The Bank announced the loan backing a $90 million project to streamline and improve Ukraine's health sector response to the pandemic. The project, Ukraine Emergency COVID-19 Response and Vaccination, will provide reimbursement of expenditures to Ukraine’s health service to proceed with about 10 million vaccinations.

Belarus places a priority on investments in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, nanotechnologies and nanomaterials, metallurgy, mechanical engineering industry, production of machines, electrical equipment, home appliances and electronics, transport and related infrastructure, agriculture and food industry, information and communication technologies as well as creation and development of logistics systems and tourism.

A canal dug and brought into service in Soviet times to provide water for irrigation in Crimea – but now blocked and disused – could this be the next flashpoint in the conflict pitting Russia and Ukraine?

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus has walked a tightrope now for nearly 27 years. He’s frequently shrugged off the “last dictator in Europe”, an “autocrat” and other damning epithets.