Partners news

Tuesday, July 20

Poland is giving more autonomy to regional labor offices to issue work permits to foreigners, whichh cuts time and red tape, and is digitizing the whole process, said Ivona Michalek, Poland’s deputy Minister of Development, Labor and Technology (Dziennik.pl). She said that: “We want foreigners to be able to come to Poland easily, to start working here, especia...

While tourists are discouraged from visiting Poland during the pandemic, Poland now offers labor migrants free vaccinations at six land border crossings with Ukraine. Over the last five years, the portion of international workers in Poland’s work force had increased from 1...

Polish employers are pressing their government to allow Ukrainians to obtain 3-year work permits. “This is a serious step towards turning our labor migration into emigration,” said Voskoboynyk, recently on Ukraina 24 TV. “This question is not just about our employers, but about the future economic...

“If Poland wants most Ukrainian workers to stay in the country, it must adapt to changing realities, because the struggle for a Ukrainian worker among European countries is just beginning, “ said Anatoliy Zymnin, the PR manager for EWL Group at a recent press conference. In EWL’s May survey of 570 Ukrainians working in Poland, many respondents said they were interested in trying t...

A survey by opendatabot found that 12,840 jobs were offered to Ukrainians by EU employers in June, almost double the 7,667 offered in May . Top recruiting countries were: Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, and Latvia. The most sought after workers were: plumbers, electricians, welders, handymen, packers, seamstresses, chefs, nu...

Deutsche Bahn, the German railway, is also advertising in Ukraine for seven different kinds railway construction specialists . DB is looking for workers with five years of experience in their field, who have a good grasp of German. Earlier this year, the railroad was looking for locomotive driver trainees.

With thousands of Ukrainians working in rural parts of Finland this summer, picking blueberries, cloudberries and strawberries , Finland’s Health Ministry is asking local health units to vaccinate all guest workers against Covid-19.

Today, President Zelenskiy will open the “Ukraine 30. Human Capital Forum, in Kyiv.” Today and tomorrow, speakers will discuss ways to encourage the return of labor migrants and to reduce unemployment. Also on the agenda is how the coronavirus pandemic changed the labor market.

Editor’s Note : “The last one out at the airport, turn out the lights!” we used to joke in Rio in the 1990s, a time when inflation was often several thousand percent a year. Today, in the US, the Brazilian-American c...

Monday, July 19

Yesterday, Ukraine received 2 million doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine from the US government. Due to be distributed to all regions by Wednesday, the US-made vaccines are to be distributed to companies with more than 50 workers and to essential personnel including teachers and police officers. ...

Up to 40% of Ukrainians are now immune to Covid-19, said Oleksiy Danilov, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, on Friday. He referred to a national survey indicating that one third of Ukrainians have had Covid. As of Friday, 4 mi...

In a first step, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi will launch Abu Dhabi-Odesa flights in September. “There are several airlines that were waiting for a new runway to recommence flights,” Semenchenko told reporters. Replacing a runway built in 1961, the new runway can handle medium and long-range air...

In the first week in August, SkyUp airlines will commence flying between Kyiv Boryspil and three cities in Saudi Arabia – Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh. At the same time, Ukraine’s low cost airline will start a weekly flight between Lviv and Dammam.

The night of Thursday to Friday was the hottest night recorded in Kyiv city since recorded keeping started in 1881 . On the night of July 15-16, the temperature did not fall below 24.4 °С (76F). This was 2.4 °С hotter than the previous record, set in 2001.

Editor’s Note: Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu has ordered that President Putin’s new article “On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians” be mandatory study for military-political traini...

Friday, July 16

Marking the first year of the National Reforms Council , Mikheil Saakashvili, the Head, lists in an essay several red-tape cutting changes instigated by the unit:

Mining: “Currently, mining is carried out only on 35% of all explored deposits of industrial significance in Ukraine. The subsoil user’s path to the immediate start of mining is a complex and bureaucratic pro...

Electricity hookups: Ukraine ranks 128th out of 189 countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking in terms of getting connections to electricity networks. A new draft law supported by the Rada on first reading “wil...

Sailors: Sailors had to reconfirm their diplomas by taking examinations, a process that cost each sailor six months salary and engendered a useless recertification industry that extracted $120-150 million a ye...

Yesterday the Rada approved in its first reading, a bill designed to speed up privatizations of state companies. The bill ensures that large privatizations will now undertaken through online auctions and 10% of all funds raised from small scale privatizations will be allocated to local budgets. Dmitry Sennychenk...

With work on the highway to Kyiv Boryspil incomplete, the westbound lanes – to Kyiv – will close Sunday and traffic will be temporarily routed on the eastbound lanes. Until work on the highway is completed in mid-August, air travelers should allow extra time to get to Boryspil, Ukraine’s busiest airport. “We are upgrading the road to the main airport of the country...

Passenger levels on the Kyiv Metro is slightly more than half the level of 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. During the first half of this year, the Metro carried 140 million passengers, compared to 244 million in 2019. Daily passenger numbers are now 775,000, compared to 1.4 mill...

Editor’s Note: Kyiv’s Museum of Ukrainian Diaspora has a fascinating room devoted to Ihor Sikorsky, the 20th century aviation pioneer who grew up in Kyiv. At the start, there is Sikorsky in 1913, showing a biplane b...

Thursday, July 15

Long term investment in Ukraine’s mining sector could generate $400 billion over the next decade, said the Prime Minister, Shmygal. Goals should be: double exports, cut imports by two thirds, and expand mineral processing. He said, Ukraine should aim to be a full partner of the EU in the extractio...

Prime Minister Shmygal said that Ukraine will need €100 billion in capital investment over the next decade to reduce emissions to 35% of 1990 levels . Ukraine’s 2030 emissions target is not considered very ambitious given the nation’s industrial contraction since 1990, as well as the loss of half of the Donbas in 2014.

To promote electric cars, the import of diesel and gasoline cars would be banned by 2030, under a bill of the Infrastructure Ministry. A ban on imports of used diesel cars would start earlier, on Jan. 1 2027. This year, about 7,000 new and used electric cars are expected to be imported int...

Nibulon, Ukraine’s largest river shipping company, increased its cargo by 9% during the recently completed grain marketing year. In 1,219 barge trips, the company moved 4.3 million tons. Nibulon calculates this eliminated the need for 180,000 truck trips to the Black Sea ports. This year, the company aims for another 9% river c...

President Zelenskiy will appeal a decision of the Supreme Court which invalidated his decision to cancel a 2013 decree by then-President Viktor Yanukovych to appoint Oleksandr Tupytsky as a judge of the Constitutional Court. Last fall, as head of the court, Tupyts...

Ukraine is to be added to the EU’s ‘green list’ of non-EU nations not subject to Covid travel restrictions, according to a decision taken yesterday in Brussels by ambassadors of the 27 nations to the European Council. Expected to formalized on Friday, the listing is a recommendation and is not legally bindi...

Air passengers in Ukraine have returned to half the level of 2019, reports the State Aviation Service. During the first half of this year, all of Ukraine’s airports handled 5.5 million people, 51% the 10.7 million handled in January-June 2019. So far this year, 90% o...

Ukrzaliznytsia has restored 80% of the passenger trains that ran in the summer of 2019 . Last month, long distance passenger traffic was 63% of the level of June 2019. During the first half of this year, UZ carried 9.5 million passengers on long distance routes, almost half the level of...

A Mitubishi elevator is to be installed next spring in the main hall of the Kyiv’s Central Rail station. The new $500,000 elevator is to be capable of handling 7,300 passengers an hour, said Ivan Yuryk, Ukrzalinytsia’s acting CEO. The new escalator is the centerpiece of a nearly $2 million overhaul of el...

All seven electric scooter rental operators in Kyiv have lowered their top speed to 20 km/h, reports the Konstantin Usov, deputy chair of the Kyiv City Administration. Following a June 24 agreement with the city, operators are marking their scooters with four digit licenses. By using GPS mapp...

Editor’s Note: Last month, the EU, the world’s richest trading bloc, signed a batteries and raw materials supply pact with Canada. Two days ago, it was Ukraine’s turn. For people who think the European Green Deal is...

Wednesday, July 14

Yesterday, the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, congratulated President Zelenskiy on his “Big Construction” project and “expressed China’s readiness to cooperate in this direction ,” Ukraine’s presidential office reported on the first telephone call between the two leaders. “In addition, the parties paid attention to the potential of cooperation in the field of trade and the po...

For his part, Zelenskiy called China “Ukraine’s No. 1 trade and economic partner in the world.” He expressed the hope that Ukraine will become “a bridge to Europe for Chinese business.” He thanked the Chinese leader for delivery of anti-coronavirus vaccines, saying: “These vaccines have saved th...

Washington considers growing trade between Ukraine and China to be “normal,” but warns loss of control over strategic enterprises, such as the Motor Sich aviation engine factory. Speaking to Ukraine 24 TV channel, George Kent, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, said: “We believe th...

Removing an obstacle to an IMF agreement, Ukraine’s Rada approved yesterday a bill that gives external advisors authority over the selection of judges. Last week, Zelenskiy vetoed a version that removed this power. The law is seen as key to building an honest judiciary.

Yesterday, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s longest-serving minister, resigned. Denis Monastyrsky, a ruling party Rada member, has accepted President Zelenskiy’s invitation to succeed him. In the Rada since February 2014, the culmination of the Revolution of Dignity, Avakov serve...

Opening the door to annexation of Ukraine’s Donbas, Vladimir Putin says Ukraine and other former Soviet republics control traditionally Russian lands . “I have become increasingly convinced that Kyiv simply doesn’t need Donbas,” he writes in a 7,000-word essay posted Monday on the Kremlin website. Largely focused on Ukraine and Russia, Putin writes...

In response to Putin’s proclamations of “brotherhood” between ‘Big Russia’ and ‘Little Russia,” President Zelenskiy said the brotherly relationship is more like the relationship between Cain and Abel , the fratricidal brothers in the Bible. If Ukrainians and Russians are truly “one people” he said, the blue and gold flag of Ukraine would be flying over the Kremlin. Noting the length of the essay, ...

Editor’s Note: With Uzbekistan opening up to trade, tourism and investment, the Women’s Business Chamber of Ukraine will hold an informational event Friday at the Uzbekistan Embassy in Kyiv. Organized by Chamb...

Tuesday, July 13

Earlier on Monday, German’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told President Zelenskiy that “implementation of the anti-oligarchic law will provide more transparency and improve the business climate in Ukraine, which will increase the interest of German entrepreneurs to invest in Ukrain...

The American Pfizer vaccine, expected in Ukraine in coming days, will be available to all Ukrainian adults who sign up for anti-coronavirus vaccinations, the Health Ministry said yesterday. Ukraine is to receive 1 million Pfizer vaccines, part of 8 million vaccines expected this month. Over the last five months, 3.3 million Ukrainians – about 10% of th...

From today through to August 20, Kyiv’s Funicular is closed for annual maintenance, reported Kyivpastrans, the city public transport company. During the summer, ridership falls to 2,000 a day, half normal levels. Built in 1905, the Funicular connects the lower city – Podil – with the...

With Kyiv temperatures forecast to go over 32C (90F) for every day through Monday, the capital will be closed every afternoon to city trucks weighing over 24 tons. On hot days, heavy trucks often damage soft asphalt.

Editor’s Note: – Less than two years ago, I attended a conference of Ukrainian car makers at the Premier Palace. With production falling to 1% of the 2008 peak of 424,000 cars, the forum was a depressing affair. Giv...

Monday, July 12

Lviv’s airport passenger flow during the first half of this year was only 54% the level of January-June 2019 , the last pre-pandemic year. So far this year, passengers total 512,370. This was up 37% over the first half of last year, a time when most commercial air traffic was suspended for the second quarter...

An early summer surge in air travel is prompting UIA to increase slight to southern destinations , the airline reports. More flights are being added from Kyiv Boryspil to: Athens, Baku, Cairo, Larnaca, and Yerevan. On resumption of flights to New York, Ukraine International Airlines writes: “UIA ...

With electric scooters proliferating on the sidewalks of central Kyiv, two bills are before the Rada to limit electric vehicles – scooters, Segways, and unicycles – to bicycle lanes or the edges of streets. Riders must be 16 years or older, wear a helmet and ride alone. ...