Contents
The Reporter's Notepad: Election day in the United States has most Ukraine-related news on hold.
Just The Facts: Ukrainian troops report first clash with North Korean forces in the Kursk region of Russia, Economy Ministry says women started 59% of all new businesses in Ukraine this year, and the Culture Ministry says 500,000 items have been evacuated from museums since the full-scale invasion of 2022.
Here's What They Think: Ukraine's healthcare system could serve as a model of resilience for other countries, as it's still functioning well despite a global pandemic followed by the full-scale Russian invasion and non-stop war since, the country's health minister and others wrote in Devex.
Sober Second Thought: While the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 contributed to the erosion of international arms control treaties, violations have provoked diplomatic responses and attracted international attention in an encouraging sign, according to a 32-page paper by researchers from the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).
The Rebuilder's Social: Dentons outlines measures taken to help Ukraine sustain the massive attacks on its energy grid, UkraineInvest announces a new industrial park in the Mykolaiv region and USAID Economic Resilience Activity (ERA) in Ukraine calls a tender for the design, manufacture, and installation of dynamic scales for rail tracks.
First clash between Ukrainians and North Koreans opens 'new page of instability,' Zelensky says
A reported brief clash between North Korean soldiers and Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region of Russia has opened a "page of instability" that must be met with firm action from Ukraine's allies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation.
"The first battles with North Korean soldiers open a new page of instability in the world," Zelensky said. "Together with the world, we must do everything to make this Russian step to expand the war – to really escalate it – to make this step a failure. Both for them, and for North Korea. I thank all those who are helping."
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told South Korean broadcast news channel KBS in an interview on Tuesday that a "small-scale clash" had taken place between North Korean and Ukrainian troops within Kursk, the area of Russia that Ukrainian forces invaded in August.
Some 10,000 North Korean soldiers are in Russia, training in drone warfare and other practices typical of the fighting in Ukraine, the US has said, based on intelligence reports.
Women started 59% of all new businesses in Ukraine so far this year, received 61% of startup micro-grants
Women have been responsible for opening 59% of all new businesses in Ukraine so far this year, an increase from 56% last year, said Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
At the same time, women received 61% of all grants under the government's Vlasna Sprava (Own Business) micro-grant program, which offers up to UAH 250,000 ($6,000) to people who start businesses, even though women accounted for only 48% of grant applicants, she said.
“We see a trend that more and more women and girls are starting their own businesses and learning new professions where men used to be statistically predominant," Svyrydenko said in a communique. "Today, the capacity of women and businesses run by women is an important component of our economic sustainability."
Even though most of the 6 million refugees who fled Ukraine in 2022 were women, the importance of women to Ukraine's economy has jumped since the full-scale Russian invasion amid the mass mobilization of men to fight the Russian invasio. Women are now training as truck drivers, heavy equipment operators and in other areas typically dominated by men, and a recent study showed most lawyers, even in senior positions, are now women.
Speaking at the Ukrainian Women's Congress on Nov 5, Svyrydenko also said her government aims to lower the wage gap between men and women to 13.6% by 2030 from the level of 18.6% measured by the State Statistics Service in 2021, mainly through changes to legislation, encouraging business creation, and job training for women.
"Unfortunately, Ukraine still lives by the Labor Code of 1971, which contains discriminatory norms," she said. "For example, women who have children under the age of three cannot go on business trips, there is no way to officially work remotely or at home. In the new labor code, we removed all these outdated norms."
She said the government is also carrying out a national campaign against gender stereotypes, titled "Of Course You Can," with support of the UN Women and the government of Sweden.
Ukrtelecom reports surge in fiber optic connections for high-speed internet since Russia's 2022 invasion
Ukrainian telecoms firm Ukrtelecom said the percentage of its internet customer base using fiber optic infrastructure for high-speed connections has doubled since the Russian invasion of February 2022.
Some 68% of its internet customers are now on fiber optic cable connections, compared with 34% at the time of the full-scale invasion, the company said. It now has 360,000 internet customers, including 1,306 medical and 1,763 educational institutions.
"This architecture and technology is one of the strategic directions of the company's development to ensure sustainable and high-quality provision of telecommunication services," it said in a press release.
"Already this year, about 5,500 km of optics have already been laid throughout the territory of Ukraine. In general, Ukrtelecom's optical network now reaches about 90,000 km."
The company said the growth of its fiber optic client base has resulted in a 17.5% increase in income from fiber optic services in the first nine months of this year compared with the same period last year.
120 museums have been damaged or destroyed since the 2022 Russian invasion, Culture Ministry says
At least 105 museums in Ukraine have suffered damage and 15 have been completely destroyed since the full-scale Russian invasion of February 2022, the Ministry of Culture said.
Officials have also evacuated exhibits and other museum pieces from 54 institutions, the ministry told the Ukrinform news agency. So far, about 500,000 items have been moved from museums.
A total of 90 museums remain in the Russian-held areas of Ukraine, including 31 in Crimea, according to the ministry.
Devex: Ukraine's health sector serves as model of resilience through war and a global pandemic, health minister writes
Ukraine's healthcare system could serve as a model of resilience for other countries, as it's still functioning well despite a global pandemic followed by the full-scale Russian invasion of February 2022 and non-stop war since, the country's health minister and others wrote.
"You might expect that health care in a country faced with such adversity would be crumbling," Health Minister Viktor Liashko wrote in an opinion piece for Devex, an online site for global development professionals.
"But the reality may surprise you: Ukraine’s health system has proved extraordinarily resilient. Medicines in vast parts of the country are easier to access and afford. People continue to be able to get tested for HIV and receive preventive treatment. And despite the challenges, the government of Ukraine, GOU, continues to take steps toward its long-term goal of a European-integrated health system."
The article, co-written with Maryna Slobodnichenko, Ukraine’s deputy minister of health for European integration, and Marian W. Wentworth, CEO of Management Sciences for Health, argues that the resilience is, in part, the result of years of work to transform Ukraine's health sector supply chain with private sector help.
This help, the article states, left Ukraine "able to pivot to address the acute shortages of medicines and set up its own humanitarian medical supply chain that distributes massive volumes of donated medicines and medical supplies across the country."
The article also credited government programs to keep medicine affordable, as well as long-term planning despite the ongoing war.
Kyiv Independent: Editorial: When casting your vote in the US, think about Ukraine
The English-language Kyiv Independent newspaper called on US readers to "think about Ukraine and factor it in when making your choice" in the Nov 5 US presidential election.
"We aren’t just asking this as a Ukrainian team that has a personal stake in the war," the newspaper said, speaking for its staff. "We are asking this because it is our responsibility, as the people who are close enough to the fight to understand what’s at stake, to give the rest of the world the warning it deserves to hear."
The editorial called for greater US support for Ukraine, no matter the outcome of the US presidential election, stating that the security of the world may depend on it.
"The lessons of World War II tell us that a bigger global standoff, perhaps World War III, can best be avoided not by appeasing dictators for fear of a larger conflict but by stopping them before the war escalates into a global one," the newspaper wrote. "Providing more weaponry to Ukraine to help it decisively defeat Russia is the best chance to prevent such much-feared escalation."
PRIO study of 13 arms control treaties says Russian invasion of Ukraine heightened strain, but adherence 'remains largely intact'
While the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 contributed to the erosion of international arms control treaties, violations have provoked diplomatic responses and attracted international attention in an encouraging sign, according to a 32-page paper by researchers from the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).
The reaction may serve to "refocus international attention on the importance of arms control and disarmament," according to the paper, prepared by researcher Pavel Baev, a research professor and Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institutions, along with researchers David Felipe Gomez Triana and Nicholas Marsh.
The paper examines 13 treaties, including the Arms Trade Treaty, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Convention on Cluster Munitions, the Mine Ban Convention, the Open Skies Treaty and others, and finds that some, such as the New START treaty limiting nuclear weapons held by the US and Russia, have broken down, while Russia has reduced compliance with others.
"Even when Russia, Ukraine or other states have not been parties to a treaty, their actions have undermined the normative authority of arms control or disarmament agreements, for example the convention banning the use of cluster munitions," the paper says, adding that "the verification of existing treaties has been undermined or sidelined, such as due to the US and Russian withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty."
However, it concludes that "despite these setbacks, adherence to international norms and treaties remains largely intact."
"A positive aspect of events since 2022 is that many governments and civil society organizations have reaffirmed their commitment to specific treaties and to arms control in general," the paper states. "While the framework of arms control treaties that was set up over decades is under strain, arms control remains a central foundation of international security. It needs to be upheld and strengthened, but arms control does not yet need to be recreated."
Global law firm Dentons outlines measures taken, by Ukraine and its allies, to help the country sustain the massive attacks on its energy grid, including infrastructure rehabilitation, the National Renewable Energy Action Plan 2030, pilot auctions for renewable projects, and more.
UkraineInvest, the government investment promotion agency, announced the creation of the Voznesensk industrial park in the Mykolaiv region, bringing the number of industrial parks, mostly empty, to 97. Founder KULAT LLC plans to invest about UAH 56 million of its own funds to build the infrastructure of the new park.
USAID Economic Resilience Activity (ERA) in Ukraine invites local vendors to participate in a tender for the design, manufacture, and installation of dynamic scales for rail tracks, with a deadline for Nov 28.
