The streets of Kyiv offer a staggering contrast with alarming headlines from the West. Traffic jams keep clogging the Ukrainian capital, people keep flocking shops, and “coming soon” business signs keep appearing at every corner. For many of Ukraine’s foreign investors and local companies, it’s business as usual,
French President Emmanuel Macron is concluding his two-day diplomatic spree with what seems to be little result. The Minsk Agreements are the only way to stop the war in Ukraine and halt Russia's ongoing military build up, Macron said during his joint press conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv
Turkey and Ukraine have straightened bilateral relations on Feb. 3 by signing the long-anticipated free trade agreement. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the signing of the agreement a "historic moment." "We have come a long, difficult way to open new horizons of our cooperation," he added. The signing came amid the
The State Investigation Bureau searched the house of Andriy Kobolyev, former head of the state-owned oil and gas monopolist Naftogaz, on Feb. 1. According to the Bureau, the searches were part of a case set to investigate the legality of an agreement signed by Kobolyev in 2020 to transfer 305
Ukraine could register up to 52,000 daily Covid-19 cases in early February, reaching its peak of incidence, according to the latest report published by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Experts claim that the number of new cases is now doubling every week, and given the experience of
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the U.S. had shared the written response to Kremlin's security demands with Ukraine prior to sending it over to Moscow. "We had seen the written response of the U.S. before it was handed over to Russia. No objections on the Ukrainian side,
A conscripted National Guard member Artem Ryabchuk, 20, was arrested in the city of Dnipro on Jan. 27 after allegedly killing five people on a shooting spree earlier that day. According to the reports, Ryabchuk used the AK-47 gun, that was just given to him, to deadly shoot four National
Representatives of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany met on Jan. 26 in Paris for low-level talks amid Kremlin's growing military buildup. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak praised the renewed talks between the Normandy Format countries upon his arrival to Paris. In Paris, Yermak met with Russian
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture complaint on Jan. 20, with the intention of seizing $6 million from Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky's businesses, allegedly obtained with money stolen and laundered from PrivatBank. Federal prosecutors say Kolomoisky's businesses received the $6 million as proceeds from the sale
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors. The French habit of being fashionably late is at best irritating, at worst dangerous when war is at stake. In his address to the European Parliament on Jan. 19, Macron urged the European Union to
Ukrainian government bonds fell by up to 4.6% on Jan. 17, as Russia continued to mass troops on Ukraine’s border, fuelling fears of a large-scale invasion. Sovereign bond yields are often used as an indicator of foreign investor confidence in a country’s economy: the higher the yield,
The Ministry of Digital Transformation pointed the finger at Russia on Jan. 16, accusing it of being responsible for the massive cyberattack that crashed many government’s websites on the night of Jan. 13-14. “As of now, we can say that all the evidence points to the fact that Russia
The 2022 winter crop harvest will be fruitful, according to experts cited by Agronews, a website specialized in agricultural news in Ukraine. The forecast is based on the weather Ukraine has seen so far, as well as on the results of the tests run by agronomists. The cold winter might
State railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia generated $16 million of profit in 2021, according to the company’s Jan. 12 press release. The company bounced back to profitability after posting a $436 million loss in 2020, but failed to match its 2019 results, when it made a profit of $108 million. Ukrzaliznytsia
While the world prepared to mark the second anniversary of the shooting down of flight PS752 above Tehran that killed 176 people on Jan. 8, 2020, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council secretary Oleksiy Danilov told Voice of America that he considered the incident a to be premeditated terrorist
Josep Borrell, the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, will visit Ukraine from Jan. 4 to Jan. 6 in a show of support for Kyiv amid Russia’s military build-up along its border, the European Commission announced on Jan. 3. Borell will first visit
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expects to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in January to discuss Russia’s military buildup on Ukraine’s border and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, German newspaper Bild reported on Jan. 3, citing an anonymous source. Scholz said he wants a “fresh start” with Putin
U.S. President Joe Biden had a phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Jan. 2 amid Russia's military buildup on Ukraine's border and ongoing tensions. Biden made clear that the U.S. and its allies and partners "will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine," the White
Ukraine is likely to face a new wave of Covid-19 cases starting mid-January and running through February, due to the new highly transmissible strain Omicron, Deputy Minister of Health Ihor Kuzin told the public Ukrainian Radio (Suspilne) on Jan. 1. He said the wave will likely peak in mid-February. Kyiv
Energy company DTEK was forced to import 300 megawatt-hours from Slovakia on the night of Dec. 21 to make up for the emergency shutdown of a faulty coal power unit at its Burshtyn thermal power plant in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. DTEK generates 30% of Ukraine’s electricity and is owned by
Ukraine harvested 106 million tons of cereals, legumes, and oilseeds in 2021 thanks to favorable weather conditions. It is the biggest harvest the country’s ever had since its independence in 1991, according to Roman Leshchenko, the minister of agriculture. The record harvest included more than 84 million tons of
Nine U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill on Dec. 15 allocating $450 million to increase material support for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including funding for weaponry, training, and military reform in 2022. The Guaranteeing Ukraine’s Autonomy by Reinforcing its Defense Act (GUARD Act) includes $100 million for anti-air defense
The European Parliament passed a resolution on Dec. 16 condemning Russia for threatening Ukraine with war and promising a “high economic and political price” for new hostilities. The resolution calling for Russia to withdraw its forces was approved by 548 votes of 705 members. “Russia does not decide Ukraine’s
President Volodymyr Zelensky held meetings with the leaders of France and Germany to gather support for Ukraine on Dec. 15 in Brussels, on the sidelines of the European Union’s Eastern Partnership summit. The Eastern Partnership is a joint initiative organized by the EU and dedicated to the development of
The billion-dollar court case against exiled tycoon Oleh Bakhmatyuk is a depressingly familiar reminder of Ukraine’s elite-level embezzlement problem. The former billionaire is being sued by U.S. investment fund Gramercy, which alleges that Bakhmatyuk, the majority shareholder and board chairman of agricultural giant UkrLandFarming, siphoned $1 billion out
French President Emmanuel Macron held a phone conversation with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Dec. 10 about unblocking the Normandy Format amid Russian troops’ movement surrounding Ukraine since November and fear of a large-scale invasion. The leaders of the Normandy Format countries – Ukraine, France, Germany, and Russia – have not met since
U.S. investment fund Gramercy filed a complaint in a U.S. federal court on Dec. 7 against exiled Ukrainian billionaire Oleh Bakhmatyuk and U.S. businessman Nicholas Piazza for allegedly siphoning $1 billion out of Bakhmatyuk's UkrLandFarming, the largest egg producer in Ukraine. Gramercy, which is a major lender
The state electricity grid operator Ukrenergo will replace the majority of its supervisory board members by Dec. 9, according to a document from the Ministry of Energy obtained by news outlet Ekonomichna Pravda. The reshuffle was scheduled because the previous members' three-year terms expired in October. Ensuring that Ukrenergo has
Ukrainian households borrowed roughly $1.8 billion (Hr 49 billion) in microloans between January and October 2021, according to Opendatabot. That’s $10 million more than in all of 2020. The average loan amounted to $165 (Hr 4,500). These kinds of small loans are heavily advertised on Ukrainian TV
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine is launching a new state airlines company on Nov. 25, saying it was “a matter of prestige.” French aircraft manufacturer Airbus might provide up to 20 planes to build the airlines’ new fleet, according to a memorandum of understanding signed between the company and
The Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, has uncovered a bot farm responsible for over 20,000 fake online accounts used to write disparaging content about Ukraine. The enforcers made an announcement on Nov. 25. The SBU confiscated computers and more than 3,000 sim cards from the suspects. The
The government has allocated $6.5 million to monitor the Belarusian border to prevent groups of illegal migrants from crossing. The joint operation was launched on Nov. 23. It will be coordinated by the Border Guard Service and carried out by the National Guard, the National Police and the Armed
