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With its decision, the EU Council established a ban on any transactions with certain state-owned enterprises of the Russian Federation, to prohibit the provision of any credit rating services and close access by any Russian physical or legal entities to any subscription services related to credit rating activities. The EU will also expand the list of people linked to Russia’s military-industrial base who are subject to stricter EU export restrictions on dual-use goods and goods and technologies that could help

On Tuesday, the Russian occupiers failed to fulfill their commitments and did not stop shelling in the Kyiv region, thus disrupting the work in the region’s humanitarian corridors, said President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Today, the humanitarian corridors have partially opened. The corridor from Sumy, Trostyanets, Lebedin, Shostka, and Konotop in Poltava works. The occupants have not stopped shelling and disrupted the work in the Kyiv region’s humanitarian corridors,” Zelensky said in a video message on Tuesday. He noted that a convoy

 “The International Monetary Fund has assured Ukraine of its support and continues to work closely with the government to help our country in all possible ways,” said the Ukraine Ministry of Finance. All discussions were conducted remotely with the participation of staff from Washington. In particular, the parties are exploring options for further financial support, including under the current stand-by cooperation program worth $2.2B. In addition, the Government of Ukraine has requested additional emergency financing from the IMF, the statement

A Russian man burns his passport during a protest in Sydney [Steven Saphore/AFP] Ukrainian and Russian communities in Australia have come together in outcry since Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine. Protests have taken place across Australia, gathering crowds of Ukrainians and supporters. As Russian forces close in on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, many in Australia feel helpless in the face of a military offensive so significant that leaders are warning of “ramifications well beyond Europe”. Two of the women behind

 Due to the threat of escalation from Russia, Ukraine is losing between $2B to 3B a month resulting from the cessation of investment and additional inflation, reported rbc.ua. “We see irreversible losses due to suspended investments, additional inflation, losses in the tourism sector, a reduction in air traffic, and some other factors,” said Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, Rostislav Shurma. In addition, he noted, there is still speculative pressure on financial markets, which blocks borrowing and pushes the exchange

Deputy Head of the President’s Office Yulia Svyrydenko says: “We expect that a full-fledged economic recovery will take place during this and subsequent years. This year we forecast the growth [of GDP] at the level of 3.8%.” She noted a recovery in private consumption and external demand. The Ministry of Economy has confirmed its growth forecast for 2021 at 4.1%, while the National Bank expects the GDP growth at 3.8%.

Ukraine’s Health Ministry has reportsed. In this strictest form of quarantine are: Kyiv City and 10 regions — Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zhytomyr and Zakarpattia.

More movies, better food, and chatbots oriented toward business customers are in the works for Ukrzaliznytsia this year, Alexander Pertsovsky, director of the state railroad’s ‘Passenger Company,’ told Hromadske Radio Friday. Expanding pilot projects, the railroad plans to expand to all long distance trains, the sale of lunch boxes, business lunches, children’s menu and, in partnership with Sweet TV, onling access to 280 films and cartoons with Ukrainian voice overs.

A Viber and Telegram chatbot for buying tickets that UZ launched in January with Visa and Middleware Inc. is to be expanded to handle group sales and “the B2B segment,” said Pertsovsky. UZ is working on a wait list feature for tickets on sold out trains. To promote sales, UZ may pay conductors sales commissions.

UZ will buy 100 new passenger sleeper cars for an expected price of $109 million, according a tender posted last week on Prozorro, the online procurement platform. The tender closes March 30 and the cars are to be delivered by year end. UZ carries about 40% of Ukraine’s long distance passenger traffic.

To boost Black Sea tourism, almost 500 km of bicycle paths are to be built in Odesa and neighboring Mykolaiv regions. In Odesa, two paths totaling 420 km will run on two routes south of the city, Ukravtodor reports on Facebook. One 90km-circuit will connect the resort town of Chornomorsk, Hrybivka and Ovidiopol. A second 250-km ‘Big Bike’ route will run south past Zatoka, Shabo, to 16 and T-16-25 roads and will provide bicycle connections with Zatoka, Shabo, Serhiyivka and

Georgia reopens to foreign tourists today, after almost one year of quarantine. To enter Georgia, Ukrainians need to do two PCR tests – one within 72 hours of takeoff and a second 72 hours after arrival. In response, Ukraine’s SkyUp Airlines launches flights this week from Kyiv Borsypil, Zaporozhia, Lviv, Odesa and Kharkiv to Tbilisi and Batumi. On Friday, Ukraine’s Health Ministry ranked Georgia as ‘Green’ is its coronavirus listing.

Rivals Wizz Air and Ryanair are gambling that Italy will open up for Ukrainian tourism at the end of this month. Starting March 28, Ryanair starts service from Lviv to Bari, Naples, Palermo, Pisa, Treviso and Turin. Wizz Air starts flights from Lviv to Catania and Verona. From Odesa, Wizz Air starts flights to Bologna, Milan-Malpensa and Treviso. From Kyiv Sikorsky, Wizz Air starts service to Bologna, Catania, Milan-Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino. Lumiwings, a new Greek charter airline, plans to

Bees Airline, a new Ukrainian lowcost startup, plans to start flying this month from Kyiv Sikorsky to Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Marsa Alam and in April to Mombasa, Kenya. The airline has leased two Boeing 737-800s that were used for nine years by UIA. Because of the pandemic, Bees reportedly was able to lease each Boeing for $10,000 a day – a 30% discount over pre-pandemic rates.

Bell Textron’s ‘Huey’ helicopters, the US military’s workhorse in the Vietnam War, will be assembled in coming months at Ukroboronprom’s Odesa Aviation Plant under license from the Fort Worth, Texas company. Formally called the Bell UH-1 Iroquois, the first helicopter should be started in time for Ukraine’s 30th Independence Day, Aug. 24, Yuriy Gusev, CEO of Ukraine’s defense conglomerate, said Friday after a visit to the plant. Most of the 16,000 Hueys made since 1952 have been manufactured in Texas

US investments in Ukraine are expected by the end of this year in a series of areas, Oksana Markarova, said in a lengthy interview with Ukrinform made prior to her traveling to Washington to take up her new post Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States. “We are already discussing a number of projects in the defense sector, energy, mining, agriculture, where I hope we will be able to show progress during the first six to twelve months,” she said. “Above

A five-year veteran of Ukraine’s Finance Ministry, Markarova dampened hopes that her main job is to get Ukraine’s IMF program back on track. She said: “Most of the central bodies of financial organizations are located in Washington, and I have a huge successful experience of working with them and a wide base of personal contacts at all levels, including managerial one, but working with the IMF is far from the main task of the ambassador to Washington.”

Ukraine will receive only one IMF tranche this year, predicts Fitch Ratings. Predicting that Ukraine will get less than one quarter of the $2.9 available under the June 2020 Standby Arrangement, the New York-based credit rating agency writes: “Fitch envisions one IMF disbursement of $0.7 billion for 2021, $1.5 billion of other official funding, a higher Eurobond issue than the planned $1.4 billion, and a 0.2% GDP cut in budget reserves.”

Financial needs in the second half of this year will pressure the government to adopt the anti-corruption and free market reforms demanded by the IMF, Fitch predicted. Foreign debt repayments spike in September, to $2.2 billion, and government budget needs increase in the fall.

As Ukrainians gain confidence in money transfer systems, the amount of money transferred inside the country grew by 24% yoy in 2020, to the equivalent of $9.5 billion, reports the National Bank of Ukraine. It was the fourth consecutive year of growth over 20%.