Ukraine and Colombia have a good space for cooperation and cultural exchanges to develop educational programs and protect the rights of indigenous peoples, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“Ukraine and Colombia have a good space for cooperation and cultural exchanges. And these are projects to preserve cultural heritage, protect the rights of indigenous peoples, develop educational programs and ideas of cultural tolerance,” Zelensky said while communicating with students and teachers of higher education institutions in Colombia.
“Together with Colombia, we want to show that diversity makes us stronger, that the uniqueness of each nation is our common treasure worth preserving and defending in order to restore justice and lasting peace,” the president said.
He added that Colombia, as one of the most multicultural countries in Latin America, is an example of the ability to defend its culture and diversity.
Ukraine also has a multicultural heritage, with “more than a hundred different nationalities and indigenous peoples, including Crimean Tatars.” However, now in the occupied territories “they face numerous persecutions by Russia, arrests, imprisonment, captivity, regular restrictions of rights.”
In addition, in Crimea and the rest of Ukraine, Russia is destroying not only physical objects, but also the foundations of culture and identity.
Ukraine’s largest home appliance and electronics retailer Comfy paid UAH 1.2 billion to the state budget in January-September 2024, the same amount as the company paid last year in total.
According to the company’s press service, revenue for this period increased by 30%, the dynamics of the company’s performance was influenced by the expansion of the network, updating store formats and product range, and improving customer experience.
This year, the retailer opened seven new stores, in particular in Oleksandria, Berdychiv, Khodosivka, Mohyliv-Podilskyi, restored stores damaged by Russian missiles (in the Dnipro shopping center Apollo and the shopping center “Sun Gallery” in Kryvyi Rih), and renovated the flagship store (1000+ sq. m.) in the capital’s Ocean Plaza shopping center. In addition, Comfy has reformed 80% of its existing stores to meet changing demand and assortment.
Thanks to the active development, Comfy created about 500 jobs across Ukraine.
By the end of the year, the retailer plans to open four more new stores and 100% upgrade its network according to the new standards.
The company’s sales growth was driven by the renewal and expansion of its assortment. The largest growth is traditionally observed in the categories of large appliances, small appliances and accessories. Prolonged power outages caused a boom in demand for alternative power sources, with an increase of over 1300%.
The retailer has also joined the National Cashback program, and since the start of the project, more than 100 manufacturers with whom the company cooperates have joined the program, offering more than 3.3 thousand units of goods.
In total, as of November 2024, the COMFY offline network has 109 stores.
The chain is owned by Comfy Trade LLC (Dnipro). According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the owner of Comfy Trade is Comfy Holdings Limited (Cyprus), with Svitlana Gutsul and Stanislav Ronis as the ultimate beneficiaries.
In January-October this year, Ukrainian mining companies increased their exports of iron ore by 96% in physical terms compared to the same period last year, up to 27 million 790.352 thousand tons.
According to the statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS), foreign exchange earnings from iron ore exports increased by 59.4% to $2 billion 341.865 million in the period under review.
Exports of iron ore were carried out mainly to China (34.88% of supplies in monetary terms), Poland (17.47%) and Slovakia (16.85%).
In January-October 2024, Ukraine imported iron ore worth $261 thousand in the total volume of 835 tons, while in January-October 2023, it imported $118 thousand in the total volume of 168 tons. Imports this year were carried out from the Netherlands (36.26%), Poland (24.43%) and Norway (21.37%).
As reported, in 2023, Ukraine decreased exports of iron ore in physical terms by 26% compared to 2022 – to 17 million 753.165 thousand tons, foreign exchange earnings from iron ore exports amounted to $1 billion 766.906 million (down 39.3%). Iron ore was exported mainly to Slovakia (28.39% of supplies in monetary terms), the Czech Republic (19.74%) and Poland (19.56%).
Last year, Ukraine imported iron ore worth $135 thousand in the total amount of 250 tons. During this period, imports were made from Norway (34.81%), Italy (28.89%) and the Netherlands (28.89%). While in 2022, iron ore was imported for $65 thousand in a total volume of 101 tons.
In January-October this year, Ukraine increased imports of coke and semi-coke in physical terms by 2.16 times compared to the same period last year, up to 581,282 thousand tons.
According to the statistics released by the State Customs Service, coke imports in monetary terms increased by 97.9% to $208.879 million over the period.
Imports were mainly from Poland (84.12% of supplies in monetary terms), Colombia (8.73%) and Hungary (3.04%).
For ten months of the year, the country exported 1,593 thousand tons of coke for $366 thousand to Moldova (99.73%) and Latvia (0.27%), while in January, March, October-2024 there were no exports, while for 10 months of 2023 exports amounted to 3,324 thousand tons for $774 thousand.
As reported, in 2023, Ukraine reduced imports of coke and semi-coke in physical terms by 8.5% compared to 2022 – to 328.697 thousand tons, imports in monetary terms decreased by 25.8% to $129.472 million.
In 2023, Ukraine exported 3,383 thousand tons of coke, down 12.3% compared to 2022. In monetary terms, it decreased by 22.2% to $787 thousand.
Exports were carried out to Moldova (100% of supplies in monetary terms), while imports were mainly from Poland (88.47%), Colombia (7.72%) and the Czech Republic (3.15%).
A new industrial park, Integral, will be set up in Vinnytsia on the territory of a former lamp factory, the city’s mayor, Sergey Morgunov, said on Facebook.
“Today we launched the creation of the fifth industrial park in Vinnytsia. Invest Holding Company LLC plans to invest UAH 1 billion in its construction. Subsequently, about 930 people will be employed here,” Morgunov wrote on Thursday evening.
He emphasized that attracting investment and opening new production facilities during the war is critical for the life of the community.
According to opendatabot, Invest Holding Company LLC was registered in 2022, with the main activity being the provision of commercial services and leasing of property. The ultimate beneficiary of the company is Vinnytsia businessman Taras Kovalchuk. In 2023, the company’s revenue amounted to UAH 5 million, and the loss was UAH 0.26 million.
Kovalchuk owns Zodchiy LLC, a Vinnytsia-based company specializing in the sale of wood and building materials (he owns 87.8% of Invest Holding Company LLC). The company’s net income in 2023 amounted to almost UAH 566 million.
There are currently four IPs in Vinnytsia: Vinnytsia Cluster of Refrigeration Engineering, WinterSport, Volia Agri-Food Park Vinnytsia, and VinIndustri, which has four residents and has received UAH 79 million in state support under the IP support program. Volia Agri-Food Park Vinnytsia, which is invested by Borys Shestopalov, co-owner of foodtech companies HD Gtroup and GFS, also received about UAH 116 million in state support.
The Supervisory Board of the insurance company Krajina (Kyiv) at the meeting on November 14 appointed Roman Yaroshenko, who had been the head of the supervisory board of Asvio Bank JSC for the last five years, as the head of the supervisory board of the financial institution. According to the message of the insurance company in the information disclosure system of the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market, at the same meeting the Supervisory Board, in connection with the appointment of a new head, terminated the powers of Elyana Pustovalova in this position.
IC “Krajina” has been operating in the insurance market of Ukraine since 1994. It has licenses for 23 types of insurance.
On October 17, 2024 the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has granted permission to a natural person – citizen of Ukraine to acquire control over IC “Krajina”.
According to the data of NCSSM as of Q2 2024 the shareholders of the company were the joint-stock company “Closed non-diversified venture corporate investment fund ‘Kiwi’-76,2%, ZNVKIF ‘Sirius’ and Oleg Zimin 7,491% each.
Asvio Bank (formerly Privatinvest Bank) was founded in 1991. According to the NSCM as of Q2 2024, the bank’s shareholders were Vyacheslav Suprunenko (69.9016%), his brother Alexander Suprunenko (20%), and Andriy Zaets (7.693%).
According to the NBU, as of June 1, 2024, Asvio Bank ranked 42nd among 63 Ukrainian banks in terms of assets – UAH 3.06 billion. Net profit of the financial institution for 2023 amounted to UAH 22.37 million.
