukrainian Policy Foundation, political scientist and historian, has said.
“India, as a future superstate, which within the next ten years could make a very serious economic leap – and it already demonstrates a large number of points that can form the basis of its development – should also be of interest to Ukraine,” Bondarenko said at a press conference entitled “Eastern Vector of Ukrainian Diplomacy” at the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
In turn, international political scientist Anton Kuchukhidze pointed out that Turkey is a promising direction for Ukraine.
“I think that Turkey can become for Ukraine not only a good trade partner in terms of trade, which is not fully formed and its potential is not fully used. Turkey is considered the largest hub in Asia not only for Asia, but also for Africa. Taking into account the level of bilateral cooperation of Turkey both in Asia and in Africa, I think that this could be a good bridge for Ukraine, for building economic ties with African states,” he explained.
The expert also stressed the need to create a number of forums, such as “Ukraine-Central Asia,” “Ukraine-Asian-Pacific Region,” “Ukraine-Islamic World.”
“Through such stable forums for dialogue, it would be possible to advance the economic agenda,” Kuchukhidze added.
At the same time, Bondarenko noted that both the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine and the President’s Office have an understanding of the need to establish bilateral or multilateral relations between Ukraine and Asian states.
“The last visit of the president of Ukraine to the United Arab Emirates gave rise to a discussion on where and what the interests of Ukraine in this region are. But this region is not limited to only the United Arab Emirates,” he said.
Bondarenko stressed that for 30 years in Ukraine there has been an imbalance towards relations with the West.
“I think that Zelensky’s visit to the UAE and the fact that a big eastern trip is now expected (at least, a trip to the countries of the East has been announced) can break the situation of imbalance that we have observed over the past years, and possibly decades,” he said.
In addition, the expert drew attention to the need to revise the false, in his opinion, policy of delimiting the activities of Ukrainian diplomatic missions and trade and economic missions, which each work in isolation from each other and are subordinate to different ministries.
The state-owned enterprise (SOE) Electrotyazhmash Plant in February 2021 plans to complete the installation of a new stator on the TGV-250-2PT3 turbine generator at the Kaiga NPP in India, according to the company’s website.
At present, the company’s engineers are supervising the dismantling of the old stator and preparing for the installation of a new one; the installation and commissioning of the equipment will also be supervised by the plant’s specialists.
According to the press service, the Kaiga NPP, a member of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), consists of four power units. Two of them are equipped with two TGV-250-2PT3 turbine generators manufactured by Electrotyazhmash delivered in 2005-2007.
Power of each machine is 250 MW, they have horizontal design, hydrogen-water cooling, and their weight is 280 tonnes.
Electrotyazhmash specializes in the production of powerful hydrogenerators, turbine generators for thermal power plants and nuclear power plants, electric motors for drives of rolling mills, mine hoists, traction electrical equipment for railroad and urban transport.
