Editor’s Note: This feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies. The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse still rots on the Kremlin’s Red Square, more than 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Ukraine’s Friend of the Week: Angela Merkel, German chancellor
The coronavirus pandemic severely struck the already fragile economy of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s authorities had no other choice than close schools, businesses, restaurants, and shops not essential to fighting the disease. The lockdown made the global crisis worse and the country is heading for an economic downfall.
Ukrainian industry has already lost over $178 million in the first week of the shutdown. This is only the beginning, as the quarantine is due to last until April 24.
Instead of 3.7% GDP growth this year, as previously estimated, the government is now forecasting a 3.9% decline, but if the quarantine was to last for longer than three months, Ukrainian GDP could shrink by as much as 9%, economists warned.
Over half a million Ukrainians already lost their jobs, and 60% of them suffer from financial losses.
In this context, any financial help is welcome, and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, understood. During a March 31 phone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, she agreed on a 150 million euro loan from Germany to help Ukraine in its fight against COVID-19.
The two officials also spoke about the need to provide additional funding to Ukraine from the European Union and the World Bank, as well as deeper cooperation to fight the spread of the pandemic.
“It was agreed to work out the possibility of establishing information exchange related to the pandemic, in particular regarding medical standards introduced to treat the disease,” the Ukrainian government stated.
The funds, dedicated to healthcare and social support payments, are allocated under a German state loan program, separate from 40 million euros from the European Investment Bank, and 80 million euros from the European Commission that have already been pledged.
For helping Ukraine with that loan, Angela Merkel is Ukraine’s friend of the week and deserves the Order of Yaroslav the Wise.
Ukraine’s Foe of the Week: Evgeny Rukavyshnykov, so-called “minister of fuel and energy” of Russian-annexed Crimea
While Ukraine is busy battling the coronavirus pandemic, in Russian-annexed Crimea, the puppet authorities installed by the Kremlin continue to steal the country’s maritime gas resources.
Russian crews under the protection of its navy ships were caught red-handed extracting gas from the Odesa shelf section of the Black Sea coast of Ukraine, the Ukrainian border guard service regularly reported last week.
On March 26 and March 31, a group of boats of the Maritime Border Guard of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine inspected areas of Ukraine’s gas condensate fields and spotted two drilling rigs flying the Russian flag.
A patrolling missile cruiser of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is protecting the rigs’ extraction of gas from Ukraine’s the exclusive marine economic zone.
“There are signs of continued industrial activity,” the press service of the SBGU said.
The Russian side warned Ukrainian vessels against approaching closer than one nautical mile to the drilling rigs and said they were “guarding the economic activities of Russia.”
The two rigs, which used to belong to Ukraine, were seized by Russia along with two other platforms in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea and renamed ‘Crimea-1’ and ‘Tavrida.’
The company involved in the illegal drilling belongs to the so-called “Ministry of Fuel and Energy of Crimea” headed by our foe of the week, Evgeny Rukavyshnykov. He has occupied his current role since December 2019, dubbed a “specialist from Moscow,” according to the words of Sergey Aksyonov, Vladimir Putin’s man in Crimea.
The gas company, called “Chernomorneftegaz” (“Black Sea oil and gas”) is behind the illegal extraction. Despite legally being a subsidiary of Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz, its assets were seized by the de-facto Russian authorities and the illegitimate parliament they put in place in 2014, during Crimea’s annexation.
After attacking Ukraine’s sovereignty by illegally annexing Crimea in 2014, and waging an ongoing war in eastern Ukraine, this is yet another example of Russia’s efforts to deprive the country of much-needed resources in a time of crisis.
