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The state-owned, ‘Bolshevik’ machine building plant will go up for auction in October with a starting price of $52 million , Dmitry Sennychenko, head of the State Property Fund, writes on Facebook. Given its location on Kyiv’s Peremohy Avenue and next to Shuliavska Metro station, the 35-hectare site is could attract as much as $500 million in real estate investment.

• #BolshevikforSale
• #BolshevikKyiv
• #Bolshevikprivatization

Conditions include paying $19 million in debts and back wages and investing $2 million in “preservation of basic activities.” ” Founded 140 years ago, the most modern machinery dates from 1983. With 315 employees, the state company only generated $3 million in revenue last year. KPMG Ukraine is the privatization advisor.

• #Bolshevikforauction
• #BolshevikforSale

As part of a drive to privatize all state bakeries, the Radyvyliv Bakery in Rivne region will be auctioned off Aug. 30, the State Property Fund reports on Facebook.  The starting price is $5.3 million for a complex that includes 414 hectares and 65,000 square meters of grain warehouses, shops, elevators, workshops and baking ovens.

• #AuctionUkraine
• #BakeriesforAuction
• #PrivatizationUkraine

Complaints to the Business Ombudsman are up 38% yoy in April-June to 531 , the Ombudsman Council reports. Of the complaints, 65% were over tax issues. During the second quarter, the Council completed the investigation of 287 business complaints, succeeding in saving businesses a total of $3.4 million.

• #OmbudsmanCouncil
• #OmbudsmanCouncilUkraine

Citibank (Kyiv) increased its profit in hryvnia by 14% during the first half of this year, compared to January-June of last year, according to its filing to the National Securities and Stock Market Commission. Contributing to the UAH 769 million [$28.6 million] profit was $4.3 million in profits on foreign exchange transactions and a nearly 5-fold increase – to $4.2 million — in profits in transactions with financial instruments recorded at fair value.

• #CityBank
• #CItyBankProfitsinUkraine
• #CItyBankUkraine

Banks have issued $2 billion worth of loans to 20,000 businesses in the first 18 months of the ‘Affordable Loans 5-7-9%’ program, Prime Minister Shmygal writes on Facebook. Loans up to $112,000 are extended to businesses with revenues under $3.7 million.

• #LoansforBusinessesinUkraine
• #Ukraine579loans
• #UkraineBanks

About 10 foreign gambling companies have applied for licenses to operate in Ukraine , Ukrinform reports, citing Boris Baum, first deputy chairman of the advisory council of the Gambling and Lotteries Regulation Commission. He said: “The market has intensified, and local licensees continue to apply for licenses.”

• #GamblelicensesinUkraine
• #GamblingLicensesUkraine
• #gamblingukraine

President Zelenskiy signed a law last week allowing the National Bank of Ukraine to issue a digital currency , the e-hryvnia. The central bank “will also be able to set up a regulatory sandbox to test new services, technologies and tools in the payments sector,” reports Bitcoin.com. “The platform will allow the financial regulator to closely interact with startups from the industry and better understand their needs.”

• #DigitalCurrencyUkraine
• #digitalukraine
• #ZelenskiyAllowesDigitalCurrency

Russia’s gas exports to the EU during the first half of this year were the same as January-June 2020 – 67 billion cubic meters. But over the same time, Gazprom’s exports to China, Finland and Turkey have tripled – to 33 bcm, reports Ukrinform, citing data from the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine. Halfway through the summer, two major storage fields in Austria and Germany are only 11-13% full.

• #GasexporttoEU
• #RussiaGasExport
• #RussianGasforEU

“The gas shortage in Europe's underground storage facilities is largely artificial,” the pipeline operator tells Ukraine’s state news agency. Analysts say Gazrpom is driving up EU prices to justify opening Nord Stream 2 this fall.

• #GasdemandinEU
• #GasshortageEU
• #NordStream2opening
• #RussiaSabotagesEU

The US House of Representatives approved an appropriations bill last week that mandates sanctions against Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline , Ukraine’s Embassy in Washington posts on Facebook. The bill allocates $481.5 million in aid to Ukraine, a 6% increase over last year. The Senate is seen as hostile to the Russia-Germany Baltic Sea gas line.

• #nordstream2
• #NordStream2sanctions
• #usagainstnordstream2

Promising to start drone deliveries of packages next year, Nova Poshta tested sending a Discovery drone with a parcel from Chaika airfield, outside of Kyiv, to Korotych airfield, outside of Kharkiv. The drone successfully made the 480 km flight in five hours. Next month, the private delivery company plans to send a 250 kg parcel from Kyiv to Lviv. Flying at 300 meters, “this type of transportation is absolutely safe,” asserts Nova Poshta CEO Alexander Bulba. “In the sky, the UAV behaves like a real plane and can recognize

• #novaposhta
• #NovaPoshtaDrones
• #NovaPoshtaUkraine

As many as 100,000 bicycles stolen in Germany every year are sold in Ukraine, reads a Deutsche Welle article headlined: “How Germany’s stolen bikes end up in Ukraine.” Last year, more than 260,000 bicycles were stolen in Germany with a total value of almost €200 million. Many are broken down into parts and sent East via marshrutkas, or minbuses. One insider tells DW “the Ukrainian market is now so saturated with stolen bikes, especially e-bikes, that they are being sent on to Russia, and further on to Kazakhstan.”

• #bicyclesfromGermany
• #StolenBicyclessoldinUkraine

With Kyiv traffic worsening, the government has approved spending $19 million to complete the New Darnytskyi Bridge by the end of this year.  A decade ago, work stopped on this road and rail bridge across the Dnipro. Now exit ramps and entrance ramps will be built on the Left Bank, giving cars smooth access to the Dnipro Embankment.

• #BigConstructionUkraine
• #DarnytskyiBridge
• #DarnytskyiBridgeConstruction

Starting next Sunday, UIA starts flying twice a week between Kyiv Boryspil and Nice.  SkyUp follows suit on the same route on Aug. 19. In addition, on Aug. 20, SkyUp starts flying three times a week between Kyiv Boryspil and Paris Beauvais. To enter France, foreigners need a vaccination approve by the European Medicines Agency or a negative PCR Covid test taken 72 hours before flight. With borders opening up, SkyUp plans to expand its fleet from 12 Boeings to 14 by September. AirBaltic plans to increase the frequency of its flights next week

• #AirBalticflights
• #SkyUpflights
• #UIAflights

Starting Thursday, all foreigners and un-vaccinated Ukrainians entering Ukraine will have to enroll on arrival in the bilingual English-Ukrainian Vdoma app . Within three days, they have to take a Covid test, If negative, they are disconnected from Vdoma. If positive, they must undergo 10 days of self-isolation.

• #ArrivinginUkraine
• #EntrytoUkraine
• #EntrytoUkraine2021
• #VdomaAPP

Editor’s Note :  Would NATO go to war over Snake Island? Russia may gamble no. That is one subtext in an essay for The Hill by Harlan Ullman: “Is Ukraine Putin’s Taiwan?” In 2009, the International Court of Justice adjudicated this Danube delta island as Ukrainian, with most of nearby waters as Romanian. Occupied by Romania from 1941-1944, Snake Island was the scene of several Soviet Navy probes and clashes during World War II. Today, by seizing Snake Island, Russia could create a

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