Excerpts from the most important news on Ukraine
SBU asked PrivatBank to stop filing new lawsuits against former owners
26.12.2019
With PrivatBank’s new management pursuing hundreds of millions of dollars in claims against the bank’s former owners in London, Tel Aviv and Delaware, the State Security Service, or SBU, has asked the bank to stop filing new lawsuits.Volodymyr Horbenko, the deputy head of SBU, wrote that foreign lawsuits “may negatively affect the conduct of pretrial criminal investigations into banking offenses .” Three years ago, American forensic auditor Kroll reported on a “large-scale and coordinated fraud” scheme that emptied ...Site of the world’s worst nuclear energy disaster sees visitor numbers increase by 75%
25.12.2019
The number of tourists visiting the Chornobyl Exclusive Zone jumped by almost 75% year-on-year in the first ten months of 2019, according to figures released towards the end of the year by the state agency responsible for managing the site of the world’s worst atomic energy disaster. During the January-October period, 107,600 people visited the zone, representing a 74.9% increase on the comparative figure for one year earlier, bunews.com.ua reports.Uniquely among Ukraine’s tourist attractions, the majority of Chornobyl visitors have ...InformNapalm: russian representatives should be removed from OSCE SMM
24.12.2019
From the beginning of the aggression, russia claimed that it was not involved in the war in Donbas, consistently repeating the mantra about the russian army not being in Ukraine, which gave birth to a meme #IkhTamNiet literally meaning “they-are-not-there”. However, the UN court in The Hague recognized the claim of Ukraine as legitimate and henceforth russia is not any longer in the position to deny its involvement in the war. russia is a party to the conflict. It has been ...Rolling Stone listed Ukrainian movie as one of the 50 best films of the decade
23.12.2019
Rolling Stone has listed Ukrainian film “The Tribe” as one of the 50 best films of the decade. Myroslav Slaboshpitsky’s film ranked 48th, beating “Black Panther” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”“Most films try to bombard the senses — Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s suffocatingly tense debut was the decade’s most innovative use of sensory deprivation,” the magazine reports.The Tribe immerses you in a school for the deaf, where a new student in a Ukrainian school for the deaf quickly ...Fitch affirms 4 Ukrainian state-owned banks’ ratings
23.12.2019
Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of JSC CB Privatbank (Privat), JSC State Savings Bank of Ukraine (Oschad), JSC The State Export-Import Bank of Ukraine (Ukrexim) and Public Joint-Stock Company Joint Stock Bank Ukrgasbank (UGB) at ‘B’, with Positive Outlooks.At the same time, Fitch has upgraded Privat’s Viability Rating (VR) to ‘b’ from ‘b-‘, affirmed the ‘b-‘ VRs of the other three state-owned banks and removed all four entities’ VRs from Rating Watch Positive (RWP). ...russia will have to find alternative ships to finish Nord Stream 2
23.12.2019
Allseas, the Swiss-Dutch company laying the pipe, stopped work Friday, hours after President Trump signed a bill sanctioning companies working on the line, ubn.news reports.Two days earlier, U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson sent a letter to Allseas CEO Edward Heerema, saying the sanctions bill was “passed specifically to immediately halt your company’s work on Nord Stream 2.” They added: “The consequences of your company continuing to do the work for even a single day after the ...Ukrainian diplomat: moscow was once subordinate to Kyiv
21.12.2019
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry condemns russia’s encroachment, in any form, on the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including in the form of an allegedly historical narrative of russian President Vladimir putin, Ukrinform reports.Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Vasyl Bodnar said this in Ukraine’s parliament on Friday.“We unequivocally condemn any attempt by the russian Federation to encroach on the territorial integrity of Ukraine. A statement will be made today,” Bodnar said.He said that “no narrative of putin, none of his ...Italian court used russian fake news in Markiv case
19.12.2019
A large amount of “evidence” in the case of Vitaliy Markiv, a Ukrainian National Guard serviceman convicted in Italy, has been used from russian propaganda sources, Ukrinform reports.This is stated in an article titled “How russian Propaganda Showed Up in an Italian Murder Trial,” which was published in The New York Times on December 17.As it turned out, among the evidence presented by Italian prosecutors were reports from publications that are generally considered outlets for russian propaganda. In particular, video materials bearing ...PrivatBank initiated new $600 mln claim against former owners
19.12.2019
PrivatBank initiated a new $600 million claim in Tel Aviv District Court against its former owners and other defenders, according to the press service of PrivatBank, Ukrinform reports.“The bank initiated a new claim in Tel Aviv District Court in Israel against former bank owners and other defendants. The claim is $600 million,” the statement said.Following further analysis, PrivatBank increased the amount of the claims in the Delaware Court of Chancery in the United States, and filed a supplementary claim. PrivatBank is continuing preparations ...UN General Assembly condemns russia for trying to legitimize its attempted annexation of Crimea
19.12.2019
The UN General Assembly at a plenary meeting on December 18 adopted the resolution “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine.” 65 countries voted in favor of the resolution, 23 countries voted against, and 83 abstained, Ukrinform reports.The resolution condemns all attempts by the russian Federation to legitimize or normalize its attempted annexation of Crimea, including the automatic imposition of russian citizenship, illegal election campaigns and change of the demographic structure of the ...DBI Hotels & Resorts launches a major project in Zhytomyr
19.12.2019
Switzerland’s DBI Hotels & Resorts launches a major hotel project in central Zhytomyr. The company is refurbishing an eight-story hotel, converting it into 145 bedrooms, and a 10,000 square meter co-working space.“The idea behind the concept is to create a mini-community, which should boost the local economy,” says spokesperson Yulia Panchuk.The company is creating six other properties in Ukraine including a resort in the Carpathian Mountains.Ryanair started international flights from Kherson
18.12.2019
Ryanair started international flights Tuesday from Kherson — a twice-weekly flight to Krakow. On Jan. 15 Ryanair plans to start flights to another Polish city, Katowice. On March 30, Ryanair’s Austrian unit, Lauda will start a Kherson-Vienna flight. Kherson is the fifth city in Ukraine to host Ryanair, joining Kyiv Boryspil, Kharkiv, Lviv, and Odesa.With as many as one-third of passengers coming from Crimea, this southern Ukraine airport offers UIA flights to Kyiv and Turkish Airlines flights to Istanbul. SkyUp ...
