April 20, 2022 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 20.04.2022, 19:51

Embassy. Romania’s embassy in
Kyiv will reopen soon, Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu has announced. Activity
will be resumed after the technical and security preparations have been
completed. According to a press release, the Speaker of the Romanian Chamber of
Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, will travel to Kyiv on April 27 and will visit the
areas affected by war. Senate Speaker Florin Citu will also travel to Kyiv, at
an unspecified date, to visit the war-torn areas and discuss with Ukrainian
officials the country’s post-conflict reconstruction plans. In another move,
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis had a phone conversation with his Bulgarian
counterpart, Rumen Radev, about the worrying situation in Ukraine and the Black
Sea. Romania and Bulgaria will coordinate their efforts to provide Ukraine and
its citizens with a substantial humanitarian aid, Iohannis wrote on Twitter.

Consultation. The Western countries will continue to support Ukraine with money and
weapons, NATO, EU and G7 leaders said on Tuesday during a video-conference held
at the initiative of US president Joe Biden. The world leaders condemned the
crimes committed by the Russian army in the Ukrainian cities and agreed to
impose new sanctions on Russia. President Klaus Iohannis stressed at the
meeting the importance of EU and NATO unity and firmly condemned the crimes
against civilians committed by the Russian troops. He once again emphasized the need to create
the NATO battle group on Romania’s territory as soon as possible.

Ukraine. Currently,
the hardest fighting in Ukraine is reported
in the east, in the so-called battle for the Donbas. In the port city of
Mariupol in the southeast, which has been almost completely destroyed, the
situation remains extremely serious. Here, the soldiers besieged in the
Azovstal factory are making desperate calls to be rescued and taken to the
territory of a third country. The conquest of Mariupol is important for Moscow,
as it provides the link between the annexed Crimea and the separatist regions in
Donbas. Ukraine has reached an agreement with Russia on the creation of a
humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from the city, the first in five
days. Children, women and the elderly could be evacuated through the
humanitarian corridor, and the established route is the city of Zaporozhye. UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has denounced Russia’s offensive in eastern
Ukraine and called on the parties to end fighting for a four-day humanitarian
break on Orthodox Easter. On Wednesday, the West sent a message of support for
Ukraine during a visit to Kyiv by European Council President Charles Michel. History
will not forget war crimes in Ukraine, he said. More than five million
Ukrainians have fled the country since the start of the Russian, according to
new figures released by the United Nations on Wednesday. In another move, also on
Wednesday, the Russian and Belarusian players, including Daniil Medvedev, were
banned from the 2022 edition of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, in response to
the attack on Ukraine, the organizers of the competition announced.

Refugees. Over 750,000 people
entered Romania since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the Romanian Border
Police announced on Wednesday. On Tuesday, in 24 hours, some 88,586 people
entered the country, of whom 7,384 Ukrainian citizens, by 11% more than on the
previous day. The number of staff at the Romanian border checkpoints has been
supplemented.

Veterans Day. The Romanian Ministry of Defense is organizing in Bucharest and in all the major garrisons in the country events dedicated to the War Veterans Day, marked on April 29. The representative orchestra of the Ministry of National Defense and the Tronos choir of the Romanian Patriarchy have prepared dedicated performances in Cluj-Napoca (northwest) and in the capital. The campaign titled Thanks to War Veterans will culminate on April 29 with military wreath-laying ceremonies and other events, held both in the country and abroad, to pay homage to Romanian soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the second world conflagration.

Government. The Romanian
Government is to approve, on Thursday, the establishment of a state aid scheme
to support the activity of breeders in the cattle, pig and poultry sectors, in
the context of the economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The
draft emergency ordinance regulates the species, the beneficiaries, the
eligibility criteria, the supporting documents, the duration of the scheme and
the amount of state aid, as well as the rules of implementation. Among other
things, the Executive will make amendments to the law on preventing and
combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

Homage. Romanian MPs on Wednesday
a held a minute’s silence in memory of pianist Radu Lupu, one of the most
important personalities of Romanian culture, who died on Sunday in Switzerland,
aged 76. Radu Lupu held concerts on the most prestigious stages of the world,
accompanied by great orchestras, won a Grammy in 1995 for an album of two
Schubert piano sonatas and an Edison Award a year later for a disc of three
major piano works by Schumann. The Romanian Culture Ministry also expressed sorrow
over the passing of the great Romanian pianist. (MI)