The COVID-19 pandemic will likely not affect the current visa-free regime between Ukraine and the European Union, a top European Commission official has said. The pandemic does not automatically affect the visa-free regime between Ukraine and the EU, Deputy Director General of the European Commission for European Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations Katarina Mathernova stated in a discussion about European security, Interfax reported.
Mathernova said the visa-free regime is instead associated with conditions like reforming rule of law and justice in the country, and that this and other areas will continue to be closely monitored by the EU. But there is no reason for Ukrainians to worry about their visa-free travel being affected by coronavirus, Mathernova added, saying there is no automatic link between the COVID-19 pandemic and the visa-free regime. There are currently certain restrictions on movement both within the Schengen area and the EU, but these are only movement restrictions, and not a connection between the visa-free regime and the outbreak, she said during an online discussion at the Kyiv Security Forum.
Ukraine is to resume some international flights from June 15, starting with available tourist destinations. “International and domestic flights will resume on June 15. Perhaps, domestic flights will resume a bit earlier, we are currently working on it,” Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy said in the TV program “Breakfast with 1+1.”
The minister noted that international air travel would mostly be restored to tourist destinations. “The most popular are the destinations expected by everyone: Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus. In Europe, these are Montenegro and Croatia. We will provide more detailed information later this week. There is also Georgia,” Krykliy said.
Belavia, LOT and WizzAir will launch flights to 14 city destinations from Kyiv Zhuliany airport on June 16, while Swiss, Czech and RyanAir also intend to start flying Ukrainian routes to and from Kyiv again. Belavia (Belarus), LOT (Poland) and WizzAir (Hungary) will launch international flights to ten countries from Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany) from June 16, 2020. “Belavia, LOT and WizzAir airlines have announced their readiness to restore international flights from Kyiv airport from June 16. Motor Sich Airlines is ready to fly to Zaporizhia,” the airport stated on Facebook.
According to the capital’s second airport, Belavia plans to start flying to Minsk from June 16, and LOT to Warsaw. WizzAir plans to restore a number of flights to nine different countries with routes to Billund (Denmark), Athens (Greece), Berlin (Germany), Vilnius (Lithuania), Nuremberg (Germany), Larnaca (Cyprus), Vienna (Austria), Bremen (Germany), Riga (Latvia), Lisbon (Portugal), Hanover (Germany), Gdansk (Poland).
Largest H&M store in Ukraine to open in Dream Town shopping mall on June 1. The Swedish Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) company, the owner of Europe’s second largest clothing store chain, plans to open its fourth and largest retail outlet in Ukraine on June 11, the press service of the shopping center said last week.
Ukrzaliznytsia has relaunched passenger transportation between regions. The Ukrainian state railway launched the first passenger train from the Kyiv-Passenger station after quarantine in the Kyiv-Kostiantynivka direction at 6:12 a.m. on Monday, June 1, Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy said on his Telegram channel on Monday morning. According to the report, more than 40 long-distance trains and 214 suburban trains are launched from June 1.
Operational banks in Ukraine posted $938 million in profit in the January-April period this year, which was 39% more than in the same period of the previous year. The banks’ revenue for this period increased by 16.8%, to $3.3 billion, while expenses grew by 9.9%, toUS$2.4 billion, the National Bank of Ukraine said in a statement on its website.
DTEK Renewables saw its net profit rise by 119% and its EBITDA by 111% in 2019, Interfax reports. The renewable section of Rinat Akhmetov’s energy giant increased its net profit by 119% last year compared with 2018, to 2.85 billion hryvnia, while the company’s EBITDA increased by 111%, to 3.88 billion hryvnia. According to the company’s audited consolidated financial statements for 2019, investments in the development of green energy increased by 113% compared to 2018, amounting to 8.9 billion hryvnia.
Citroёn car dealer network in Ukraine expands to 20 centers, opening new ones in Kherson, Kyiv. Since the beginning of 2020, the dealer network of automobile brand Citroёn in Ukraine has increased to 20 centers with the opening of two new centers, namely, the first dealer center of the brand in Kherson in May and another center in Kyiv in April, the press service of Peugeot Citroёn Ukraine has said. In addition, two more updated car centers in Zaporizhia and Vinnytsia were opened in January.
A new system of speed cameras was switched on along some lengths of highway in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Monday June 1. The Interior Ministry said that 262 speeding vehicles were captured on camera in the first eight minutes of operation and the drivers would be fined. The equipment is installed in Kyiv and on some Kyiv region highways, UNIAN reported, exclusively in places where the rate of traffic accidents with serious consequences is the highest.
