Partners news

Monday, April 5

Next week, a Ukrainian trade mission will visit South Africa, the second largest economy in Africa, after Nigeria, Lyubov Abdravitova, Ukraine’s Ambassador to South Africa, announced at the Ukrainian Prism conference. Trade Representative Taras Kachka will lead the mission, which runs from April 13 to 18, 2021. Th...

After a week of Russian troop movements and aggressive statements toward Ukraine, President Biden called President Zelenskiy Friday and for a 45-minute discussion. Later, Zelenskiy said in a public address: “We enjoy the full and unwavering support of international partners, including Europe and the United States. Proof of that is...

The National Security and Defense Council has purged 100 customs officials, frozen the assets of the nation’s “top 10” smugglers and 68 of their companies, and is preparing laws to criminalize “inaccurate customs declarations,” the President said in his speech on Friday. Behind the drive is an estimate that smuggling costs the ...

Kyiv starts an open-ended ‘hard lockdown today, with mass transit restricted to ‘critical workers’ with special passes. The lockdown – the third in one year – comes as the city registers 1,000 new infections a day. At the end of last week, Ukraine was registering a record 20,000 new infections daily and 5,000 new hospi...

Ukraine scores on the low end for coronavirus deaths, compared to its EU neighbors Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, according to the Worldometer running tally of infections and deaths. A BBC Eastern Europe coronavirus roundup shows Ukraine far behind in vaccinations. Poland, Czech and Slovakia are near the EU avera...

Friday, April 2

Ukraine’s foreign trade has increased by 12% during the first quarter of 2021, compared to the same January-March period last year. Exports were up by 12% to $13.75 billion. Imports were up by 12% to $15.1 billion. Overall trade totaled $28.8 billion. “The Ukrainian economy is r...

Thanks to fast-growing exports to China and Vietnam last year, Ukraine slashed its trade deficit last year by 93%, to $255 million in 2020, from $3.4 billion in 2019, Kachka said when speaking at the Ukraine’s International Trade Council. He said: “The most important indicators are the phenomenal growth of exports...

JCB, Japan’s largest credit card company, is entering the Ukrainian market. It will be the fifth international card payment system in Ukraine with a non-resident payment organization, reported the National Bank of Ukraine. The 50-year-old Tokyo-based company has 5,000 employe...

Two Czech investment bankers prominent in Ukraine – Tomasz Fiala and Ivan Svitek –received permission from the National Bank of Ukraine to acquire UNEX bank. Fiala, through Dragon Capital companies, is buying 75%. Svitek, former CEO of Alfa-Bank Group in Ukraine, is buying 25%. The Central Bank ranks UNEX Bank as the 63rd largest of Ukraine’s 73 banks, wit...

For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic hit Ukraine, business expectations have moved into the positive territory of the Central Bank’s monthly survey. The mood inched up to 51.4 points, the first time since February 2020 that the index of business prospects have crossed the 50-point equilibrium, report...

Concorde Capital plans to bring 10 Ukrainian companies to initial public offerings over the next two years, Concorde CEO Ihor Mazepa said recently at the IPO presentation of Veres Rivne People’s {Football] Club. Citing changes in Ukraine’s financial markets, the Concorde founder said: “What I have seen for ...

Thursday, April 1

Starting Monday, the Kyiv City Administration will impose the toughest coronavirus lockdown in one year , announced Mayor Klitschko yesterday. The Metro, city buses and trams will carry only ‘critical workers’ with special passes. Employers are asked to move as many workers to remote work as possible. A...

Ukraine’s capital tops the nation’s 11 red zone regions for new infections, with about 1,000 new cases reported a day. Kyiv hospital occupancy levels are around 85%. Klitschko said: “We have lines of ambulances in front of hospitals. We have no choice. Otherwise, there will be hundreds of deaths every day.” Nationwide...

To get out of the pandemic, Ukraine needs to vaccinate 70% of its population, create herd immunity, and create a system of “COVID-19 vaccine passports,” President Zelenskiy said on Monday. The next day, his Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said on Ukraina 24 TV: “If there is an appropriate amount of vaccines, we will be able to vaccinate up to 5 millio...

Renewal of Ukraine’s $5 billion IMF agreement depends on “a number of outstanding issues that need to be resolved,” Goesta Ljungman, the IMF’s resident representative, said in a lengthy interview with Interfax-Ukraine. “At this stage, it is not possible to make any predictions about when the review can be completed...

The IMF checklist includes: protecting the National Bank of Ukraine from political pressure; strengthening the rule of law by maintaining the EU-standard anti-corruption institutions put in place; returning the fiscal deficit “t...

Just as the interview was posted, the Rada passed on first reading a tax amnesty. Valid for one year – from this July through July 1, 2022 – the amnesty would clear tax bills from assets voluntarily declared. The one-time tax schedule would be: 5% on declared assets inside Ukraine;...

Facing $6 billion in external borrowing that are needed this year, Ukraine is “already uncomfortable” without the $3 billion in remaining IMF tranches , Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said in a lengthy interview with LIGA. “We have no opportunity to receive income from another source,” he says. “The IMF program is our baseline scenario.” He said ...

Separately, Marchenko hopes to reach an IMF staff level agreement soon, he told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday. Anti-corruption policy and judicial reform remained outstanding issues in the talks, he said.

US and IMF support for Ukraine depend on the Zelenskiy Administration taking concrete steps to reform the court system and protect Western-designed anti-corruption institutions, George Kent, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, told VOA last week. Explicitly tying aid to free market changes, he said: “The expectations of Ukrainians and A...

Speaking before Zelenskiy removed Constitutional Court Chairman Oleksandr Tupytskiy and Judge Oleksandr Kasminin for “threatening Ukraine’s independence and national security,” Kent said: “How Ukrainian authorities get out of the constitutional crisis created by the Constitutional Co...

Ukraine has expanded its 5-year-old list of Russian goods banned for import, the Cabinet of Ministers reported Monday. The new list includes 25 largely low tech items such as toilet paper, hand towels, new spring, boxes, packing bags and cosmetic wipes. Of importance to Ukrain...

After seven years of war, 71% of Ukrainian poll respondents consider Russia the aggressor in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to a poll conducted last week by the Rating Sociological group. The survey of 2,500 people was conducted before Russian TV aired video of dozens of Russian armored vehicles and self-propelle...

Oschadbank, Ukraine’s second largest bank, plans to appeal Tuesday’s decision by the Paris Court of Appeal that it lacks jurisdiction to arbitrate the 2014 seizure by Russia’s Sberbank of Oschadbank’s assets in Crimea. State-owned Oschadbank seeks $1.3 billion in compensation.

Wednesday, March 31

Private investment will breathe economic life into dead state assets, Economy Minister Ihor Petrashko wrote on the Ministry website. He said: “Removing restrictions on the sale of large state-owned enterprises will not only fill the state budget, but also attract large ...

Ukraine loses $6 billion a year to corrupt managers of state companies, Mikheil Saakashvili, Chair of the National Reform Council, estimated in his Kyiv Post column. Ukraine has 3,500 state companies – 63 times more than neighboring Poland and 76 times more than Sweden. T...

Online bidding by five companies for a state-owned alcohol distillery increased the price five times yesterday, to $3.9 million , reported the State Property Fund. The sale of the distillery in Lutsk through ProZorro.sale is part of a 2-year process to privatize Ukrspirt, the former state monopoly alcohol producer. By the time...

The crackdown fulfills a March 19 decision by the National Security and Defense Council. In a first step, the Council seized unused 19 oil and gas no-bid permits obtained in 2012-2013 by East Europe Petroleum, a company controlled by Eduard Stavytsky, a former Yanukovych-era minister. Now...

Dollar-denominated bonds accounted for almost half of the $317 million in equivalent sold yesterday at the Finance Ministry’s weekly auction. The auction nearly covers repayment of $325 million scheduled this week. With yields unchanged, investors bought $49.6 million of 1-year bonds at 3.7%, and $1...

For hryvnia bonds, the Ministry pushed down yields on 3-months bonds by 35 basis points, to 7.98%, and on 1-year bonds by one basis point, to 10.74%. To sell $34.6 million worth of 2-year bonds, the Ministry raised the yield by 10 basis points, to 11.8%, according to the Ministry’s websit...

The number of Ukraine’s restaurants and cafes operating has decreased by 21% last year, to 14,700, from 18,600, said Olha Nasonova, the Director of Restaurants of Ukraine analytical center, (Interfax-Ukraine). Repeated lockdowns and the absence of foreign tourists has cut turnover by 30%...

McDonald’s Ukraine plans to invest $42 million this year, creating 4,600 new jobs and opening restaurants in four new cities — Ivano-Frankivsk, Bila Tserkva, Lutsk, and Khmelnytskyi — Yuliya Badritdinova, McDonald’s Managing Director, told ...

Last year, McDonalds invested $25 million, opening five new restaurants, to bring the total number of stores to 98 in 21 Ukrainian cities. While the company maintained its restaurant payroll of 10,000, the number of customers decreased by 20% yoy and sales fell by almost 4% yoy, Badritdinova said at a press conference in Kyiv.

The Rada passed a law yesterday equating digital ‘e-passports’ with conventional paper passports for use inside Ukraine. Part of the government’s ‘state in a smartphone’ program, e-passports are displayed by the increasingly popular Diya app. The passports are issued with a unique electronic identifier, such as a QR cod...

Tuesday, March 30

With the EBRD loaning €450 million for the renovation of the southern half of the Kyiv-Odesa highway and the Lviv northern bypass, the multilateral bank and Ukravtodor are implementing EU-standard anti-corruption standards, Ukravtodor Chairman Oleksandr Kubrakov said during a recent meeting with Matteo Patrone, the EBRD’s regional director. “Together with the EBRD we plan a number of systemic reforms in the industry: fro...

Ukravtodor is protesting an arbitration decision ordering it to return €10.3 million to a Chinese company, Sinohydro, for ending a contract to build the northern bypass of Zhytomyr on the M-06. Six months ago, Ukravtodor ended the contract, charging that the Chinese company completed 49% of the project, far short of ...

As Ukraine embarks on a new motoring era, the country imports about 500,000 cars annually, reports the National Reform Council. To ease the process and cut corruption, this presidential office proposing importing through the Diya app. The new system would cut import costs by one third and c...

Passenger travel was down almost 50% in January-February, compared to the same pre-pandemic period last year, reports the State Statistics Service. The drops: rail – down 49%, to 11.2 million passengers; transport companies down 41%, to 397 million; motor transport down 42%, to 167 million passengers; a...

Monday, March 29

Airlines have started their summer flight schedules this week. Bolstered by increasing acceptance of negative PCR coronavirus tests for international travel. Air links that were suspended one year ago are being renewed to Ukraine.

Ukraine International Airlines this week resumes flights between Kyiv Boryspil and 19 cities: Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona, Baku, Cairo, Chisinau, Dubai, Geneva, Istanbul, Larnaca, London (Heathrow and Gatwick), Milan, Munich, Paris, Prague, Vilnius, Tel Aviv, Tbilisi, and Yerevan. By the end ...

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, has restarted service this week from Ukraine to 18 European cities. From Kyiv Boryspil, Ryanair will fly to Berlin, Bergamo, London, Rome, Sofia, Vienna, Vilnius, Bergamo, and to six Polish cities: Gdansk, Krakow, Katowice, Poznan, Wroclaw and Warsaw. From Odesa, Ryan...

Lufthansa will increase it’s Frankfurt-Kyiv Boryspil frequencies by 50% this week, to twice a day. Last week, Lufthansa restored its Munich-Kyiv flight, to five regular services a week. Next month, Lufthansa will inaugurate its Lviv-Frankfurt route, with four flights a week. In the ...

“The Lufthansa Group believes in the early recovery of the Ukrainian market,” said Rene Koinzach, Lufthansa Group’s regional general director. “Our customers want to travel again, as they did before the crisis. We see an increase in demand amongst travelers from other continents who want to fly through our hub airports to Ukraine.”

Cyprus will reopened to tourists from Ukraine as of Thursday. From a ‘red zone’ such Kyiv, all passengers aged 12 or over must take PCR tests within 72 hours of flying and again on arrival. At Larnaca airport, the analysis costs €30 euros. At Paphos airport, €32...

Wizz Air will recommence services today from Kyiv Sikorsky to Bologna and Catania, and from Lviv to Verona and Catania. Tomorrow, it starts regular flights from Zaporizhia to Milan Malpensa and to Katowice, Po...

SkyUp starts services this week from Kyiv Boryspil to Belgrade, Berlin, Gdansk, Lodz, Memmingen, and Stuttgart. In April and May, SkyUp will expand its schedule with flights from Kyiv to Copenhagen; Düsseldorf; Hamburg; Hannover, Ka...

AirBaltic resumed Riga-Kyiv Boryspil flights last week. Next month, it plans to restore the Riga-Odesa service, followed by Riga-Lviv.

Azerbaijan’s discount airline Buta Airways will resumes flights from Baku to Kyiv Sikorsky on Thursday.

Czech Airlines resumes flights from Prague to Odesa on Saturday.

Bees Airlines, Ukraine’s new discount airline, plans to expand its fleet to six Boeing 737s over the next year. In the past two weeks, Bees started flying from Lviv and Kyiv Sikorsky to Egyptian beach resorts. Ukraine’s State Aviation Service has authorized Bees to flight 31 routes out of Ukraine – 15 reg...