Clearing the way for the biggest privatization of this year, Ukraine’s Supreme Court refused to recognize a decision by Stockholm’s Arbitration Institute to award Dmytro Firtash’s Ostchem over $300 million from state-owned Odesa Port Plant. “This is a final dec... #BigPrivatizationinUkraine #FirtashOdessaport #StatePropertyFundUkraine
With Ukraine reporting the lowest number of coronavirus cases in nearly a year, all 24 regions are now listed ‘green ,’ the Health Ministry said yesterday. Restrictions have been eased to allow restaurants to serve indoors all night and cinemas and theaters to operate at two thirds capacity. #CoronavirusinUkraineslowsDown #UkraineinGreenZone
In advisories to international travelers, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday promoted Ukraine to ‘Level 3’ – the same level as the United States. Ukraine now recognizes English language vaccination certificates as v... #UkraineLevel3zone #VaccinationCertificatesUkraine
With new air shipments of vaccines arriving in Kyiv daily, vaccination centers have opened in Kyiv and 13 other cities. Kyiv residents can register online for free vaccinations on weekends at the International Exhibition Center 15A Brovarskyi Avenue using the Diia app and Helsi.me, an online service for booking doctor ... #covid19ukraine #Covid19VaccinationUkraine #UkraineVaccination #VaccinationCentersKyiv
Working around the EU’s travel barriers, Ukraine’s SkyUp undertook 1,419 flights in May, a record for the 3-year-old airline. Almost three quarters of the low cost airline’s 209,924 passengers flew on charter flights, largely to Egypt and Turkey, the airline reports. Ukraine will provide almost 20% of the 8 million tourists ... #CharterFlightsUkraine #LowcostairlinesUkraine
Charter passenger traffic doubled at Kyiv Boryspil for the first five months of this year , compared to January-May period last year, reports the Center for Transportation Strategies. The nearly 2.5 million-passenger flow for the period was split nearly evenly between charter and regular t... #CharterFlightfromUkraine #CharterPassengerTraffic #TravelersfromUkraine
Editor’s Note: Eagle-eyed reader Mattia Nelles notes that a zero was missing from the population of Kryvyi Rih as posted in yesterday’s UBN. Ukraine’s seventh largest city, Kryvyi Rih, hometown of President Zelenski...
Metinvest plans to build a $1 billion modern cold rolling mill at its Ilyich Metallurgical Plant in Mariupol, Yuriy Ryzhenkov, the company CEO announced to Ukraine 24 TV yesterday. He said: “Literally next week we will sign a contract for the construction of a new cold rolling mill. This is already a billion ... #ColdRollingMillUkraine #Metinvestproduction
In Kyiv, 60 roads will be repaired by year-end, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko tells Radio Free Europe. Promising to create 100 km of new bicycle lanes this year, he said that no road will “be put into operation without modern sidewalks, without bike lane... #KyvRoadsconstruction
Editor’s Note: When Vladimir Putin rattled his chains outside of Ukraine in April, foreign investors who were toe-dipping decided not to take the plunge. In that light, credit goes to the much-maligned Rinat Akhmeto...
President Biden has invited President Zelenskiy to visit the White House next month. Yesterday the two leaders spoke in advance of two critical meetings that are scheduled for next week. Next Monday, there will be a NATO heads of government meeting in Brussels. Ukraine has not been in... #JoeBiden #Putin #Zelenskyy
The Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has told a US Congressional committee Monday that Nord Stream 2 is a “fait accompli.” Referring to worries that this Ukraine bypass pipeline will free Russia to attack Ukraine, Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee: “We have agreements in place, upfront, to come back on any ... #AnthonyBlinken #nordstream2 #RussianGasPipeline
In contrast, Norbert Röttgen, Chairman of the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee, tweeted: “#Putin blackmails #Ukraine before #NordStream2 has even been finished. He uses the pipeline as exactly the kind of weapon, the Poles, B... #BundestagForeignAffairsCommittee #GermanySupportsUkraine #nordstream2 #UkraineandNordstream2
Editor’s Note: Articulate German officials may promise that they will not allow Russia to use Nord Stream 2 to leave Ukraine defenseless. But with elections in September, articulate German officials will come and go...
Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping line, plans to stop calls to Chornomorsk port after August 10 , the company says, citing “our network optimization exercise.” Three years ago, the Danish shipper stopped visiting Odesa. Now, Maersk will concentrate on Pivdenniy, Ukraine’s busiest port. Previousl... #MaerskContrainersGoToUkraine #MaerskShippingfromPivdenniy #UkraineShippingHubPivdenniy
Registrations of used imported cars were up 45% for the first five months of this year , compared to January-May 2020, reports Ukravtoprom, the vehicle industry association. Used imports total 159,500 so far this year, four times more than new imports. #CarImortfromUS #CarImportfromEU
Belarus airlines – basically Belavia’s jets – are banned from landing in the EU or overflying EU airspace, under an EU decision that took effect Saturday. This coming weekend, more Belarus sanctions, possibly a ban on bond purchases, are to be discussed at a meeting in Cornwall, England of the G7 – US, UK,... #BanforBelarusianAirlines #BanonBelarus
Restoration of Ukraine-Belarus air links depends “on the behavior of Belarus, how they will behave with those political prisoners, of whom there are already thousands today,” Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Friday. Air links w... #BelarusUkraineFlights #BelarusUkrainerelationships #RomanProtasevich
Editor’s Note – Update and fix: UIA has reversed plans and will not resume flights between Kyiv Boryspil and Warsaw Chopin on June 18, as the airline announced last week. UIA blames market conditions.Kharkiv has two tram renewal pro...
‘Certified oligarchs’ will be forced to declare their assets, will be banned from funding political parties and from participating in the privatization of major state companies , under the “de-oligarchization” bill submitted yesterday to the Rada by President Zelenskiy’s supporters. A first step will be to draw up a list of about 12 businessmen who fit the criteria of an oli... #FightingOligarchs #OligarchsunderPressue #Zefightsoligarchs
For the next 10 years, any government official who has contact with a registered oligarch or his agent, will have to report that meeting, the bill says. “We are building a country without oligarchs,” the president said at his 2-year anniversary press conference last month. “We are building a country where everyone is equal before the la... #FightingCorruptioninUkraine #ZelenskiyFightsCorruption
While popular with the public, the bill may not pass the Rada, a parliament where oligarchs loosely control blocs of votes. Critics say that Zelenskiy seeks to knock aside potential rivals in advance of an expected run for a second term, in 2024. This spring, he ... #UkrainianOligarchs #VictorMedvechuk #Zelenskyy
If passed the new bill would render former president Petro Poroshenko, a candy and media magnate, ineligible to run for office. Poroshenko’s party said yesterday: “Zelenskiy is trying in every way to get rid of Poroshenko as the leader of the most powerful pro-European opposition party and to ban his political activities.”...
Kira Rudyk, head of the liberal opposition party Golos, said: “The president’s initiative was submitted to parliament only as a PR stunt…Instead of reforming the judiciary and creating fair courts in the country, the president is submitting a populist bill that ...
The government-controlled Rada passed a law yesterday restoring prison terms for officials who hide assets — then President Zelenkiy said he would not sign it. “This isn’t what Ukrainians expect, and not what I promised them,” he said on the presidential website. Critics say the bill does not check assets held by family members, a classic dodge for officials... #CorruptionUkraine #VerkhovnaRada #Zelenskyy
DTEK is ready to “consider the sale of power stations and coal mines” as the company shifts towards green energy, DTEK CEO Maxim Tymchenko tells Ekonomichna Pravda news site. Ukraine’s largest private electricity producer is positioning itself to meet the EU’s net zero carbon target for 2050. Over the last three ... #DTEK #GreenEnergyUkraine #MaximTimchenko
Eight renewable energy producers have won a total of $29 million in judgements in Kyiv’s Economic Court against the Guaranteed Buyer, Finbalance reported on Monday. As of mid-May, Ukrenergo, parent company of Guaranteed Buyer, said it still owes $574 million in overdue 2020 payments to wind and solar pr... #EnergysectorUkraine #energyukraine #KyivEconomicCourt #UkrEnergoDebt
ATB, the supermarket chain, generated the most revenue of all companies in Ukraine last year, according to State Tax Service figures analyzed by Liga.net. About $4.5 billion flowed through the cash registers of the 1,200 stores of the national chain last year. Despite the recession, ATB’s net ... #ATBgrocerystorechain #ATBprofits #ATBstores
Azov Sea summer tourism is a far cry from the glory days when Soviet holidaymakers flew directly from Leningrad to Berdyansk . With half of Ukrainians saying they plan domestic vacations this year, an estimated 3 million tourists are expected to travel by car, bus and train to vacation in the warm waters of the Azov. Invest... #AzovHospitality #AzovVacation
Editor’s Note: In the US we called them ‘Robber Barons’. These American oligarchs of the Gilded Age amassed fortunes by ruthlessly pursuing and protecting monopolies. They decorated their palatial estates in Newport...
Only the US can stop Nord Stream 2 , President Zelenskiy told three visiting US Senators yesterday. “Nord Stream 2 will disconnect Ukraine from gas supplies, which means it will “disconnect” us from at least $ 3 billion a y... #nordstream2 #Zelenskyy
EU moves to crackdown on ‘carbon leakage’ by curbing imports from polluting companies in non-EU countries will not affect Ukraine , Olha Stefanishyna, the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, told relevant Rada committees on Monday. Stefanishyna said that “an agreement was reached in Brussels that Uk... #CarbonControlEU #CarbonLeakageEU
The European Investment Bank will loan €75 million to buy new electric trams for Kharkiv, reported Interfax-Ukraine. The first tram – a locally-assembled Czech Škoda – will be presented in September to Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhiv, the Acting Mayor, said last week at the UkraineInvest Talks in D... #EIBloanforKharkivtrams #UkraineInvest #UkraineInvestDnipro #UkraineInvestTalksDnipro
Next month, the first of 150 Turkish Karsan buses are to appear on the streets of Kharkiv . Ultimately, 500 buses could come from Karsan with some local assembly, said Acting Mayor, Terekhov. Okan Bash, the General Director of Karsan, said: “Depending on the potential in the Ukrainian mark... #Buses #IgorTerekhov #Karsan
The first container train linking southern China with southern Ukraine is moving toward Odesa , reports Ecns.cn., or English China News Service. On Saturday, the train left Guangzhou, formerly known as Canton, for a 25-day, 8,408 km trip to Odesa. The train’s 100 containers largely carry a car... #CargoTrainsfromChina #CargoTrainsfromChinatoUkraine #ChinaTrainstoUkraine #OdessaToChinatrains
Lufthansa’s discount airline, Eurowings will start flying to Ukraine on September 1 with flights three times a week between Kyiv Boryspil and Dusseldorf, Eurowings reports. The airline was to start flying to Ukraine in 2018, but that entry never materialized. #EuroWingsflightstoUkraine #LufthansaFlightstoUkraine
Landlocked Uzbekistan opens up to tourism from Ukraine with inaugural flights this summer to the nation’s two largest cities. In June, SkyUp plans to launch a weekly flight between Kyiv Boryspil and Tashkent, the capital. In July, Bees Airline starts weekly flights between Kyiv Sikorsky and Samarkand, the nation’s cultural c... #FlightstoUzbekistan #UzbekistanopenforTourism
Belavia, Belarus’ state airline has stopped flying to 21 European cities . It now flies through Russian airspace to nine countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and UAE. Belarus plans to appeal the European overflight ban to... #BelarusAirlinesBan #BelaviaStopsFlightstoEU
Half of Ukrainian adults – 17 million people – now have biometric foreign passports. Since June 2017, these passports allow the bearers to visit the EU visa-free for 90 days. In the first five months of this year, 701,032 biometric passports were issued in Ukraine. #ukrainebiometricPassports #UkraineNewPassports
Ukrainian electro-folk band Go_A narrowly missed winning Eurovision two weeks ago, but its song powered to the “top spot in the global Viral 50 chart of the world’s largest music streaming service, Spotify, while also riding high on the iTunes and Apple Music platforms,” Peter Dickinson reports in an Atlantic Council Ukraine blog. Headlined “Why Eu... #Eurovision2021 #EurovisionUkraineband
Editor’s Note: Obscured by the Covid clouds, half of Ukrainians adults quietly obtained the documents that allow them to enter the EU visa-free to travel, study or work part time. When historians write about this ph...
The OECD has radically raised its forecast for world economic growth this year to 5.8%, from a forecast of 4.2% from December 2020. Large scale stimulus spending in the US combined with aggressive vaccination campaigns have turned developed countries, China and India into world locomotiv... #ForcastfortheWorldEconomy #OECDforecast #WorldEconomyForecast
Ukraine’s broad gauge tracks have been extended to a new intermodal terminal under construction in Fényeslitke, Hungary , 25 km south of Chop, Ukraine’s Zakarpattia border town. Billed as the largest truck-train terminal in Europe, Hungary’s €61 million East-West Gate will have several sets of parallel Euro gauge and b... #TrackToEU #Ukrainebroadgaugetracks #UkraineTackstoEU
Switzerland’s Stadler Rail has chosen a site in Ukraine to produce electric trains, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Deputy Presidential Chief of staff, tells Interfax-Ukraine. The goal is to replace Ukraine’s Soviet era ‘elektrichkas,’ or suburban commuter trains. Baptized ‘City Express’ this sub... #ElectrictrainsProduction #ElectricTrainsProductionInukraine #StadlerRailinUkraine
The national airline that President Zelenskiy intends to create would carry out trans-Atlantic flights and flights to China , Kyrylo Tymoshenko, his Deputy Chief of staff, told Interfax-Ukraine. Airline representatives are negotiating with Boeing and Airbus for long haul jets. “These are for flights to Europe, transatlanti... #CivilAviationUkraine #NationalAirlineUkraine #Zelenskyy
A bill to ban most plastic shopping bags by next spring passed the Rada yesterday . Following EU eco standards, Ukraine would ban stores from distributing thin plastic bags commonly used to carry groceries. Small bags used to wrap fish and raw meat would be exempt through 2022. The... #BanonPlasticBags #NOplasticbagsallowed
Editor’s Note: With foreign investors circling Ukraine, looking for opportunities, my friends at the London-based Strategy Council have come up a timely webinar tomorrow: “Private Equity in Ukraine.” Investors with ...
UNIT.City Kharkiv is to be twice as big, with 250,000 square meters of space, Melnyk told the press office of UFuture, the parent company. On this 9-hectare site, 3,000 square meters of school and office premises have opened. #TechnologyCenterKharkiv #UnitCityKharkiv
At Kyiv’s UNIT.City, 100,000 square meters of office and residential space are under construction or completed . In coming weeks, Japanese-Dutch architect Hiroki Matsuura plans to open his Main Plaza, a 5,500 square meter central square for UNIT.City. #KyivUnitCity #UnitCityOfficeSpace
Belarus is cutting its shipments of premium unleaded gasoline by 80% for June, Serhii Kuyun, director of the A-95 consulting group, writes on Facebook. Ukraine will get 10,000 tons, instead of the normal 50,000. Ukrainian traders have bought all free gasoline from Lithuania’s Or... #BelarusCutsGasolineTrade #GasolinefromBelarus #Ukraineandbelarustrade
