The Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine (Ministry of Development) and the Ministry of Transport of Norway have agreed to extend the liberalization of freight transport until the end of 2025 with the possibility of automatic renewal.
“Transport visa-free travel” is about strengthening economic ties, saving resources, and improving business efficiency. I am grateful to our partners in the Norwegian government for supporting this decision. We are working to expand these opportunities next year,” said Deputy Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine, Minister of Community and Territorial Development Oleksiy Kuleba in a press release.
It is noted that the liberalization of transport with Norway has been extended for the second time. The first such agreement between the countries was reached in August 2023. To date, “transport visa-free travel” is available with 35 countries, including the EU.
The Ministry of Development reminds that drivers must have a certificate confirming the environmental class of the vehicle on board in order to take advantage of the transport liberalization conditions.
As reported, in April, “transport visa-free travel” between Ukraine and the EU was extended until the end of 2025.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says that 5.6 million hectares of spring cereals and legumes and 7.7 million hectares of industrial crops have been sown in Ukraine.
“Farmers are completing the fourth spring sowing during a full-scale war. 5.6 million hectares of spring grains and legumes have been sown. We have reached last year’s level. The highest sowing rates are in the Poltava, Chernihiv, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, and Sumy regions,” Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.
According to him, a distinctive feature of this season is an increase in the area under spring wheat, which currently stands at almost 220,000 hectares, due to demand from processing companies and exporters.
“In addition, 7.7 million hectares have been sown with industrial crops, mainly sunflowers (4.9 million hectares) and soybeans (2.3 million hectares),” the prime minister said.
Shmyhal stressed that the total area sown is sufficient to meet domestic food needs and develop export potential.
US investment company Brookfield Asset Management will invest up to SEK 95 billion ($9.87 billion) in an artificial intelligence data center in Strängnäs, Sweden, near Stockholm, according to a company statement.
The facility will be located on a site covering approximately 3.77 million square feet (350,000 square meters). Construction will take 10-15 years.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson welcomed Brookfield’s plans, writing on social media that the data center will be one of the largest of its kind in Europe.
In February, it was announced that Brookfield plans to invest €20 billion in the construction of data centers and the development of AI infrastructure in France over the next five years.
Who received the largest fine for riding a scooter last year?
According to the court registry search engine “Babushka,” 71 court cases involving electric scooters were recorded in 2024. Such violations are usually punishable by fines ranging from 340 to 34,000 hryvnia and sometimes by the revocation of driving privileges. The largest fine was imposed on a man who was driving an electric scooter while intoxicated in Odesa.
Last year, 71 offenses involving electric scooter enthusiasts were recorded in Babushka. Over the course of the year, such cases increased by 42%. Already this year, the court registry has recorded at least 17 such cases.
Scooter drivers usually appear in administrative offenses. For example, this year, 13 administrative and 4 criminal cases have been recorded. For comparison, last year there were 64 administrative and 7 criminal cases, respectively.
The maximum fine for drunk driving was imposed on an electric scooter driver in Odesa in June 2024. It turned out that the man did not have a driver’s license and was not riding a scooter while drunk for the first time. The court fined him 34,000 hryvnias and ordered him to pay court costs. It should be noted that if the defendant had a driver’s license, he would have been deprived of his driving privileges for such a violation.
Another 17 people have been fined 17,000 hryvnia over the past two years. Fifteen of them were driving a scooter while intoxicated, and two were under the influence of drugs. Three people were banned from driving for a year.
Since 2023, all electric scooters (monowheels, Segways, etc.) have been recognized as vehicles, which has allowed the police and courts to hold electric scooter drivers administratively liable on the same basis as car drivers. However, there are still no specific rules and responsibilities for electric scooter drivers. This conflict could be resolved by draft laws 3023 of 2020 and 10441 of 2024, which have been pending in the Verkhovna Rada for a long time, according to Mykola Polyukhovych, a member of the traffic safety council of the NGO U-Cycle (Kyiv Cyclists Association).
“Electric scooter drivers are not allowed to ride on sidewalks, and there is currently no bicycle infrastructure for them, which can only be used by cyclists, which would be appropriate given the similarity of their characteristics. Therefore, scooter riders must ride exclusively on the roadway, following the traffic rules on a general basis, for violation of which they are held liable — after all, a vehicle equipped with an electric motor is a source of increased danger to other road users. “Given the almost unrestricted access to electric scooters, as well as the growing number of cases of such drivers being held liable by the police and courts, this issue needs to be regulated by law,” comments Mykola Polyukhovych.
Source: https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/electroscooters-courts-2024
The income of Ukrainian publishers in 2024 increased by 31% compared to 2023, according to a report by the Ukrainian Book Institute (UBI).
“The annual report ‘Indicators of the Book Industry in Ukraine-2024’ was presented, during which the Ukrainian Book Institute presented the main indicators of the book industry for 2024, along with proposals for the development of the ‘Books on the Market’ catalog as a monitoring tool,” the report said.
The UIC notes that last year, Ukrainian book publishing showed signs of recovery: publishers’ revenues grew by 31% compared to 2023, and the total annual circulation increased by 21%; the Ukrainian book market saw a 31% increase in revenues and 33 million copies sold per year.
“There are over 350 publishing houses operating in Ukraine. Books can be purchased in almost 800 offline bookstores and 80 online stores. The total market volume is estimated at UAH 8 billion, which is about $200 million,” the report said.
According to the UIC, in 2024, 15,601 thousand book titles were published with a total circulation of 33.315 million copies.
The turnover of retail trade in Ukraine in January-March 2025 increased by 5.1% compared to the same period in 2024, according to the State Statistics Service (Derzhstat).
According to its data, in nominal terms, retail trade turnover in January-March of this year amounted to UAH 577.932 billion.
Retail trade turnover in March compared to February of this year increased by 11.5%, and in annual terms compared to March 2024, by 5.3%.
Derzhstat specifies that the turnover of retail trade enterprises (legal entities) in the first quarter of 2025 compared to January-March 2024 increased by 4.8% and amounted to UAH 400.757 billion.
At the same time, in March compared to February this year, the retail turnover of enterprises increased by 11.6%, and by March 2024 – by 4.9%.
According to the statistics office, Ukraine’s retail trade turnover in 2024 grew by 11.5%, amounting to UAH 2.172 trillion in nominal terms.
The State Statistics Service reminds that the data does not include the territories temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation and parts of the territories where hostilities are (were) ongoing.
