Geographical structure of Ukraine’s foreign trade (imports) in January-December 2024, million USD
Against the backdrop of pan-European support for Ukraine, Ukrainians’ attitude towards Slovakia remains controversial. These data were published in April 2025 based on the results of a study conducted by Active Group and the Experts Club analytical center.
According to the survey, only 19.8% of Ukrainians have a positive attitude toward Slovakia (16.4% — mostly positive, 3.4% — completely positive). At the same time, 34.6% of respondents expressed a negative attitude (27.3% — mostly negative, 7.3% — completely negative). The majority of respondents (41.5%) chose a neutral position, while another 4.1% were undecided.
“Despite geographical proximity and some humanitarian support, public opinion on Slovakia has been shaped by political fluctuations and weak communication on issues related to aid to Ukraine,” said Maxim Urakin, founder of Experts Club.
The survey emphasizes that even neutral or allied countries can lose trust if they do not support it with active actions and a public position.
The presentation of the study is available at the link.
ACTIVE GROUP, DIPLOMACY, EXPERTS CLUB, Pozniy, SOCIOLOGY, URAKIN
Despite Poland’s long-standing support for Ukraine and its assistance to millions of refugees, Ukrainians’ perceptions of Poland are mixed. This is evidenced by the results of a sociological survey conducted by Active Group in cooperation with the Experts Club think tank in April 2025.
62.8% of respondents expressed a positive attitude towards Poland (41.3% — mostly positive, 21.5% — completely positive). However, the negative perception rate is relatively high — 12.9% (11.0% — mostly negative, 1.9% — completely negative). Another 22.1% of respondents remain neutral, and 2.2% are undecided.
“This result reflects a complex set of factors, ranging from a high level of gratitude for assistance to periodic tensions in the political and information spheres. Neighbourhood always carries both the potential for partnership and the risk of misunderstanding,” commented Maxim Urakin, founder of Experts Club.
Despite everything, Poland remains among the countries with a high level of trust in Ukrainian society, but at the same time needs to maintain its image in the long term.
The presentation of the study is available at the link.
ACTIVE GROUP, DIPLOMACY, EXPERTS CLUB, Pozniy, SOCIOLOGY, URAKIN
The National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) has registered the issue of three-year Series A bonds by Liberty Finance Financial Company LLC (Kyiv), a major player in the cash currency exchange market and part of KYT Group, under whose brand its exchange offices operate. As noted in the regulator’s decision, the issuer plans to place the bonds privately. According to the NSSMC, the bonds are issued in denominations of UAH 1,000 and mature between May 1 and June 1, 2028.
No other information on the terms of the issue is available at this time.
As reported by the National Bank in April this year, FC Liberty Finance has refused to provide such licensed services as factoring, financial leasing, and the provision of guarantees, and has the right to engage in the provision of funds and bank metals on credit, as well as in the trade of currency valuables in cash on the basis of the relevant license to conduct currency transactions.
KYT Group announced on Monday that it had opened its first branch in Bila Tserkva at the end of April, bringing its network to 96 currency exchange points in 30 cities across Ukraine.
“We, the KYT Group, have grown over 16 years of active work from a local currency exchange provider to a national multi-service FinTech company with a tech platform based on cutting-edge digital services,” the website says. According to the info there, the company has 800 employees.
According to its website, the owner and director of FC Liberty Finance is Anton Tkachenko, a resident of Kharkiv. KYT Group also includes the pawnshop KYT Group Plus LLC KYT Group and Company, owned by Lyudmila Tkachenko and directed by Ivan Tkachenko.
According to YouControl, Liberty Finance’s authorized capital is 25 million hryvnia, and its equity at the beginning of this year was 188.65 million hryvnia. The company ended last year with a net profit of 45.46 million hryvnia, compared to 153.92 million hryvnia a year earlier. The item “other income” in cash flows from operating activities in 2024 increased to UAH 29 billion from UAH 21.6 billion in 2023.
The new HER1 digital hub bridges the connectivity and infrastructure gap in Southern Europe by interconnecting international, regional, and local subsea cables to better serve the EMEA region.
· Digital Realty’s new HER1 facility leverages Schneider Electric’s modular data center solutions to deliver the project in a remote location in 12 months, adhering to strict reliability and energy efficiency standards.
Schneider Electric, a leader in digital transformation in energy management and automation, has partnered with Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the world’s largest provider of cloud and neutral data center solutions, colocation and interconnection, to launch a new HER1 data center in Heraklion, Crete.
In early April 2025, HER1 became the first carrier-neutral facility on the island, playing an important role in bridging the digital divide in Southern Europe. It provides interconnection for international, regional, and local submarine cables, enabling cloud providers, telecom companies, and content delivery networks (CDNs) to serve the surrounding regions more efficiently.
HER1 works in tandem with rapidly growing markets, including Athens, Barcelona, Marseille, Rome, and Tel Aviv, and is a key part of Digital Realty’s Mediterranean data center platform. This is a significant step toward making Greece a strategic connectivity hub for Southern and Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Following the successful implementation of a modular data center at its Marseille 2 (MRS2) facility, Digital Realty once again leveraged Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure™ modular data center portfolio of Tier III-ready solutions. This enabled HER1 to overcome a number of challenges, including accelerated facility launch (less than 12 months), increased energy efficiency requirements, and the need to manufacture, test, and deliver equipment off-site due to its remote location in Crete.
To this end, Schneider Electric provided a specialized solution comprising two fully integrated, modular power units with medium-voltage (MV) equipment, transformers, low-voltage (LV) equipment, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, and air cooling. Two large-scale all-in-one data halls with power, cooling, and IT were also installed, equipped with the EcoStruxure monitoring system for building and energy management (EPMS).
In addition, Schneider Electric provided a full range of design, construction, and consulting services for the data center, including all mechanical, electrical (M&E), and software equipment, manufacturing, assembly, commissioning, and security systems. This enabled Digital Realty’s HER1 facility to meet tight implementation deadlines while reducing the risk of on-site installation failures.
“Digital Realty’s significant investment in the new data center in Heraklion underscores our commitment to making the Mediterranean a global connectivity hub that connects continents and drives digital transformation,” said Fabrice Coccio, senior vice president of Digital Realty in France. “Through our strategic partnership with Schneider Electric, we are accelerating the launch of this important project to respond quickly to the growth of digital traffic in the region, while improving network reliability and diversity for businesses and communities.”
New gateway for Southern Europe
According to Telegeography, international capacity in Southern Europe has grown at a compound annual rate of over 30% since 2016, representing a sixfold increase in transmission capacity in the region.
Thanks to its geographical location and ongoing investments in submarine networks such as 2Africa, Andromeda, East to Med Corridor (EMC), Medusa, and Thetis, many organizations are choosing Crete as a strategic location for submarine cable termination and data center hosting. This transforms the region into a global interconnection hub connecting several continents.
HER1, Digital Realty’s first carrier-neutral data center in Crete, is located near the landing points of several of these submarine cable systems and will provide a highly reliable infrastructure for cloud services, submarine network operators, and communities requiring connectivity.
“Schneider Electric has been working with Digital Realty for many years to meet the highest standards of data center construction worldwide, and our joint HER1 project demonstrates the tremendous potential of modular solutions for delivering complex projects on a tight schedule with minimal risk,” said Pablo Ruiz Escribano, Senior Vice President, Secure Power and Data Center Business, Schneider Electric in Europe. “The successful implementation of HER1 is an important milestone in the development of data centers in Southern Europe. With the creation of this new global connectivity hub in Crete, Digital Realty will connect customers across continents for years to come.”
For more information on Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Modular Data Center solutions, visit the official website.
About Schneider Electric
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About Digital Realty
Digital Realty connects companies and data by offering a full range of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions. The company’s PlatformDIGITAL®, a global data center platform, provides customers with a secure environment for data exchange and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) methodology to drive innovation and effectively address the challenges associated with data concentration (Data Gravity). Digital Realty provides its customers with access to the data communities that matter most to them through a global network of more than 300 facilities in 50+ cities and 25+ countries across six continents. For more information about Digital Realty, visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X.
Hungary is one of the few countries in the European Union that provokes a critical or negative attitude among a significant part of Ukrainians. This is evidenced by the results of a sociological survey conducted by Active Group in collaboration with the Experts Club analytical center in April 2025.
56.1% of Ukrainians surveyed expressed a negative attitude toward Hungary (36.6% — mostly negative, 19.4% — completely negative). Only 12.5% of respondents have a positive perception (8.4% — mostly positive, 4.1% — completely positive). Another 27.9% remained neutral, and 3.6% abstained from answering.
“The reason for this level of distrust is the consistent policy of official Budapest, which often runs counter to the positions of Ukraine and its allies in the EU and NATO. Ukrainians clearly note these differences,” said Oleksandr Pozniy, co-founder of Active Group.
These results signal the need to rethink bilateral relations and the importance of transparent diplomacy.
ACTIVE GROUP, DIPLOMACY, EXPERTS CLUB, Pozniy, SOCIOLOGY, URAKIN
