Editor’s Note: In Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin meets his ‘starshyy’ – his senior. Biden was elected to the US Senate in the fall of 1972, when 20-year-old Putin was a second-year law student at Leningrad State University. For the next half century, Biden went on to watch Russia and to deal with the Kremlin — either on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee or as Vice President. This spring, Putin is using his old playbook – testing a new US President early in his term. But Putin is used to dealing with neophyte US presidents with limited Washington experience: George W. Bush was governor of Texas; Barrack Obama served only half a US senate term. Donald Trump was a businessman/entertainer. Biden comes in knowing more than where the wash rooms are in the White House. He knows Washington’s levers of power — and how to use them. Only 75 days after his inauguration, 3 million Americans are being vaccinated every day – 10 times the rate of Russia. In Ukraine, Putin is again playing brinkmanship. But the new US president and his team who know how to play the game. Of all the Russia-Ukraine-US quotes that came out last week, the most telling was to David Ignatius of The Washington Post from ‘a senior Biden official’: “We are not looking to reset our relations with Russia nor to escalate. Our goal is to impose costs for actions we consider unacceptable, while seeking stability, predictability, turning down the temperature…If they’re inclined to turn the temperature up, we’re ready for that.” With Best Regards Jim Brooke

 according to the airline’s new summer schedule. Frequencies increase to Istanbul, Tel Aviv, and London’s two main airports, Heathrow, and Gatwick. Missing are flights to North America. UIA says it is postponing its relaunch of flights to New York and Toronto in the ‘3^rd quarter’ – sometime in the July 1-Sept. 30 period.

delaying access to and from Kyiv Boryspil Airport. The Metro is to run during the 2-week lockdown, but access is limited to about 600,000 people working in ‘critical’ jobs. In addition to health care, these sectors include energy, chemical industry, transport, banking, telecommunications, food, and utilities. Employers are asked to shift to remote work as much as possible.

the analytical group Restaurant of Ukraine reported on Facebook. The number of restaurants, cafes and bars fell by 21%, to 14,786.

 Ukraine’s Lviv region border town with Poland. By the end of this year, this ‘Dry Port’ will allow shippers to switch container between trains on Soviet gauge tracks and trains on EU gauge tracks. Referring to the growth of freight train traffic from China, Lemtrans General Director Vladimir Mezentsev told Interfax-Ukraine: “Such a project can give an impetus to the development of the entire industry of freight rail transportation in Ukraine.”

Talks are ongoing regarding an agreement to build a sixth crossing, at Dyida, and to repair the highway bridge over the Tisza River at the busiest crossing – Chop-Zahony. Last month, at the first meeting of the Ukrainian-Hungarian Joint Commission on Border Traffic Control they discussed: “increasing capacity, reducing queues, modernization of existing and construction of new crossing points, as well as prospects for the introduction of joint border control on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border,” wrote Lyubov Nepop, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Hungary on Facebook.

, the highway agency reported on Facebook.  “Unfortunately, having crossed the borders of our state, it is expected that you meet a pothole,” Ukravtodor wrote. Almost all the work this year is being undertaken in Zakarpattia, repairing road connections to Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. Last year, 150 km of border roads were repaired. By 2023, the plan is to repair 600 km.

, wrote Lesia Dubenko an Pavlo Kravchuk in a recent Atlantic Council piece of the Kyiv-based think tank Europe Without Barriers. “Kyiv must deliver on its promises and complete the renovation and construction of checkpoints funded by both the EU and Poland,” they wrote. In turn, the EU should compromise on several Schengen rules to allow Slovakia-Ukraine and Hungary-Ukraine joint border crossings. Increasingly important to the economies of the EU and Ukraine, Ukraine-EU land border registered a total of 32 million crossings in 2019.

, the government portal has reported. Much of the funds originate from a Polish government loan to Ukraine to build border crossings with Poland. More than half of the loan will be used to buy and install video surveillance equipment, weighing and scanning systems. The Finance Ministry wrote that the goal is “the latest technical equipment, which minimizes the human factor in the inspection, and hence corruption risks.”

 to smooth out foreign exchange fluctuations. As the hryvnia strengthened last week, the bank sold $50 million, reported the National Bank of Ukraine website. Since the start of the year, the hryvnia has appreciated by 2%, achieving the current rate of 27.8 hryvnia/dollar.

Bohdan Danylyshyn, Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine wrote on Facebook. He said: “The key reasons for the low interest of foreign investors in the Ukrainian economy are the weak and underdeveloped domestic market, the ongoing military conflict with the Russian Federation, as well as the low level of legal protection of investments.”

 another meeting in Doha. QTerminals is now on track to fulfill the $140 million investment contract that it signed in August 2020.

Zelenskiy said. To facilitate Qatari participation in Ukraine’s privatization campaign, Ukraine’s State Property Fund of Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Qatar Investment Authority. The Authority has $345 billion of assets under management in diversified markets.

 which are planned for construction by the end of 2022. At the end of the investment cycle, Nebras will become owner of a controlling stake in the plants.

“Ukraine is very interested in supplying liquefied natural gas, as well as working with Qatari specialists in the development of our Black Sea shelf. We have signed a memorandum between our states, and I think we will achieve results in this direction.”

according to a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed yesterday in Doha by Saad bin Sherid Al-Kaabi, Energy Minister and the CEO of Qatar Petroleum, and Yuriy Vitrenko the Acting Energy Minister. Vitrenko said: “Qatar is one of the largest gas producers in the world and has valuable experience and significant financial resources to invest in gas exploration and production in Ukraine.”