JSC Khmelnytskoenergo will hold an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on February 27, 2026, remotely in the form of a poll, according to a published announcement.
The list of shareholders eligible to participate will be compiled on February 24 (at 23:00). Ballots will be accepted from 11:00 on February 17 to 18:00 on February 27, and the ballot for the election of candidates to the company’s bodies is scheduled to be posted on February 23.
The agenda includes the termination of the powers of the current supervisory board, the election of a new composition, the approval of the terms of contracts with members of the supervisory board and the amount of their remuneration, as well as compensation for the costs of organizing the meeting.
JSC Khmelnytskoblenergo is the operator of the electricity distribution system in the Khmelnytskyi region; Ukrainian Distribution Networks owns 70.0089% of the company’s shares.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has delivered 42 additional generators to Ukraine, bringing the total number of generators delivered by the organization to 106. These generators will be sent to frontline regions and cities to support critical infrastructure, according to Deputy Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine – Minister of Community and Territorial Development Oleksiy Kuleba.
“UNICEF has delivered another 42 generators to Ukraine. The total amount of aid that has arrived is 106 generators with a capacity of 15.1 MW. This equipment is already being sent to frontline regions and cities to support the operation of heating networks, water utilities, hospitals, and social infrastructure. Generators of various capacities, from mobile to industrial, can serve as the main or backup power source for critical facilities,” he wrote in a Telegram post on Monday.
As the minister noted, this assistance is part of a broader winter support program: in total, UNICEF plans to transfer 255 generators with a total capacity of about 40.6 MW and a cost of almost $6.2 million to Ukraine.
Also, according to his information, two cogeneration units with a capacity of 1.5 MW and 2.3 MW have already been delivered from Kryvyi Rih to Kyiv to support critical infrastructure enterprises.
Kuleba thanked the partners for their systematic support and the communities for their mutual assistance.
In January 2026, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reduced foreign exchange interventions by $14 million, or 0.4%, compared to January last year, to $3 billion 375.5 million, while the official hryvnia exchange rate depreciated against the dollar by 2.5%, or UAH 1.2.
At the same time, in the last week of January, the NBU reduced dollar sales on the interbank market by $202.1 million, or 19%, to $859.5 million.
According to the National Bank, in the first four days of last week, the average daily negative balance of buying and selling foreign currency by legal entities decreased to $95.5 million from $137.6 million in the same period a week earlier and totaled $381.8 million.
The negative balance in the market of foreign exchange transactions of households for Saturday-Thursday also decreased to $34.0 million from $36.4 million the week before last, with sales of non-cash currency exceeding purchases on all days.
The official hryvnia/dollar exchange rate, which started last week at 43.1391 UAH/$1, strengthened to 42.7689 UAH/$1 over three days and ended the week at 42.8483 UAH/$1.
In the cash market, the dollar’s exchange rate last week followed the trajectory of the official rate. In total, the dollar fell by about 27 kopecks during this period: buying – to 42.70 UAH/$1, selling – to 43.07 UAH/$1.
According to analysts of KYT Group, a major participant in the cash foreign exchange market (Liberty Finance LLC), the key event on the international market in the second half of January was the Fed meeting: the regulator, as expected by the markets, left the base rate unchanged, actually taking a break after three consecutive cuts in 2025.
Against this backdrop, the dollar weakened against the euro throughout the month (EUR/USD reached 1.2038, followed by a pullback), while US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric pushed investors to defensive assets, which supported the euro.
In the domestic market, analysts believe that the NBU will continue its policy of managed exchange rate flexibility, while at the same time expecting that the projected amount of foreign aid will be sufficient to finance the budget deficit without issuing new debt and maintain international reserves at a level sufficient to maintain the stability of the foreign exchange market. An additional factor for market expectations was the central bank’s decision to start an interest rate easing cycle and cut the key policy rate from 15.5% to 15% starting January 30, 2026.
According to KYT Group’s forecasts, in the next one to two weeks, the dollar will remain in the basic range of 42.9-43.4 UAH/$1 with the risk of fluctuations towards a weaker hryvnia, in the medium term of two to three months – 43.50-44.00 UAH/$1, while in the first half of 2026, the benchmark remains
43.5-44.9 UAH/$1.
The legal cigarette market in Ukraine has been shrinking by 10-15% annually over the past two years, while the illegal market has been growing. This dramatic situation is unprecedented, said Maxim Barabash, CEO of Philip Morris Ukraine, to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
“What has been happening over the past two years? Due to the growth of the illegal market, the rate of decline in the legal market is simply incredible: Ukraine has never seen the legal cigarette market shrink by 10-15% per year,” he said on the sidelines of the Ukrainian Breakfast in Davos, organized by the Pinchuk Foundation on the margins of the World Economic Forum.
Barabash noted that consumers are switching to the illegal market because the difference in price between legal and illegal products has grown significantly in recent years due to increases in excise taxes.
“70% of the cigarette market is the low-price segment. These are people who come to the point of sale and ask: give me the cheapest cigarettes. Today, they get illegal cigarettes for 70-78 UAH (per pack), when according to the law, cigarettes cannot cost less than 125 UAH today,” explained the CEO of Philip Morris Ukraine.
He specified that from January 1, 2026, due to the next indexation of excise taxes, legal cigarettes will rise in price by 15-17% in hryvnia.
The CEO noted that for Philip Morris Ukraine, this means that at the factory in the Lviv region, which opened two years ago to replace the factory near Kharkiv, whose operations were halted on the first day of Russia’s full-scale aggression in February 2022, some of the five installed lines are underloaded, and plans to expand production with three more lines are meaningless.
“Conditionally, a 15% drop (in the market) means that one line can be closed. And we do not see any positive movement at all, any hope that something positive will happen in the fight against illegal products. I think this will be the main problem for the industry,” Barabash described the situation.
According to rough estimates by Mikhail Polyakov, Deputy Director General for Corporate Relations at Philip Morris Ukraine, the excise revenue plan for 2025 will fall short by at least UAH 7 billion, and this year’s plan of UAH 140 billion will fall short by at least UAH 10 billion if the situation remains unchanged.
“Excise tax is a consumption tax. If a legal product is not consumed, there is no excise tax. We think that at some point there will be a boiling point when they will start to fight (the illegal market). It may just be a little too late, and it will be impossible to defeat it at all,” emphasized the CEO of Philip Morris Ukraine.
According to him, in the current situation, a line worth several million dollars established on the illegal market can pay for itself in a week, and with the increase in excise taxes in accordance with the approved indexation calendar without intensifying the fight, this profitability will only grow, “so the only (solution) is a very serious fight, political will, which is currently lacking.”
Polyakov, in turn, added that recently, the channels for supplying illegal products to the market have diversified due to Telegram channels and online sales.
“There are a lot of Telegram channels and online sales. Appealing to law enforcement agencies does not allow these Telegram channels to be closed. How does it work? A person places an order through a Telegram channel and receives it by mail. It is declared as souvenirs or other products – the sender does not indicate that these are cigarettes,” explained the deputy general director for corporate communications.
Philip Morris Ukraine (PMU) has been operating in the Ukrainian market since 1994. In 2024, the company opened a new factory in the Lviv region with a declared investment of $30 million, to which 250 employees from the Kharkiv factory were transferred.
Last Friday, January 30, the company reported a Russian missile strike that damaged part of the company’s Kharkiv factory.
According to data from YouControl, in the first nine months of 2025, Philip Morris Ukraine’s revenue decreased by 13.3% to UAH 14.23 billion.
Mykolaivoblenergo JSC will hold an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on February 27, 2026, in the form of a survey (remotely), according to a disclosure.
According to the announcement, the list of shareholders eligible to participate will be compiled on February 24 (at 23:00). Ballot voting will be accepted from 11:00 on February 17 to 18:00 on February 27, with ballots for the election of candidates to the company’s bodies scheduled to be posted on February 23.
The agenda includes the termination of the powers of the supervisory board, the election of a new composition, the approval of the terms of contracts with members of the supervisory board and their remuneration, as well as compensation for the costs of organizing and holding the meeting.
Mykolaivoblenergo JSC is the operator of the electricity distribution system in the Mykolaiv region; Ukrainian Distribution Networks owns 70% of the company’s shares.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has granted another loan of up to $200 million to the Kryvyi Rih Mining and Metallurgical Plant PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (AMKR, Dnipropetrovsk region) to replenish working capital for the plant’s operations.
According to the EBRD, a senior loan of up to $200 million has been granted to the Ukrainian joint-stock company AMKR, whose controlling stake is owned by the ArcelorMittal group.
It is specified that the loan was approved on December 3, 2025.
It is noted that the loan will be used to finance the company’s working capital needs to ensure continuity of operations in Ukraine when operations are affected by the war. The project will expand access to market-relevant training and employment opportunities for veterans and people with disabilities in line with the company’s priorities for human capital recovery.
It is also added that the Bank is providing financing in the extraordinary circumstances caused by the war in Ukraine, with a unique set of terms, attributes, and provisions. The project is also gender-additive in line with new commitments to expand access to training for young women through AMCR’s flagship New Factory initiative on youth inclusion.
As reported, on November 26, 2025, the AMCR Supervisory Board approved a significant transaction—a loan from the EBRD.
At the same time, the market value of the property or services that are the subject of the transaction is determined in accordance with the law – no more than $200 million (8480300 thousand UAH at the NBU exchange rate as of 11/26/2025); the value of the issuer’s assets, according to the latest annual financial statements, is UAH 51,725,655 thousand; The ratio of the market value of the property or services that are the subject of the transaction to the value of the issuer’s assets, according to the latest annual financial statements (in percent) – 16.3947658082%.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest producer of rolled steel in Ukraine. It specializes in the production of long products, in particular, rebar and wire rod. The company has a full production cycle, with production capacities designed for an annual output of over 6 million tons of steel, more than 5 million tons of rolled products, and over 5.5 million tons of pig iron.
ArcelorMittal owns Ukraine’s largest mining and metallurgical complex, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, and a number of small companies, including ArcelorMittal Beryslav.
