Volozhin Region
Executive Committee

A 330kV high-voltage power line between the Belarusian nuclear power plant and the town of Stolbtsy has been commissioned as well as new equipment of the power substation Stolbtsy, representatives of the Belarusian national electric and heating company Belenergo told BelTA.

It is the fifth high-voltage power line out of the seven lines, which are supposed to connect the Belarusian nuclear power plant and the rest of the power grid. The two power lines that have yet to be connected are the line between the nuclear power plant and the city of Molodechno and the line between the nuclear power plant and the town of Ross.

The construction of the power lines has been finished. They will be commissioned as and when the primary equipment, protective relays, and automatic emergency response systems of the Belarusian nuclear power plant are ready.

The deployment of a new 330kV switchgear assembly was part of the project to build the power line between the Belarusian nuclear power plant and the power substation Stolbtsy. Besides, the power substation had to be equipped with two shunt reactors.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is being built near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast using a Russian design featuring two VVER-1200 reactors with the total output capacity of 2,400MW. Rosatom's engineering division – ASE Company – is the general contractor. The first unit is supposed to go online in 2020, with the second one scheduled for launch in 2021.

Belarusian banks have earmarked more than Br2.2 million to help healthcare professionals fight against the pandemic, BelTA learned from the Association of Belarusian Banks.

In March-April the banks and organizations that are members of the association allocated funds for healthcare institutions or purchased medical equipment (such as ventilators, patients' warming systems, defibrillators, pulse oximeters), disinfectants and personal protection equipment.

Assistance is provided to healthcare facilities across the country. For example, the banks transferred about Br570,000 to the charity account of the Healthcare Ministry. Belarusbank provides support to dozens of Minsk and district hospitals. Belinvestbank donates 100,000 face masks to 40 medical facilities, BelVEB Bank buys ventilators and helps hospitals in Vitebsk Oblast while VTB Bank (Belarus) supports the Belarusian Red Cross Society. Great assistance is also provided by owners, subsidiaries, trade unions and other public organizations of the banks.

The banks are also running charity events.

«Taking into account the difficult epidemiological situation, being aware of the social responsibility all Belarusian banks and other organizations of the country's financial sector are actively helping our doctors in the fight against coronavirus,» said Anna Kovaleva, acting head of the Association of Belarusian Banks. «We will continue to provide this assistance,» she said.

The international children's festival Golden Bee in Klimovichi, Belarus will not take place in 2020, BelTA learned from the Klimovichi District Executive Committee.

«The festival was scheduled for 29-31 May. However, the situation related to the ongoing spread of the coronavirus infection and restrictive measures imposed on mass gatherings made it impossible,» the executive committee said.

The first Golden Bee festival gathered children from Kostyukovichi, Krichev, and Slavgorod of Belarus and also the Russian city of Shumyachi in Klimovichi in 1996. The event was called Golden Bee, after the symbol of Klimovichi which is an emblem depicting a bee.

In 2001 the festival got an international status after bringing together over 450 young talents from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Latvia. The number of participants reached 1,000 by 2012. Children performed in a number of nominations, including singing, choreography, arts and crafts.

Participation in the festival is free of charge. Many talented children have made their name thanks to the festival. Among them are Belarusian singers Kseniya Sitnik, Andrei Kunets, Anna Mushak and Mikhail Lila.

U.S. President Donald Trump has submitted for the approval of the United States Congress the candidacy of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Europe and the European Union Julie Fisher to the post of the U.S. Ambassador to Belarus, TASS cites the press service of the White House.

The U.S. president announced his intent to nominate Julie Fisher to the position on 20 April. Previously Julie Fisher was Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Mission to NATO, Charge d'Affaires a.i. of the U.S. Embassy in Russia, and worked in the U.S. embassies in Georgia and Ukraine.

Victory Day is the dearest day for my family, Belarus' Culture Minister Yuri Bondar told reporters after the flower ceremony at the Minsk Hero City stele as part of the campaign “Belarus Remembers. We Remember Everyone!”, BelTA has learned.

“The history of my family is inextricably linked to the history of the country. Almost everyone in my family went to the war: both grandfathers, a grandmother who was called up in 1942. Thank God they came back alive, healthy, gave birth to my parents, raised me. Of course, for my family it is the dearest holiday. This is a wonderful tradition on 9 May to pay tribute to those people who achieved peace for us, freedom, the right to self-determination, the right to build a happy, peaceful life. I try to foster this tradition in my children,” Yuri Bondar said.

"The most striking impression of my childhood was the participation in flower ceremonies together with his grandfather, who was a frontline soldier, the minister said. “On this day he would wear his medals. We would lay flowers, meet with other war veterans. In general, these people did not like to talk about the war. Mostly they would remember their comrades, youth. War is, of course, the greatest tragedy, but it is also a school of life, wisdom. They were wise, very patriotic people who valued every minute of peaceful life, who tried to live their lives to the maximum and looked to the future with optimism,” Yuri Bondar said.

Over the past three years, Belarus received $238 million in foreign gratuitous aid, Director of the Department for Humanitarian Activities of the Belarus President Property Management Directorate Igor Kudrevich said at a government meeting hosted by the head of state to discuss the use of foreign gratuitous aid on 30 April, BelTA has learned.

The draft decree on foreign gratuitous aid that was in focus of the meeting comprises all the presidents' instructions to change the procedure for gratuitous aid registration and its exemption from taxes, fees, and duties.

Since the beginning of 2020, Belarus has received $19.8 million, Igor Kudrevich said.

The press service of the Belarusian leader explained that, as a rule, foreign gratuitous aid granted to public associations is used to finance construction, technical equipment, and renovation of social facilities, healthcare facilities, and educational institutions. In particular, donors take interest in social support for the underprivileged, former inmates, refugees, veterans, people with disabilities, and children.

Most donations are poured into organizations based in the city of Minsk and Minsk Oblast. Over 30% of aid is allocated to other regions of the country, primarily to Chernobyl-affected areas, Gomel Oblast and Mogilev Oblast.

Multilateral cooperation on sustainable development of the Belarusian territories affected by the Chernobyl accident was in focus of a meeting in New York, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This topic was discussed at a session of the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Chernobyl that was held in New York via videoconferencing with participation of Permanent Representative of Belarus to the UN Valentin Rybakov. The session was timed to International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day.

The task force coordinates activities of agencies of the UN, other international organizations, and involved countries in international cooperation on Chernobyl. It is chaired by Administrator of the UN Development Program (UNDP) Achim Steiner. The task force brings together more than a dozen international organizations, including the UNDP, IAEA, WHO, UNEP, FAO, and the World Bank. Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine are permanent members of the task force as the countries worst affected by the Chernobyl accident.

The event organized by the UNDP at the initiative of Belarus was aimed at launching the implementation of the UN General Assembly resolution “Persistent legacy of the Chernobyl disaster” that was drawn up by the Belarusian delegation and adopted in December 2019. “The participants took stock of the results of international cooperation on Chernobyl within the UN over the past year and discussed areas of multilateral cooperation in this field in line with the new resolution on Chernobyl,” the press service said.

Valentin Rybakov pointed out the need to ensure sustainable development in the affected Belarusian areas and spoke about measures undertaken by Belarus to ensure their social and economic development. He brought forward Belarus' proposals on advancing international cooperation on Chernobyl and preparing for the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident in 2021.

Belarus' Communications and Information Ministry and the Belarusian postal service Belpochta have launched a variety of postal projects in the run-up to the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, BelTA learned from Belpochta's press service.

The souvenir sheet “75th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War” will be released on 30 April. It is made in a triangle shape, the circulation will be 20,000. 8 May will see the release of the souvenir sheet “The joint issue of Belarus and Russia. 75 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War” (the circulation is also 20,000 pieces). Six special commemorative postmarks have been prepared.

The Belarusian postal service will issue artistic paper sheets “War Letters” featuring numbered lines to make a letter in the form of a triangle.

On 9 May, Belpochta will launch the campaign “Sent a letter to a war veteran” with provides bonuses for sending mail.

Thematic pre-stamped envelopes were released earlier this year.

The two-day international conference “Great Patriotic War in the Fate of the Belarusian People” will open at the Belarusian State University (BSU) on 23 April.

The conference will be held in an online format, BelTA learned from the press service of the BSU.

Over 80 historians from Belarus, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will take part in the forum dedicated to the 75th anniversary of Victory. These are representatives of the Belarusian State University, the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the National Archive of Belarus, the Museum of History of the Great Patriotic War, universities of the CIS countries. Researchers will discuss issues related to the initial period of the war, the occupation regime in Belarus, the strategy of survival and resistance of the population, demographic, social and economic processes and consequences. Sources to learn about the Great Patriotic War at educational institutions as well as traditions and novelties in teaching the history of that period will be discussed as well.

Rector of BSU Andrei Korol and Dean of the Faculty of History of Lomonosov Moscow State University, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lev Belousov will address the participants with a welcoming speech via video link.

The event is organized by BSU and Lomonosov Moscow State University.

More than a hundred educational facilities in Belarus were named after heroes of the Great Patriotic War, head of the main department for educational outreach and youth policy at the Education Ministry Eduard Tomilchik said during a round-table session in BelTA's press center on 21 April.

Naming educational institutions after the Great Patriotic War heroes is one of the ways to immortalize them. All in all, 104 educational facilities were named after people who showed outstanding courage on the battlefield and made an invaluable contribution to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, Eduard Tomilchik said.

In his words, youth patriotic projects and campaigns are an important part of the educational process. Participants of the nationwide project “Love Belarus, Be Proud of Belarus, Discover Belarus” went on excursions and tours to historic sites and cultural destinations as part of heritage tours, they also met with war veterans, the Education Ministry representative informed.

As part of another project, students develop excursion tours to their community, create brochures, catalogs and videos and information stands “My native land” featuring military history sites.