US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline Wednesday as a Russian geopolitical project that undermines the security of Ukraine, adding the United States wants to ensure Russia does not use energy as a coercive tool against any European state, Reuters reports from Berlin. Speaking at a joint press conference with his German cou... #AnthonyBlinken #Gaspipeline #nordstream2 #RussianPipeline
The EU imposed severe sanctions yesterday on Belarus banning purchases of its top exports — oil and potash — and banning most financial links, including trading in bonds on the secondary market. By forbidding EU companies from handling Belarusian potash, the EU is forcing the land locked country to export its fertilizer through Russia, repor... #BelarusSanctions #EUsanctions #SanctionsAgainstBelarus
Editor’s Note: An irritating 13-year-old boy will pinch the garden hose hoping you will peer down the dry tube. Russian’s president is craftier. He pinches the gas hose to ‘teach’ Europeans how much they need Nord S...
The highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant has come to Kyiv. A woman and a teenager who arrived from Russia tested positive and were hospitalized in Kyiv, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, told TSN news last night. The var... #Covid19DeltahascometoUkraine #Covid19DeltaUkraine
Ukraine is considering strengthening border controls over travelers from the Britain, India, Portugal and Russia to prevent the spread of Delta variant, the Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said yesterday. Only two weeks ago, as new infections started to dip below 1,000 a day, Ukraine relaxed travel requirements. ... #covid19ukraine #CovidBorderControl
Vaccinations seem to be effective against the Delta variant, or at least they minimize the impact. After a slow start, Ukraine is now vaccinating about 50,000 people a day at 90 mass vaccination centers across Ukraine. So far, 2.15 million vaccinations have bee... #Covid19VaccinationInUkraine #VaccinationUkraine
With Ukraine and rest of Europe racing to vaccinate as many people as possible, health officials warn there could be a fourth wave of the pandemic this fall . In April, at the height of the last wave, the number of deaths in Ukraine was up 48.5%, compared to April 2020, when the pandemic was only starting. Through June 18, the number of deaths in Ukraine ... #covid19ukraine #CovidforthwaveUkraine
For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic hit Ukraine 15 months ago, Kyiv Boryspil airport is opening all five of its passenger entrances and exits at Terminal D, the main terminal . “Summer is in full swing,” Georgy Zubko, the airport director, said yesterday. “The airport serves about 260 flights daily. The average daily passenger traffic exceeds 37,000 people.” All five... #BoryspilFlights2021
Air traffic in and out of Lviv airport this week exceeded pre-crisis numbers of June 2019, reports avianews.com. On Tuesday, the airport handled 53 flights – two more than on June 22, 2019. On Wednesday, the airport handled 54 flights, four more that on the corresponding day in 2019. Last y... #AirTrafficinLviv #LvivFlightsrecovery
Editor’s Note: Crimean War II? A British Royal Navy destroyer, the HMS Defender, was steaming past Crimea’s Cape Fiolent yesterday morning, when a Russia coast guard vessel fired warning shots and then a Russian Suk...
The farmland market is designed to be transparent, Agriculture Minister Roman Leshchenko writes in an Atlantic Council essay: “Land reform can make Ukraine an agricultural superpower.” “Once Ukraine’s land market opens, all transactions will be tracked to record buyers and sellers, along with the price and the source of paym... #AgriculturereforminUkraine #AgroUkraine2021 #UkraineFarmLand2021
Two British Sandown-class minesweeping ships are to be transferred to the Ukrainian Naval Forces in coming months, part of a wider, £1.25 billion UK-Ukraine agreement to upgrade Ukraine’s navy . In a memorandum signed Monday aboard the HMS Defender, a British destroyer docked in Odesa, Ukraine is to receive the Sandown minesweepers, a class also used by navies of Estonia and Saudi Arabia. #BritainShipsforUkraine #minesweepingships #Sandownminesweepers
Starting Monday, elements of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, based in Naples, Italy will co-lead the annual Sea Breeze naval exercise in the Black Sea . In the largest Sea Breeze ever, 32 nations will participate, sending 32 ships, 40 aircraft and 5,000 troops. The exercise, the 21st since 1997, ends July 10. #BlackSeaExercise #SeaBreezenavalexercise
In the first auction since the central bank decided to keep the prime interest rate unchanged at 7.5%, sales of Ukrainian government bonds jumped by 39% yesterday, to the equivalent of the $416 million, the Finance Ministry reports on Facebook. Cut off rates remained the same: 6 months – 9%; 13 months – 10.99%; 18 months. – 11.3%; 2-year – 12%; 3-year – 12.3%; and 5-year... #BondsforsaleinUkraine #NBUprimerate #PrimeRateUnchanged #UkraineGovernmentBonds
To keep the hryvnia from strengthening above 27 to the dollar, the National Bank of Ukraine last week made net purchases of $93 million . Since the start of the year, the central bank has purchased $729 million. Last year, net purchases totaled $1 billion for the whole year. #HryvniaStrength #NBUsupportsHryvniaRate
Editor’s Note : Few things concentrate the brain cells better than a good blackout. ‘Where’s the wifi?’ will arise the collective wail from 30 million Ukrainian smart phone holders. Given Ukraine’s political gridlock...
EU leaders plan to impose ‘Venezuela-style’ sanctions on Ukraine’s northern neighbor Belarus when the heads of government meet in Brussels on Thursday . Sanctions are to hit Belarus’ financial, oil, tobacco and potash sectors. Last year, the EU imported from Belarus more than €1 billion worth of crude oil, fuel and lubricants and €1.2 billion worth ... #BelarusSanctions #EUsanctionsforBelarus
Sanctions will make Belarus heavily dependent on Russian economic aid, Timothy Ash writes from London. “If the annual bill to Russia for backing Lukashenko had been $2-3bn, I would imagine this will at least double, if not more…It would not surprise me if the bill heads more to the $10bn mark…With Russ... #BelarusandRussia #BelarusDependsonRussia #BelarusSanctions
Ukraine imposed sanctions on Dmytro Firtash on Friday for allegedly selling titanium products to Russian military enterprises. Firtash became rich as a middleman for Gazprom. Today, he owns a gas distribution network and fertilizer plants in Ukraine. In 2014, he was arrested in Vienna on U.S. charges that he led a conspiracy ... #DmytroFirtashExtradition #DmytroFirtashSanctions
The Biden administration is preparing to impose additional sanctions on Russia over the poisoning of jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny , US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN Sunday. “We are preparing another package of sanctions to apply in this case. We’ve shown all along the way that we are not going to pull ou...
Next week, Ukreximbank puts up for electronic auction an 1895 building at Mala Zhytomyrska 3 – 150 meters from Kyiv’s Maidan. The starting price is $10 million for the 3,347 square meter building. The auction will be held next Tuesday on SETAM, the Justice Ministry’s electronic auction, reports the Ministry’s press office. T... #UkrEximbanksellsAssets #Ukreximbankukraine
Ukraine plans to spend almost $4 million to mark the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence on August 24 , reports the Finance Ministry. In addition to a military parade down Kreshchatyk, air force flyovers, a naval flotilla down the Dnipro, and fireworks displays, there are several infrastructure projec... #30thanniversaryofIndependence #UkraineIndependeceCelebration
Editor’s Note: The EU is serious about developing a multi-billion euro hydrogen production industry in Ukraine. That is the message I am hearing from EU diplomats and foreign investors. The message I am not hearing ...
Timothy Ash writes from London: “Inflation is at 9.5% and policy rates only at 7.5%, that is a big negative rate differential…There is a sense also that the Zelensky administration is pulling away from IMF conditionality, so maybe t... #Inflation2021andCentralBankRate #Inflationandpolicyrate
Editor’s Note: The UBN is going to enjoy the long summer weekend in Odesa. We will be back in your email box on Tuesday morning. Have a good weekend! With Best Regards, Jim Brooke
The Bolshevik site, located on Peremoha Avenue with adjacent parks and the Shuliavska Red line metro station, could attract an estimated $500 million in residential and office construction, according to Serhiy Tsivkach, the Executive Director of UkraineInvest. #SerhiyTsivkach #UkraineInvest
Editor’s Note: The Putin-Biden meeting seems to have passed yesterday with minimal damage to Ukraine’s interests. Now the get-to-know-you phase is behind the two leaders, ideally some progress can be made on respect...
Facing stagflation – stagnant growth and 9.5% inflation – analysts are split on whether Ukraine’s central bank will raise its prime rate tomorrow, or keep it at 7.5% , a Reuters poll indicates. The government had forecast a 4% growth spurt in 2021, but the economy shrank 2% in the first quarter. Seven out of 15 analysts polled by Reuters think high inflation will ... #NationalBankOfUkraineRate #NBUrate #PrimeRateUkraine
Helping to cut food inflation, no area in Ukraine is threatened by drought this summer, Tetyana Adamenko, head of the agro weather department of Ukraine’s Hydrometeorological Center, told Interfax-Ukraine yesterday. “The situation is very good, the soil is an excellent source of moisture... #AgricultureUkraine #NoDroughfor2021 #NoDroughtforAgriculture
Svetofor, a fast-growing Russian discount supermarket chain, plans to open 40 stores in Ukraine in the second half of this year , Artem Khomenko, Ukraine director for Mere, the Svetofor brand, told reporters. The first store is to open this week in Mykolaiv. To cut costs, the Mere places its products on pallets, rather then sh... #RussianRetailStoresinUkraine #SfetoforStoresinUkraine #Svetoforstorechain
UIA is closing its offices in Beijing and Moscow in cost-cutting moves . Last fall, UIA closed its offices in Austria, Belarus, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. #UIAclosesoffices #UIAloosesmoney
Editor’s Note : Europeans have redefined the train station. Last year, I was in Zurich and discovered that the Zürich Hauptbahnhof is a people magnet. The underground shopping center, ShopVille, has over 200 shops. O...
Ukrzaliznytsia plans to let go 30% of management staff in Kyiv, about 800 positions, by the end of this year, announced Acting CEO Ivan Yuryk Implementing a long-planned managerial restructuring he said yesterday the goal is “to eliminate duplication of positions and clearly distribute the functionality betwe... #UkrzaliznytsiaRestructuring #UZfiresStaff
As of yesterday, Israel allows its citizens to travel to Ukraine, due to Ukraine’s low Covid infection rate. Before the pandemic, Israel was UIA’s top foreign travel destination. #FlightstoIsrael #TravelingtoIsrael
The planned opening of Ireland’s embassy in Kyiv this summer was welcomed by Ihor Zhovkva, deputy chief of staff of President Zelenskiy, in a Zoom call with Helen Blake, assistant secretary for International and European Affairs at the Irish Prime Minister’s office. Zhovka ... #IrelandEmbassyopenninginUkraine
Editor’s Note : One sunny day in the Turkmenistan desert, the Turkmen natural gas line to Russia mysteriously self-exploded. “Wasn’t me, wasn’t me,” Russian officials chorused in their best Bart Simpson imitation. Tu...
Oleg Denys, co-founder of SoftServe said of the former prison site: “The idea is to create a neighborhood where you can collect talents and have all the conditions for the development of these talents in the city, have futuristic offices, educational institutions.”... #SoftServeUkraine #SoftServewillbuildITcity
The Pentagon announced Friday a new package of $150 million in military assistance for Ukraine that will include counter-artillery radar, electronic warfare equipment and counter-drone technology, Reuters reports. The latest tranche of assistance will come in addition to the $125 million that t... #USandUkraine #USmilitaryairforUkraine
Ukraine’s east-west gas pipeline system is operating at less than 20% of its design capacity , Volodomyr Gnoevoy, head transit for YE Energia, said Thursday at the Ukrainian Gas Open Forum. Designed to carry 400 billion cubic meters, the system now carries 30 bcm for domestic consumption and ... #UkraineEastWestPipeline #UkrainianGasPipeline #UkrainianPipeline
President Biden has invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Washington on July 15 to personally negotiate a solution to Russia-Germany Nord Stream 2 gas line, Germany’s Handelsblatt business newspaper reports. To compensate for the loss of Russian gas transit fees, German and Ameri... #BidenMeetsMerkel #MerkelGoestoWashington #RussianGermanPipeline
President Biden will meet with President Zelenskiy in Washington in late July, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Ukraina 24 TV on Friday. “This will be an official full-fledged visit, which envisages not only the meeting with President Biden, but also many other events,” he... #JoeBiden #Zelenskyy
Editor’s Note : Fresh on the heels of the controversy over CEO switch at Naftogaz, London’s Strategy Council holds a webinar tomorrow on Corporate Governance in State-Owned Enterprises in Ukraine. Participants includ...
Six weeks into the job, Vitrenko traveled to Washington in a last ditch attempt to stop Nord Stream 2 and to “rebuild trust” with US officials , he told Radio Free Europe. Describing himself as “a true reformer,” Vitrenko said he will focus on boosting Naftogaz’s production with the help of Western partners. Vitrenko also said he would... #NaftogazCEOstrategy #NaftogazUkraineandUS #VitrenkotryiestostopNordStream2
Westinghouse fuel will power eight of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear power reactors by 2024, under a contract signed yesterday between the US company and Energoatom, Ukraine’s state company responsible for nuclear power generation. To reduce dependency on Russian nuclear fuel, Energoatom swit... #WestinghouseandUkraine #WestingHouseFuelforUkraine
A Rada bill to impose a 3.2% excise tax on renewable energy producers “is a step in the wrong direction, ” Nefco, the Helsinki-based Nordic Environment Finance Corp. said in a statement released Wednesday at a solar and wind producers forum in Kyiv. “Fossil energy should be subject to a CO2 tax.” After f... #RenewableEnergyTaxUkraine #TaxonRenewableEnergy #WindandSolarPowerUkraine
The steel plant deal was the centerpiece of an Italy-Ukraine business forum opened yesterday by Luigi Di Maio, Italy’s visiting Foreign Minister . Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba noted that Italy’s national railway company, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, recently signed a memorandum with Ukrzaliznytsia to develop high speed trains on ... #UkraineItalySteelPlantDeal #UkraineItalyTrade
The Billionaire, Ukraine’s first legal casino under the new gambling law, attracted a largely foreign clientele during its first month in operation . “We already have 1,000 people who have visited our establishment,” Andriy Parkhomenko, the casino’s guest relations manager, tells UNIAN. “Sixty percent of them are foreigners — mostly from th... #BillionerCasionUkraine #CasinoKyiv #FirstCasioninUkraine #GamblinginUkraine #IntercantinentalHotelCasino
By making a radical shift to charter flights, UIA kept its passenger losses in January-May to 25% below the level of the first five months of last year. With most Ukrainians barred from traveling to Europe, Ukraine International Airlines increased its passengers on charter flights 6-fold, to 466,7... #UIAflights #UIArecovers #UkraineInternationalAirlinesUkraine
Editor’s Note: From my moderator’s seat at yesterday’s EU Energy Day conference, I could picked up the prevailing mood and message: Ukraine should recognize and react fast to the EU’s new green rules. Policy zig zag...
Two years after Ukraine started to cooperate with Clearstream, external investment in government bonds has doubled, the share of public debt in national currency has increased to 39%, and 5-year bonds have won acceptance, the Finance Ministry reports. In a press conference last week with representatives of the Luxe... #Clearstreamcooperation #GovernmentBondsSalesDoubled #InvestinginBonds #UkraineGovernmentBonds
