Polish and Ukrainian officials discuss reconstructing Ukraine in Kyiv

The head of Poland’s Bureau of International Policy Marcin Przydacz met with the Ukrainian President’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak to discuss the current state and prospects for the reconstruction of Ukraine. The meeting took place in Kyiv yesterday afternoon.

Furthermore, joint efforts on Ukraine’s road to European integration and the participation of Polish entrepreneurs in the rebuilding process were discussed.

Yermak commented afterwards that the meeting was devoted to “a wide range of issues”, including support for Ukraine, European and Euro-Atlantic integration as well as Poland’s participation in the reconstruction of Ukraine. The Polish Minister of European Affairs and the minister-member of the Council of Ministers were also present for the discussions in the Ukrainian capital.

In less positive news, Yermak also announced that in the last 24 hours Russian forces had launched a rocket attack at a school in a Donetsk suburb, killing one local resident. Another person was killed in the Sumy region.

(TVP World / The Guardian)

Most Poles expect the current government to retain power in this year’s elections

Fifty-two percent of Poles believe Poland’s governing Law and Justice party will win the coming national elections, indicated by an opinion poll published in the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper yesterday.

Over 90 percent of the respondents said Law and Justice (PiS) would form the post-election government one way or another, either alone or with a coalition partner.
Twenty-seven percent of those polled indicated that Civic Platform (PO), the main opposition party, would win the election. Just 3 percent said Poland 2050 would gain the largest share of the vote and less than 1 percent named other opposition groupings.

Poland will hold the general election in the autumn of this year. The computer-assisted survey was run on March 3-5 on a random sample of 1,000 adult Poles.

(PAP)

The earthquake-hit Turkish city of Gaziantep will receive humanitarian aid from Pomorskie, with transportation departing this week

One hundred power generators have left the region for the city of Gaziantep – this is the aid that the provincial government voted a month ago to donate to the victims of the earthquake. Official council representatives voted unanimously to allocate 150,000 PLN worth of equipment for the purpose of rebuilding the affected local Turkish communities.

Mieczysław Struk, Marshal of the Pomorskie provincial government office told a press briefing yesterday: “This may be a drop in the ocean of needs, but let this gesture of solidarity be a good example for other organizations, including local governments, maybe business, that people in need must be helped. About one million inhabitants of this over two-million [populated] destination need literally everything”.

On February 6th an earthquake with a magnitude close to 8 on the Richter scale hit the Turkish-Syrian border. More than 50,000 people lost their lives in the cataclysm across both nations, and more than 1.5 million have since lost their homes. The region is still periodically impacted by strong and sudden aftershocks.

The power generators will first travel to Warsaw, from where they will fly as humanitarian aid to Istanbul, and then to Gaziantep with Turkish Airlines. The generators will be delivered to the Turkish city before the start of Ramadan, which this year is next Wednesday, the 22nd March.

(Radio Gdańsk / Pomorskie.eu)

The weather

Today’s temperatures will be milder than yesterday with high cloud cover and some sunshine; rain showers not expected until the evening. Only a moderate breeze is due during the day coming in from the south. Daytime temperatures will see a high of 13°C or 55°F, with expected lows of 1°C or 34°F overnight. Tomorrow’s weather will be cooler than today, similarly overcast with some periods of sun forcing its way through and temperatures just below freezing overnight.

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