On Tuesday, May 27, the Council of the European Union will hold a hearing on depriving Hungary of its voting rights in the Council, according to the agenda of the General Affairs Council of the European Union. This will be the eighth hearing on Hungary’s violations.
The procedure regarding Hungary’s possible violation of Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union was launched back in 2018. At that time, the European Parliament expressed its concern about the situation in Hungary, in particular regarding the functioning of the constitutional and electoral systems, the independence of the judiciary and other institutions, the rights of judges, corruption and conflicts of interest, confidentiality and data protection, freedom of expression, academic freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of association, the right to equal treatment, the rights of persons belonging to minorities, including Roma and Jews, and protection against hate speech against such minorities, the fundamental rights of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees, as well as economic and social rights.
On May 22, KP “Mykolaizaliznyk” announced a tender for the purchase of compulsory civil liability insurance services for owners of ground vehicles (OSAGO) for trolleybuses.
According to the announcement in the Prozorro electronic public procurement system, the expected cost is UAH 739,498 thousand. Documents will be accepted until May 30.
PJSC Ukrnaftoburinnya, managed by PJSC Ukrnafta, received UAH 1.19 billion in net profit in 2024, of which UAH 1.074 billion was allocated to the state budget, according to a press release from Ukrnafta on Thursday.
“In August 2024, Ukrnaftoburinnya resumed work at the Sakhalin field in the Kharkiv region. The company’s net profit for 2024 is UAH 1.19 billion. Today, UAH 1.074 billion, or 90% of net profit, was paid to the state budget,” said Yuriy Tkachuk, acting director of Ukrnafta.
In turn, according to the head of the National Agency for Asset Tracing and Management (ARMA) Olena Duma, the Sakhalin field is an example of how effective management and a clear legal position can yield concrete results for the economy in wartime.
“We are showing that seized assets can work for the state today,” Duma is quoted as saying in a press release from Ukrnafta.
The company recalled that in July 2024, Ukrnafta transferred a tranche of UAH 747.7 million to the state budget of Ukraine, received from the management of Ukrnaftoburinnya.
In July 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine transferred the corporate rights of PJSC Ukrnaftoburinnya to PJSC Ukrnafta. In December 2023, the court suspended gas production at the Sakhalin field located in the Bohodukhiv district of the Kharkiv region. However, in August 2024, the company resumed its work and, according to Ukrnafta, has been working to increase production ever since.
Ukrnaftoburinnya is one of the largest private gas production companies in Ukraine. Since 2010, it has been developing the Sakhalin oil and gas condensate field with reserves of 15 billion cubic meters of gas.
The volume of grain transported by Ukrzaliznytsia in January-April 2025 decreased by almost 33% compared to the same period last year, to 10.092 million tons, according to Valery Tkachov, deputy director of the company’s commercial department.
“From January to April, 10.092 million tons of grain were transported by rail. Compared to last year, we have seen a decline in transportation of almost 33%, or 4.96 million tons,” Tkachov said at an online meeting with the agricultural market on Thursday.
According to him, one of the reasons for the decline is the large volumes of transportation in the first half of 2024, related to the operation of the “grain corridor,” which started in October 2023.
“Due to the fact that the ‘grain corridor’ began operating in October 2023, farmers did not have time to harvest their crops, and therefore these volumes were transferred to the first half of 2024,” Tkachev explained.
Another reason for the reduction in grain shipments by rail in 2025 is a slight decrease in the grain harvest.
The third reason is the lack of complete data in the system, as due to the cyberattack on March 23, shipping documents were issued in paper form for some time. On April 4, Tkachov reported that since the date of the cyberattack, shippers had issued more than 50,000 documents in paper form, and that this number had now been reduced to 4,000. He admitted that once all transport documents had been entered into the electronic system, the freight vertical’s performance indicators would be adjusted.
Of the 10.092 million tons of grain transported in January-April, 8.958 million tons were exported, with exports amounting to 2.76 million tons in January, 2.25 million tons in February, 1.68 million tons in March, and 1.1 million tons in April.
The volume of grain transported in the first 20 days of May amounted to 1.207 million tons, with an average daily load of approximately 73,000 tons.
At the same time, 89% of the grain transported by rail in May was destined for ports, compared to 92.6% in April and 90% in March. Only 10% of all grain transported for export went through western land crossings.
The situation is different for vegetable oil, with only 37.1% of the total volume transported to ports in May. In April, this figure reached 47.3%. The rest of the oil is transported through western land crossings. In total, 511.4 thousand tons of oil and 799.4 thousand tons of oilcake and meal were exported in the first four months of 2025.
Ukrainian tour operator Join UP! provided services to over 730,000 tourists in eight markets in 2024, according to Marina Dayneko, head of the Join UP! sales office, in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
“We provided services to over 260,000 tourists from Ukraine (+10% compared to 2023). The Polish unit served 142,000 tourists, a sixfold increase compared to 2023, over 113,000 tourists from the three Baltic countries (up 12%), almost 110,000 from Moldova (+40%), more than 62,000 from Romania (2.4 times more) and 43,000 from Kazakhstan (+65%). We are seeing growth in all markets,” she said.
As reported, the travel company Join UP! LLC was established in 2013 with a registered capital of UAH 72,671,000. The ultimate beneficiaries are Yuriy and Oleksandr Alby. According to the OpenDataBot service, at the end of 2024, the tour operator’s revenue decreased to 376,000 UAH from 16.639 million UAH in 2023, and its net loss decreased to 217.451 million from 233.341 million, respectively.
The brand’s international expansion covers eight markets: the Baltic states, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic. Preparations are underway to launch operations in Slovakia and Hungary. Last year, the brand also opened its first franchise agency on the international market in Katowice, Poland.
Ukraine has extended anti-dumping duties on imports of cement from Moldova, Russia, and Belarus, as well as coated rolled metal products from China and Russia, for five years. According to a statement released by the
Ministry of Economy on Thursday, the decision was made by the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade (ICIT) on May 21, 2025, following appeals from Ukrainian companies.
“If you are a manufacturer and face aggressive non-market competition, please contact the Ministry of Economy to initiate anti-dumping investigations. Ukraine adheres to the principles of openness but is ready to protect its market in accordance with WTO rules,” the release quotes First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko as saying.
As reported, in 2019, the ICIT imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of cement clinker and Portland cement to Ukraine under codes 2523 10 and 2523 29, at the following rates: 57.03% on cement from Belarus; 94.46% on cement from Moldova; 114.95% on cement from Russia. The duties were imposed for a period of five years. In May last year, at the request of Dickerhoff Cement Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivskcement, supported by
Kryvyi Rih Cement, the ICIT initiated a review of these duties, which extended their validity for up to one year.
As it became known at the conference “Trade Wars: The Art of Defense,” organized by Ilyashev & Partners in Kyiv this week, Lafarge Ciment (Moldova) SA offered voluntary price restrictions in order to return to the
Ukrainian market. Market participants called for the proposed prices to be made public.
As for imports into Ukraine of certain types of rolled steel with anti-corrosion coating originating from Russia and China, anti-dumping measures were introduced in 2019 for five years for manufacturers/exporters of goods from Russia at a rate of 47.57% and from China at a rate of 22.78%. In May last year, at the request of PJSC Mariupol Metallurgical Plant named after Ilyich and LLC Unistil, the MCMT launched a new investigation as part of a review of these duties.
BELARUS, CEMENT, CHINA, IMPORT, MOLDOVA, rolled metal, RUSSIA
