PJSC “Euroshpon-Smyga” (Smyga, Rivne Oblast), a leading Ukrainian manufacturer of sawn veneer, saw its net profit decline by 29.2% in January–June 2026 compared to the same period in 2025, down to 109.4 million UAH.
According to the company’s financial statements published on its website, its net revenue for this period increased by 18.4% to 630.3 million UAH.
The company reported UAH 168.9 million in gross profit (down 3.6%) amid a 31.8% decline in operating profit to UAH 132.2 million.
Retained earnings as of the end of the reporting period stood at UAH 1.23 billion.
According to the report, in the second quarter of this year, “Euroshpon-Smiga’s” net profit fell by 41.7% compared to April–June 2025—to 54.2 million UAH—while net sales revenue rose by nearly 15%—to 311.7 million UAH.
As of early July of this year, the company employed 430 people.
According to its own information, the trade and industrial company “Euroshpon-Smiga” is the leading manufacturer of planed veneer in Ukraine. It produces lumber, planed veneer, and finger-jointed veneer from various wood species. Its products comply with international standards and are FSC-certified.
Last year, the company exported 81.6% of its total sales, amounting to 901.1 million UAH; importing countries included Poland, Lithuania, Spain, Slovakia, Belgium, and the United States.
In 2025, its net profit increased by 14.7%—to 258.8 million UAH—compared to 2024, as net revenue rose by 15.6%—to 1 billion 105 million UAH. This year, shareholders approved dividend payments twice—totaling 50 million UAH.
State-owned Oschadbank issued 3.3 billion UAH in loans to microbusinesses from January through June 2026, which is 37% more than during the same period last year, the financial institution reported on its website.
It is noted that the number of loans issued rose by 27% to 2,596.
Oschadbank’s microbusiness loan portfolio has grown by nearly 20% since the beginning of the year and exceeded 7.6 billion hryvnias.
During the first half of the year, the bank processed 2,799 applications from microbusiness representatives.
As part of its cooperation with the Fund for Partial Guarantees of Agricultural Loans, Oschadbank issued 313 microloans to agricultural producers during this period under portfolio guarantees totaling 459.8 million UAH.
According to the National Bank, as of July 1, 2026, Oschadbank, with total assets of 518.87 billion hryvnias, ranked second among Ukraine’s 59 banks. The bank’s total loan portfolio grew by 6.7% in the first half of the year, reaching 136.83 billion hryvnias.
agricultural producer, BANK, LOAN, microbusiness, OSCHADBANK
The Embassy of Ukraine in India, which also represents Ukraine in Nepal, has sent two staff members—including a consul—to that country to assist Ukrainian citizens following a massive flash flood and landslides in the Rasuwa district of Bagmati Province.
According to the embassy, Ukrainian diplomats will work directly on the ground in coordination with the relevant Nepalese authorities, local rescue services, and the Honorary Consul of Ukraine. The primary task is to locate Ukrainian citizens with whom contact has been lost and to provide them with consular assistance.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, 55 Ukrainian citizens are considered missing as a result of the natural disaster in Nepal. These include two tourist groups consisting of 47 and seven people, respectively, as well as one Ukrainian woman who was part of a foreign tourist group. As of August 27, there is no information regarding Ukrainian citizens who have died or been injured.
According to information received by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from local authorities, more than 1,100 people are considered missing following the massive flooding and landslides, including over 700 tourists from nearly 30 countries. At the time of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s announcement, at least 165 fatalities had been confirmed.
The natural disaster occurred on August 26 in the Rasuwa mountain district near the Nepal-Tibet border. A powerful torrent of water, rocks, and soil swept through the valleys of the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers, damaging settlements, roads, bridges, power facilities, and tourist infrastructure.
According to the latest expert assessments, one of the likely causes of the disaster may have been the collapse of a section of a glacier along with a mass of rocks and snow. Rescue operations are being hampered by damage to transportation and communications infrastructure.
The Embassy has urged Ukrainian citizens currently in Nepal to inform diplomats of their whereabouts and condition at the earliest opportunity, to follow the recommendations of local authorities and rescue services, and to avoid visiting the affected areas.
Relatives of Ukrainians with whom contact has been lost and who may have been in the disaster zone are asked to provide diplomats with information about their last known whereabouts.
Hotline of the Embassy of Ukraine in India: +91 92055 07157 (Viber, Telegram), email: consul_in@mfa.gov.ua.
Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Nepal: +977 1 441 6544, +977 1 441 6767.
24-hour hotline of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine: +38 044 238 1588, email: cons_or@mfa.gov.ua.
Original source — Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of India, statement dated August 27, 2026. Additional up-to-date information on Ukrainian citizens was provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
The National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) has registered the 16th issue of Series “P” bonds by the international financial service NovaPay (TM NovaPay), part of the Nova Group, issued by its subsidiary “NovaPay Credit,” with a face value of 200 million hryvnia, according to the bond prospectus.
It is noted that the issue involves the placement of 200,000 registered, interest-bearing, unsecured bonds with a par value of 1,000 UAH each. The interest rate on these bonds will be 18% per annum.
The public offering of the bonds is scheduled to run from September 4, 2026, to August 3, 2027, provided the prospectus remains in effect. The bonds will be offered for listing on the “Perspektiva” stock exchange. “Univer Capital” LLC has been appointed as the administrator for the “R” series issue.
The company plans to use the proceeds from the offering for lending: 80% to individuals and 20% to legal entities.
Redemption of the bonds is scheduled for September 4–10, 2029.
As previously reported, in July, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) registered NovaPay’s 15th Series “O” bond issue with a face value of 200 million UAH. In early June, the company announced the full placement of its 14th Series “N” issue of the same volume.
Based on the results for the first half of 2026, NovaPay Credit increased its net profit 3.2-fold compared to the same period in 2025—to 172.01 million UAH—and its revenue 2.2-fold, to 586.42 million UAH.
The company’s equity as of the end of June stood at 688.5 million UAH, compared to 516.5 million UAH at the beginning of the year, while liabilities totaled 1.69 billion UAH, compared to 1.37 billion UAH.
The company’s proceeds from bond sales during this period rose to 693 million UAH from 355.63 million UAH a year earlier, while expenses related to their redemption increased to 578.80 million UAH from 244.92 million UAH, respectively.
In the EF EPI 2025 profile, Ukraine scored 526 points compared to the global average of 488. At the same time, within Ukraine’s overall score, reading scored 544 points and speaking scored 477. The country looks decent in the table but is noticeably weaker in the skill that recruiters hear first.
This explains a familiar scenario. A candidate reads documentation, corresponds with clients, and honestly lists B2 on their resume. At the interview, they’re asked a simple “Tell me about a difficult decision” and start crafting their answer as if they were taking a written exam. They have a thought. They have enough words, too. The sentence finally comes out after the room has already become awkward.
The index is useful for comparing large groups. But EF itself warns: the data comes from people who voluntarily take online tests, so the sample isn’t representative of the country’s entire population. It’s a barometer of a specific audience. It’s not a census of every adult.
Another pitfall lies in the average score. It combines reading, listening, writing, and speaking into a single score. This is convenient for a country. For a job opening, it’s almost useless. An analyst might be brilliant at reading reports but slow at explaining conclusions. A sales manager might be good at keeping a conversation going but overlook the details of a contract. An identical overall score does not make them interchangeable.
It is precisely this gap in skills that explains why the score isn’t mentioned in a job interview. A job interview tests the ability to speak quickly under pressure, to elaborate on an example, to ask for clarification when a question is unclear, and to stay on track after being interrupted. No country’s ranking in the table will perform these tasks for a candidate.
In the My English by Business Language summary, national self-assessment is presented alongside the EF EPI profile. This combination is important: 43.8% of adults in the 2023 Razumkov Center study said they knew no English at all, while the international index reflects motivated participants in online testing. Both figures are accurate within their own contexts. They cannot be combined into a single portrait of the “average Ukrainian.”
For a candidate, a brief written response to a real job-related question is more useful than yet another generic test. Listen to yourself and note three things: where your train of thought stalled, where a word was accurate but came too late, and where your example fell apart due to a lack of structure. That’s already a working profile. The letter next to your name will say less.
A failed interview also doesn’t always mean a person needs a language course. The reason could be a weak professional example, lack of product knowledge, anxiety, or a confusing question from the recruiter. A language course won’t fix any of these.
Before your next interview, don’t try to “brush up on your English” in one evening. Record a single answer about a difficult decision and remove everything from it that doesn’t help explain your choice. That’s exactly what the recruiter will hear once the rating is left at the door.
My English by Business Language
Due to problems with storing and exporting the harvest caused by the closure of Black Sea ports, there is a risk that the planted area for the upcoming harvest could be reduced by 5–7 million hectares, said Taras Vysotsky, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food.
“The biggest challenge today is compensating for interest rates on loans. If we do not support the financial stability of farmers, there is a risk that the area sown for the upcoming harvest will be reduced by 5–7 million hectares,” the Ministry of Agrarian Policy’s press service quoted Vysotsky as saying during his meeting with the UN System Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, and the leadership of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
The minister emphasized that Ukraine currently faces two key challenges: preventing the spoilage of the harvest that has already been gathered, ensuring storage capacity, and providing farmers with working capital.
“According to our estimates, the storage capacity deficit could reach 11 million metric tons as early as this fall, and the funding requirement for this area is $44 million,” he noted.
According to Vysotsky, Ukraine has sent an official request to the European Union for the allocation of EUR220 million to compensate for interest rates on bank loans for farmers.
Another important topic of the talks, he said, was the willingness of UN agencies to become more actively involved in resolving systemic problems caused by the war and overcoming its consequences, the statement noted.
UN representatives confirmed their readiness to respond promptly to Ukraine’s urgent requests, mobilize resources from the international community, expand operational assistance, and support Ukraine in overcoming humanitarian and economic challenges.
Following the meeting, the parties agreed on a joint action plan to attract additional donor funding from international financial institutions, including the World Bank, as well as private humanitarian foundations.
