Excerpts from the most important news on Ukraine
Ukraine climbs 13 positions in Open Budget Index
07.05.2020
Ukraine is up by 13 positions in the Open Budget Index. The ranking is calculated every two years with countries ranged according to their budget openness.Within these overall trends, OBS 2019 finds that countries at any level of development can perform well on budget transparency: South Africa and Brazil are upper-middle-income countries and provide extensive budget information to the public.The Kyrgyz Republic and Ukraine are both lower-middle-income countries that made substantial gains in budget transparency in recent ...Amazon continues to profit from symbols of russia’s war in Ukraine
06.05.2020
The war between russia and Ukraine that resulted in more than 13,000 killed and 1.5 million displaced Ukrainians may seem to be over for many people in the West, but it continues.And while russia is waging an illegal war in the Ukrainian Donbas and occupies Crimea, Amazon continues to profit from the symbols of that conflict. The retail platform allows selling merchandise with images that represent puppet pseudo-states established and funded by russia.During the russian Empire, later under Soviet ...Ukrainian company introduced commercial vehicle with an innovative magnetless electric motor
01.05.2020
Murmuration Technology from Kryvyi Rih introduced its first model of the compact commercial vehicle with an innovative magnetless electric motor, reports Ukraine Invest.The main feature of the #CoolOn truck is an electric motor of its own design and manufacture. The car is available with front or all-wheel drive, developing power from 30 to 80 kW. The presented version of the CoolOn electric truck is not final yet, its design will be further developed. The company is using the maximum quantity of Ukrainian components, ...The GDP of the Eurozone may decline by 12% in 2020
01.05.2020
The GDP of the Eurozone, Ukraine’s largest bloc trading partner, may decline by 5-12% this year due to coronavirus lockdown measures, estimates Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, ubn.news reports.During the first quarter the Eurozone GDP dropped by 3.8%, the worst drop since statistic taking started for the Eurozone, in 1995. In the second quarter, from April to June, the drop could be as much as 15% y-o-y.“The eurozone economy is facing an economic downturn, the scale and ...Ukraine’s grain harvest will be down by 20% this year due to drought
01.05.2020
Dry weather, bordering on drought, will push Ukraine’s grain harvest down by 20% this year, from last year’s record 75 million tons, predicts the Ministry of Economic Development of Trade and Agriculture, ubn.news reports.“Due to moisture deficit and economic factors caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, farmers will collect 60 million tons of grain and leguminous crops,” the Ministry says in a statement.Despite the dry land, about half of the spring sowing of corn and sunflower is complete. In the second ...Senior FSB official identified as key figure in MH17 case
01.05.2020
In November 2019, the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) announced the broadening of its criminal investigation into the shoot-down of MH17 to encompass the role of individuals within russia’s military and administrative hierarchy who enabled the tragedy, reports Bellingcat.The JIT made public 23 telephone intercepts from the days before the shootdown, which appeared to prove the close involvement of russian officials with fostering and funding the war in Eastern Ukraine — as well as directly coordinating with and providing substantial ...russian Special Services Want to Poison Czech Politicians
29.04.2020
Three weeks ago, a man with a russian diplomatic passport arrived at Václav Havel Airport from russia. Sources claim that the passenger traveled with a briefcase in which he had the deadly poison ricin, Respekt reports. The security forces knew about his arrival and evaluated the men as an immediate risk for a pair of Czech politicians, whose actions in recent months have provoked the wrath of moscow.Among them, the mayor of Prague 6 district, Ondrej Kolar, who had removed a ...Ukraine is developing next generation of Kolchuga system
27.04.2020
State Enterprise “Scientific and Production Complex “Iskra” proposed to develop and put into production a new Radio Intelligence Station (RTR), which will surpass the capabilities of its renowned predecessor Kolchuga-M, Yuri Pashchenko, the director of “Iskra”, said in an interview with Defense Express.“At some point, we have raised the question of resuming the production of the Kolchuga-M as it is. But because of its documentation, according to the designers, including those related to its creation, is simply unrealistic. We decided that ...Naftogaz wants to create a duty-free oil storage system in Ukraine
27.04.2020
With the world awash in cheap oil, Naftogaz wants to create a duty-free oil storage system in Ukraine, Andriy Kobolyev, CEO of the state energy company, ubn.news reports.Three years ago, Naftogaz launched a duty-free gas storage system, opening up 10 underground reservoirs in western Ukraine. Increasingly popular with European gas traders, this ‘customs warehouse’ allows companies to store gas paying a rental fee, but no import duties or taxes.With international oil companies desperately seeking storage, Kobolyev believes Naftogaz could earn $1 to ...Ukraine develops high-precision missile system for helicopters
25.04.2020
Luch construction bureau and Izyum Instrument-Making Plant are developing the latest high-precision missile system, which will be installed on upgraded Mi-8MSB-V helicopters, Defense Express reports.This new guided missile, RK-10, will be equipped with the OPSN-1 most-advanced optical guidance system. The development of a new missile with a range of 10 km is nearing completion, and it will replace the Barrier-V system with a range of 8 km.The new missile will be used as part of a high-precision missile system ...Fitch Ratings downgrades Ukraine’s outlook to stable
25.04.2020
Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlook on Ukraine’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to Stable from Positive and affirmed the IDR at ‘B’.“The revision of Ukraine’s Outlook to Stable reflects the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic… The heightened macroeconomic and fiscal risks associated with this unprecedented global shock will partially reverse Ukraine’s improvements in recent years in terms of a declining debt burden, the normalisation of growth prospects after the 2014-2015 geopolitical and economic crises, and reduced growth ...Ukraine rises to 11th place in ranking of world’s largest steel producers
25.04.2020
Ukraine climbed to 11th place in the ranking of the world’s largest steel producers in the first quarter of 2020, Ukrmetalurgprom Association reported.“Ukraine climbed to 11th position among 62 world’s largest steel producers (5.32 million tonnes or 96.6% against Q1 2019), shifting Italy to 12th position,” reads the statement. At the same time, Ukraine fell from 9th to 10th position among 40 world’s largest pig iron producers, giving way to USA.In the ranking of the world’s largest pig iron producers, ...
