WAR IN
\nUKRAINE -
\nPeace talks with Russia risk failing, Ukraine has warned, after Russian troops
\ncontinued to bomb positions on the Donbas frontline. Ukraine’s president,
\nVolodymyr Zelensky, explained the people are furious with the discovery of war
\ncrimes and atrocities committed by the Russian army. Over 1,000 civilians were
\nfound dead after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kyiv oblast, many of
\nwhom appear to have been summarily executed. They add to the thousands of
\ncivilians killed in Russian shelling targeting civilian objectives, including
\nhomes, hospitals, schools and cultural centers. In other news, the Russian
\nMinister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, said peace negotiations continue,
\nalthough with great difficulty. Russia is confronted with considerable
\nchallenges and was forced to regroup and reorganize its exhausted and
\nscattered forces following its failed attempts at advancing in northeastern
\nUkraine, the British Defense Ministry writes. <\/p>\n
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REFUGEES – The number of
\nUkrainian refugees who entered Romania went down on Friday by 2.6% compared to
\nthe previous day, the Border Police Inspectorate announced on Saturday.
\nAccording to an official news release, on April 29, over the course of 24
\nhours, some 96 thousand people entered Romania through all border crossing
\npoints, of whom some 8 thousand were Ukrainian citizens. 4,651 Ukrainians
\nentered Romania through the Ukrainian border and another 1,731 through the
\nMoldovan border. Since the start of the war in neighboring Ukraine, a total of
\n818 thousand Ukrainian citizens entered Romania, most of whom were en route to
\nother Western countries. <\/p>\n
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FERRY CROSSING – A new ferry
\ncrossing checkpoint will be opened on the Giurgiu-Ruse border following an
\nagreement signed by Romania and Bulgaria. According to the document, the ferry
\ncheckpoint will remain open for passengers and vehicles with a maximum
\nauthorized mass of 40 tons, and is expected to become operational starting this
\nautumn. The agreement was signed in Bucharest on Friday, during the visit of
\nBuglarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov. The Bulgarian official met with his
\ncounterpart, Nicolae Ciuc\u0103, as well as with
\npresident Klaus Iohannis. Attending Romanian-Bulgarian talks was also EU
\nCommissioner for Transport, Adina V\u0103lean, who said Brussels is ready to support
\njoint Romanian-Bulgarian projects. The EU official highlighted the importance
\nof the Danube River for river traffic in Europe, saying its potential can be
\nfurther tapped into. Apart from joint transport projects, the two delegations
\nalso tackled the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism and the two countries’
\nSchengen Accession. <\/p>\n
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CYBER ATTACKS – A wave of
\ncyber-attacks hit Romania on Friday and Saturday. The websites of the
\ngovernment, the National Cyber Security Directorate, the Defense Ministry, the
\nBorder Police, the National Rail Company and certain commercial banks were taken
\ndown. The attack was claimed by the pro-Russian hacker network Killnet, in
\nresponse to Romania’s support actions for Ukraine. Killnet hackers this month
\nalso attacked institutions in Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, the United
\nStates, as well as NATO websites. Experts say this was a DDoS attack, which is
\na malicious attempt to flood a network or an online service with HTTP requests,
\nthus rendering them unavailable to their users. <\/p>\n
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ENERGY – Average
\nelectricity prices for household users at EU level went up significantly in the
\nsecond half of 2021, compared to the same period of 2020. Romania was one of
\nthe countries with the highest price hikes in the national currency, the
\nEurostat reports. According to the European Statistics Office, electricity
\nprices went up across the European bloc, with the exception of Slovakia and
\nHungary, where prices were regulated. The highest increase, of nearly 50%, was
\nreported in Estonia and Sweden. Other states that reported major increases in
\nelectricity prices were Cyprus and Latvia, between 30% and 40%. Romania,
\nalongside Ireland, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Belgium, increased electricity
\nprices by as much as 20%. The lowest electricity prices were signaled in
\nHungary, Bulgaria and Croatia, while the highest were in Denmark, Germany and
\nBelgium. Last year, household users in the EU paid more for natural gas as
\nwell, Bulgaria, Greece and Estonia reporting the biggest increases, while
\nnatural gas prices went down only in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Portugal.
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ARMY – Military
\nceremonies are being held across the country, jointly with concerts and
\ncompetitions marking Land Forces Day. In Bucharest, the main event was held at
\nthe headquarters of the Land Forces, where state officials, active and reserve
\nmilitary, foreign diplomats and troops from allied countries attended the
\nmilitary and religious ceremony. Chief of General Staff, General Daniel
\nPetrescu pointed out Romania must remain a pivotal provider of security and
\nstability in the region, both in terms of its defense capabilities, as well as
\nat Euro-Atlantic level. <\/p>\n
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COVID-19 – Under 900 news
\ncases of COVID-19 infection and 8 related deaths were reported on Saturday in
\nRomania. Most were signaled in Bucharest, a little over 200. The number of
\npatients treated in hospitals also dropped to 1,150, of whom 63 are children.
\n200 people are currently in intensive care. <\/p>\n
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MAY DAY – The summer
\nseason official started on Saturday, when hotels and guesthouses opened their
\ndoors to the public. Accommodation units on the Romanian Black Seacoast are
\nbooked at 80% capacity, hotel owners expecting some 30,000 tourists to arrive
\nin order to celebrate May 1, the International Labor Day. Costine\u0219ti and Mamai Nord are hosting music festivals which are expected to
\nbring in a large number of young people. Authorities have deployed additional
\nsecurity forces to ensure public order is observed in crowded areas. (VP)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[35374,36693,36692,31979,36694,29237,36572],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-105881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-covid-19","tag-energy-statistics","tag-ferry-crossing","tag-may-day","tag-military-ceremonies","tag-refugees","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n