Ukraine is not ruling out holding elections in the near future (after a full ceasefire is established), The Economist writes, citing government sources.
“Government sources say that Mr. Zelensky called a meeting last week to instruct his team to organize a vote after the full ceasefire, which the Americans believe they can implement by the end of April (Easter Sunday, April 20),” the article says.
It is indicated that the first confirmation may appear on the eve of or on May 5, when the parliament is to vote on the extension of martial law, which expires on May 8.
As reported, Zelenskyy himself has repeatedly stated that elections are impossible during the war. Thus, on March 12, he said at a briefing: “After the war is over, martial law will be lifted, and after it is lifted, elections will be held in accordance with Ukrainian law. No one will postpone anything on purpose.”
Oschadbank has put up for sale at auction the right to claim under loan agreements and relevant security agreements to borrowers of Oleg Bakhmatyuk’s Ukrlandfarming group of companies at a starting price of UAH 4,984,663,467.30 (excluding VAT), the bank’s press service reports.
According to the report, the property of Rise-Maximco PJSC, Avangard Agroholding PJSC, Impevo Foods LLC, and Pacco Holding LLC is up for auction.
These loans are secured by production assets throughout Ukraine, including elevators, poultry farms, an egg processing plant, etc., as well as guarantees from individuals and legal entities.
The auction is scheduled for April 14, 2025.
“Ukrlandfarming is one of the largest agricultural holdings in Eurasia. It is engaged in grain growing, cattle breeding, distribution of machinery, fertilizers and seeds.
“UkrLandFarming remains one of the largest agricultural holdings in Ukraine, despite $1.2 billion in losses from Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine. In particular, we are talking about the largest poultry farm in Europe, Chornobaivska (Kherson region), where 4.5 million poultry were killed, property and communications were destroyed, and the occupiers took the equipment to the territory of the Russian Federation. The enemy also destroyed a number of poultry farms in other regions: poultry farms in Mykolaiv region, Donetsk region (Donetsk poultry farm, as well as in Volnovakha and Bakhmut), and poultry farms in Kyiv region were destroyed, looted or significantly damaged by shelling. The company lost 160,000 hectares of arable land for agricultural production, and regional bases and elevators in Kherson, Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv regions, as well as in Kyiv region and near Kyiv, were destroyed and looted.
A significant portion of ULF’s financial obligations have been in default since 2017. In November 2017, a group of international creditors, Ukrlandfarming and Avangard, in a letter to the Ukrainian government, estimated the total amount of ULF’s debt obligations at approximately $1.65 billion: about $1.25 billion of debt obligations to international creditors and about $400 million to Ukrainian banks (including state-owned banks). In turn, the debt to international creditors, according to their data, amounted to approximately $775 million in the form of Eurobonds and $475 million in the form of loans to European and American banks (and their respective credit risk insurers).
US President Donald Trump has expressed confidence that Greenland will become American.
“We will get Greenland – 100%,” he said in an interview with NBC News.
According to the American president, “there is a good possibility that it will be possible to do it without the use of military force, but you can’t rule anything out.”
Asked what signal the Greenland acquisition would send to Russia and the rest of the world, Trump said, “I don’t really think about it. I don’t really care. Greenland is a totally separate issue, totally different. It’s international peace. It’s international security and strength.”
The other day, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance visited Greenland. According to him, the island is likely to gain independence from Denmark in the future, after which the US will start working with Greenland to establish bilateral relations.
Earlier, Trump repeatedly said that he would like to see Greenland as part of the United States.
In 2024, the office real estate market in Riga demonstrates stability, supported by economic growth and increased business activity. Despite the moderate pace of construction of new business centers, the demand for modern office space remains high, especially in the city’s central districts and business zones.
Thus, the office real estate market in Riga continues to develop, remaining attractive to occupiers, especially in modern business centers and flexible office spaces.
Source: http://relocation.com.ua/ohliad-ofisnoi-nerukhomosti-ryhy-vid-relocation/
The World Bank’s Board of Directors on Saturday night in Kiev approved a new $432 million support package “Building Resilient Infrastructure in a Vulnerable Environment in Ukraine (DRIVE)” aimed at helping the government improve the resilience of the national road network and operational efficiency in the transport sector.
The Bank told Interfax-Ukraine that DRIVE complements the existing project “Rehabilitation of Essential Logistics Infrastructure and Network Connectivity (RELINC)”, under which modular road bridges were delivered and 200 flatcars were manufactured to increase Ukrzaliznytsia’s freight capacity and export capability.
The World Bank noted that Ukraine’s transportation infrastructure has suffered significant damage since the war began in February 2022, disrupting key import and export routes. According to the recently published Rapid Damage and Recovery Needs Assessment (RDNA4), road infrastructure in the transport sector has suffered the most damage: 58% of the transport sector; 30% of state roads and bridges, 11% of local roads and bridges, and 17% of municipal roads suffered significant damage.
DRIVE financing includes a $212 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) under the ADVANCE Ukraine (ADVANCE Ukraine) Trust Fund, which was supported by the Government of Japan. The financing also includes a $210 million loan from the Special Program for the Recovery of Ukraine and Moldova (SPUR) and a $10 million grant from the Ukraine Support, Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reform Trust Fund (URTF).
The project will be implemented by the State Agency for Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Development of Ukraine.
The project page on the Bank’s website notes that it has three components, the first of which is the preservation of the national road network. This component includes two components. The first, a $270.48 million investment for national roads, finances the design, execution, and supervision of construction works aimed at maintaining certain sections of national roads in proper operational condition, including through operational maintenance, major road repairs, and major bridge repairs.
The second component, National Roads and Road Transport Reform, allocates $90 million for transportation sector performance with a results-based approach.
The second component for $39 million is periodic maintenance of the national road network, it also has two components: installation of emergency modular road bridges and climate-smart preservation of key links in the road network.
The third component is technical assistance and project management, which also has two components: technical assistance and project development ($9 million URTF grant), which complements the investment-oriented components, and project management ($1 million URTF grant), which finances eligible costs for implementation and project management support, training, and knowledge sharing.
