Excerpts from the most important news on Ukraine
The cabinet overhaul prompted Morgan Stanley to cut Ukraine’s hard-currency debt to ‘dislike’
06.03.2020
The cabinet overhaul prompted Morgan Stanley to cut Ukraine’s hard-currency debt to ‘dislike’, strategists Alina Slyusarchuk and Simon Waever wrote Thursday morning in an emailed report, ubn.news reports.By the end of the day, Ukraine’s dollar-denominated sovereign bonds had suffered a second day of sharp declines. The 2032 bond fell 3.76 cents in the dollar to 105.51 cents, according to Refinitiv.Both the 2027 and 2028 issues lost more than two cents as well. Many bonds traded at multi-month lows.Deutsche Bank risk losing access to the UK market following Brexit
04.03.2020
Bank of England officials have voiced concerns that Deutsche Bank is failing to improve its anti-money laundering (AML) controls and have warned the German lender that it could lose access to the UK market following Brexit, the Financial Times reported.The bank’s latest compliance troubles come four years after it was first censured by British regulators and placed under special supervision by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for “serious” and “systemic” violations tied to its AML, terrorist financing and sanctions controls, according ...The government of Ukraine is considering retroactive drastic cuts to solar subsidies
04.03.2020
The Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine is considering slashing feed-in tariffs (FITs) for existing large scale PV plants 15-25%, trade body the Ukrainian Association of Renewable Energy (UARE) has told pv magazine.The government has suggested PV plant operators accept a ‘voluntary’ 12.5% reduction in feed-in tariffs. If developers refuse, policymakers could impose 15-25% cuts, albeit with payment contracts extended five years. Renewables lobby group the UARE said the proposals flew in the face of plans announced by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky ...Pentagon signs contract for Javelin production for Ukraine
01.03.2020
The United States Department of Defense has signed a new contract for the production of Javelin anti-tank missile systems for partner countries, including Ukraine. The total cost of the contract exceeds $18 million, according to a report on the website of the U.S. Department of Defense.“Raytheon/Lockheed Martin Javelin JV, Tucson, Arizona, was awarded an $18,431,215 modification (P00022) to contract W31P4Q-19-C-0059,” the statement reads. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of June 25, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and ...Ukraine has increased exports of IT services to $4.17 billion
01.03.2020
Ukraine has increased exports of IT services in 2019 by 30.2%, to $4.17 billion, according to a posting on the website of the IT Ukraine Association, referring to data of Ukraine’s balance of payment.“The export of computer services in 2019 increased by 30.2% compared to the previous year and amounted to $4.17 billion. Accordingly, the amount of taxes and duties paid to the national budget of Ukraine increased by 28% and amounts to UAH 16.7 billion (an increase of 28.5%),” ...russia pursues policy of cultural destruction of ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars
01.03.2020
Ukraine tries to prove at the UN International Court of Justice that the russian Federation pursues a policy of cultural destruction of ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars in the occupied Crimea, reports Ukrinform.The statement was made by Oksana Zolotariova, the Director of the International Law Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, at the Age of Crimea forum dedicated to the Day of Crimea’s Resistance to russian Occupation, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.“At the United Nations International Court of ...“Hybrid war” is being waged against the key management in PrivatBank – CEO
01.03.2020
PrivatBank Chief Petr Krumphanzl says there is a “hybrid war” being waged against the bank’s key management, in comments to the FT.Krumphanzl says he faces six “spurious” criminal investigations as active investigations into PrivatBank by multiple law enforcement agencies continue. The IMF has agreed a $5.5 billion loan for Ukraine contingent on the government’s safeguarding of the 2016 bank clean-up.He told the FT “If the rhetoric changes and the IMF’s position becomes negative, then many of these investors ...Ukraine is among the world’s top outsourcing service providers
01.03.2020
The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) has published the 2020 Global Outsourcing 100 list of the world’s best outsourcing service providers.The Association annually selects the best companies according to four criteria: customer references, certification and award, innovation, and corporate social responsibility.In 2020, the top 100 includes 13 Ukrainian companies and 8 companies with offices in Ukraine. Last year, 18 Ukrainian companies made the listPolice raid homes of Ukrainian Cyber Alliance hacktivists
28.02.2020
On February 25, using the search warrant issued by a court in the city of Odesa, Ukrainian police conducted searches of the homes of several leaders of the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance (UCA) and their relatives, informnapalm.org reports.The warrant was issued in the case of the defacement of the information board of Odesa International Airport on October 16, 2019. For a short period of time on that day, logos of airlines on the board were replaced by a photo of Greta Thunberg with ...Reddit opens an office in Kyiv
26.02.2020
The U.S. social platform Reddit, which poses itself as a “front page of the internet”, is exploring the world’s “brain basket” and tapping the pool of Ukrainian local tech professionals.Reddit has offices around the world, in the U.S. and Europe, and many remote employees. “We chose Kyiv because there are a lot of technically skilled engineers who are interested in product development,” told Reddit’s senior user experience designer Pavlo Grozian to AIN.UA.Reddit announced about office opening in Kyiv to work on the ...Seaport Pivdenny increased freight shipment by 28.5%
26.02.2020
Ukraine’s largest seaport Pivdenny handled 4.6 million tons of cargo in January, a 28.5% increase compared to the same period of last year, according to the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority.During this month, the port’s transshipment of exported cargo went up to 3.1 million tons, a 9.4.% increase, whereas imported cargo went up to 0.88 million tons, which is 2.5 times more compared to last year. Altogether, the port handled 53.9 million tons of cargo in 2019, a 26.1% increase compared to ...Ukraine quadrupled grain exports
26.02.2020
Ukraine quadrupled grain exports in the last decade, according to Mykola Pugachev deputy director of the National Scientific Center’s Institute of Agrarian Economics.In 2019, 56.7 million tons of grain were exported to foreign markets – four times more than in 2010 and 36% more than in 2018.Egypt, China, Spain, Turkey, Bangladesh were the top five purchasers of Ukraine’s grain exports in 2019
