This week, the world watched in anticipation for Russia’s Victory Day parade after President Volodymyr Zelensky commented that he could not guarantee the safety of those attending. Meanwhile, the European Union moves one step forward to banning Russian gas from the European continent. It is also revealed this week that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fallen out of step with the White House.
"(Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin... doesn't want to have a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the bloodbath. Ukraine should agree to this, immediately," U.S. President Donald Trump said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to to Antalya, Turkey, for a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting from May 14–16, where he is expected to address the war in Ukraine and push for stronger Allied defense commitments.
The Kremlin said the leaders held a detailed discussion about the Russian initiative and Erdogan expressed full support, reiterating Turkey’s readiness to provide a venue and assist in organizing the negotiations.
Erdogan told Macron that international cooperation is critical for initiating peace negotiations and the "sensitive implementation" of Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction processes, the Turkish Presidency reported.
The assault began around 2 a.m. on May 11, with Russian forces deploying 108 Shahed-type attack drones and decoy UAVs from multiple directions, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
"Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved as this never ending 'bloodbath' hopefully comes to an end... I will continue to work with both sides to make sure that it happens."
U.S. State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce called for "concrete proposals from both sides" in order for Washington to "move forward" in peace negotiations.
Empty retail unit available to let in Odesa. (Julia Kochetova/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The number of job vacancies in Ukraine reached its highest level last month since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Opendatabot said on Oct. 6.
There were 105,000 vacancies on the website Work.ua in September.
Kyiv Oblast took the top spot with 34,576 job offers, followed by Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (10,153), and Lviv Oblast (9,994). Together with Odesa and Kharkiv Oblast, the five regions account for 62% of all job vacancies in Ukraine.
Regions with active hostilities such as Luhansk, Donetsk and Kherson predictably have the lowest number of job offers. Partially occupied Zaporizhia Oblast, one of Ukraine’s industrial heartlands, still had 1,899 vacancies.
Despite the large number of job offers, the number of candidates is dropping. New and updated resumes on Work.ua decreased by 4% from August to 335,000.
The primary job seekers are sales consultants, administrators, sales managers, accountants, and drivers.
Even Ukraine’s IT sector which previously saw fierce levels of competition last year dropped by 4% in a month to 18,700 candidates. The number of job offers from IT companies declined by 3% in August to 9,964 jobs.
At the same time, entrepreneurs involved in trade and services are ordering fewer products. The city of Kharkiv recorded a huge decline of 16%, followed by Dnipro (10%), Lviv (8%) and Kyiv (7%).
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported in August that many businesses are struggling to fill positions due to the mass migration of Ukrainians abroad as well as qualification mismatches.
“Job seekers find themselves offering a certain set of skills while employers are looking for different ones,” the NBU said.
Nevertheless, the bank notes that unemployment is gradually declining in Ukraine and could fall to 16.9% in 2024 from 19% this year.
Dominic is the business reporter for the Kyiv Independent. He has written for a number of publications including the Financial Times, bne IntelliNews, Radio Free Europe/Liberty, Euronews and New Eastern Europe. Previously, Dominic worked with StopFake as a disinformation expert, debunking Russian fake news in Europe.
