Ukraine will receive €22.6 million from European partners to ensure nuclear safety, improve radiation protection, and manage radioactive waste, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources.
The relevant draft agreement on the 2024/2025 contribution was approved during a meeting of the Supervisory Board for the Implementation of the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation in Ukraine. The meeting was held on Friday by Minister Svitlana Grynychuk together with Jan Pane, Director for Nuclear Energy, Safety and ITER at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy, and Inte Stockmann, Head of the Nuclear Safety Sector at the European Commission’s DG INTPE.
The agreed contribution agreement provides for the financing of a number of projects that are important for Ukraine. These include: ensuring backup power supply for the uninterrupted operation of radioactive waste management facilities, as well as the construction of the necessary infrastructure for the proper disposal of radioactive waste; the creation of an early warning system for forest fires in the exclusion zone; equipping a modern analytical laboratory for the analysis of radioactive materials in Chernobyl; restoring the functioning of the automated radiation monitoring system in the exclusion zone damaged by Russia during the occupation of the Chernobyl NPP.
In addition, there are plans to create a national integrated automated radiation monitoring system for the entire territory of Ukraine and integrate it with the European Radiological Data Exchange Platform (EURDEP), the European Community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange System (ECURIE), the International Radiation Monitoring Information System (IRMIS) managed by the IAEA; providing personnel of enterprises in the exclusion zone with adequate modern transportation and accommodation in the exclusion zone, as well as personal protective equipment and decontamination facilities in emergency situations.
Attention will also be paid to harmonizing Ukrainian legislation with Euratom standards as one of the conditions for Ukraine’s accession to the EU.
All measures are planned to be implemented over a period of five years.
In January-March 2025, DTEK Energy invested about UAH 1.2 billion in repairs and restoration of thermal power plants that suffered from massive enemy shelling.
“This is a third of the total investment in the restoration of TPPs over the past year,” the company said in a press release.
DTEK noted that the repair campaign is ongoing as the level of damage caused by the aggressor’s attacks remains extremely high.
As reported, as of the summer of 2024, 90% of the company’s thermal generation was damaged or destroyed. Although the power engineers managed to restore more than half of the capacity on the eve of winter, another massive shelling in November and December caused new serious damage.
“Our main task today is not to stop but to continue the reconstruction work. We are working hard to be ready for the summer peak loads and the upcoming heating season,” said DTEK Energy CEO Oleksandr Fomenko.
In 2024, the energy holding invested UAH 3.6 billion in the restoration of thermal power plants and another UAH 7.5 billion in the development of domestic coal mining.
Last year, the Russian Federation launched 13 massive attacks on the Ukrainian energy sector, dealing a serious blow, in particular, to DTEK Energy’s thermal power plants. In total, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the company’s TPPs have been attacked 205 times. As a result of the attacks, 56 power engineers were wounded and four were killed.
“DTEK Energy provides a closed cycle of electricity generation from coal. As of January 2022, the pre-war installed capacity in thermal power generation was 13.3 GW. The company has established a full production cycle in coal mining: coal mining and enrichment, mechanical engineering and maintenance of mine equipment.
Over 1.7 thousand people have already been added to the list in the first two months of 2025
Almost 13 thousand people have been included in the Register of Problem Gamblers as of early March, according to the Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (CRGL). Over the past year, the number of problem gamblers on the list has increased 3 times. Almost 1.5 thousand more people were removed from the list due to the expiration of the restriction period. Overall, last year, on average, 780 new people were added to the Register every month.
12,807 Ukrainians are currently on the Register of Gambling Problems. The list has increased 3 times over the year. Over the past year, the Register was replenished by 9,389 people, and 1,496 were excluded due to the expiration of the restriction period.
In total, 14,979 people have been added to the Register since its inception, of whom 2,172 have already been removed.
99% of all entries in the Register are voluntary applications. People apply for self-restriction themselves to deny themselves access to gambling facilities and participation in gambling for a certain period of time. The term of such restriction is from six months to three years.
Only 1% are people who have their access restricted by a decision of the CRGL. There have been 169 such decisions since the registry was created. Almost all of them took place last year – 140 decisions. But not a single person has been included in the Register by a court decision.
“It is indeed easier to apply for self-restriction than to submit a third party to the registry. Moreover, people are becoming more aware of this possibility. Accordingly, the number of people in the register is growing. So our goal is to give people the most convenient tool for self-restraint and to promote its use,” comments Hennadii Novikov, head of the state agency PlayCity.
This year, the Cabinet of Ministers liquidated KRAIL and created the state agency PlayCity instead. Now, this agency will be responsible for regulating the gambling and lottery market and maintaining the Register of problem gamblers.
On average, 780 people were included in the register every month last year, which is 2.8 times more than in 2023, when the list was updated by about 280 people per month. The highest number of applications for self-restriction was received in April – 1,041, and the lowest in June – 524.
In the first two months of 2025, 1,719 people have already been added to the Register, which is an average of 860 per month, which is 10% more than in 2024.
It is worth noting that Ukraine currently has no clear statistics on the actual number of citizens with gambling addiction, and the figures from the relevant register do not reflect the full picture – in particular, people who play in online casinos.
The head of the newly created agency, Gennadiy Novikov, believes that the existing register fulfills its function – it consolidates information about people who are restricted from participating in gambling so that gambling organizers can verify a person and, if necessary, prevent them from playing. At the same time, it is important to understand that this registry is in a trial mode and does not have all the necessary functionality that needs to be implemented for the convenience of citizens and the market.
“We plan to create a full-fledged product on the Diia.Engine platform. The new registry will meet all the requirements of the legislation on personal data protection and other aspects, as well as contain additional functionality for gambling organizers.
The process of applying for a person to be included in the registry will be automated and much more convenient. A person will be able to add themselves to the register in a few clicks to restrict access to the game,” comments Gennadiy Novikov, Head of PlayCity.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/play-city-ludomania
The Belaya Tserkov Industrial Park (IP) , a project of the holding company UFuture owned by entrepreneur Vasily Khmelnitsky, does not plan to revise its strategic development plan, which envisages attracting 30 resident companies and $250 million in investments by 2030, as well as creating up to 4,000 jobs, according to IP Belaya Tserkov CEO Andrey Ropitsky.
“If there are no ‘black swans’, then, in principle, everything is going according to plan, and we do not plan to revise our strategy,” he told Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of ‘Industrial Evolution: Manufacturing Drives the Economy’ at IP ‘Bila Tserkva’ on Thursday.
According to him, in addition to the Finnish Peikko plant, the commissioning of an industrial building for a future plant for the production of concrete joints and composite structures was announced on Thursday, and a plant of one of the world’s largest manufacturers of everyday goods, Unilever, is also under construction.
“Three more companies have purchased land from us this year and are already requesting the construction of networks. We are talking to them about commercial terms and conditions and support the construction of their plants. Therefore, Unilever is currently under construction, and the second phase of the Virastar plant (a manufacturer of high-altitude equipment for construction work – IF-U) is also under construction. So two are under construction, two have been commissioned, and three more are on the way,” he said.
Ropitsky did not specify which investors would be attracted to the park, citing commercial secrecy, but added that it is now easier to attract investors because the park already has ”something to show them.”
“At first it’s difficult because there’s nothing to show and no one trusts you. But when someone has considered the possibility and then I tell them that the plot or building is no longer available, they are ready to buy in the second phase. So it’s much easier to sell now,” Ropitsky said.
During the forum, he clarified that of the two parks (Bila Tserkva and Bila Tserkva 2), the first is already almost full (36 hectares) — all plots have been sold, and the buildings have been constructed, sold, or leased.
“This means that we only have 12 hectares left to develop, which are either already under construction, have been postponed by clients, or will be built by us or our clients. In principle, we will do this within the next two to three years. We have already started organizing the second park,” said the CEO of IP ”Bila Tserkva.”
According to him, IP “Bila Tserkva 2,” with an area of 34.7 hectares, has already received state co-financing for external networks and signed contracts with contractors.
“We are supplying 15 MW of electricity, water, and sewage to the site, and gas is right there across the road. Therefore, in a year, all networks will be in place, just like in the first park,” Ropitsky noted.
He emphasized that in order to attract small and medium-sized businesses to the park, small buildings of up to 2-3 thousand square meters are being built, ”which can be divided into lots and rented out to customers by the thousand square meters.”
Among the problems for the development of industrial parks, he mentioned, in particular, the lack of labor, the absence of materials necessary for construction on the local market, as well as high interest rates on loans.
“We have now launched a vocational training project, a center that will quickly train people who are needed by our clients. And we have already started designing such a building on a neighboring site,” he said.
IP ‘Bila Tserkva’ and ‘Bila Tserkva 2’ were included in the Register of Industrial Parks in 2018.
The developed territory of IP “Bila Tserkva” has attracted 15 residents, including Unilever, InTiCa Systems, Peikko, and Pripravka, which relocated from Kharkiv in 2022, as well as the logistics depot “Nova Poshta,” the grain storage complex “Volytsia-Agro,” the Plank Electrotechnic electrical fittings factory, and Virastar, a manufacturer of high-altitude equipment for construction work.
The OKKO Group plans to fully launch a EUR110 million bioethanol plant in the third quarter of 2026, according to the group’s CEO Vasily Danilyak.
“This year, we plan to complete the elevator and warehouse complex, which will enable us to receive corn from our cluster. We plan to fully launch the plant in the third quarter of 2026,” Danilyak said during the We Build Ukraine conference on Thursday, which was broadcast online.
He noted that total investment in the plant during 2024-2026 will amount to EUR 110 million, of which EUR 35 million will be the group’s own contribution and EUR 75 million will be debt financing. Of this, EUR 60 million was provided by the EBRD for a term of nine years, and another EUR 15 million by Raiffeisen Bank Ukraine for a term of seven years.
According to Danilyak, the plant’s annual capacity for bioethanol, demand for which is growing with the mandatory addition of 5% of this alcohol to motor gasoline from May 1, 2025, is 83,000 tons, and for animal feed – 70,000 tons. The plant’s annual capacity for corn processing is 270,000 tons.
As reported, in June 2024, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and OKKO signed a EUR60 million loan agreement at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin for the construction of a new bioethanol plant in Ukraine.
OKKO Group unites more than 10 diverse businesses in the fields of manufacturing, trade, construction, insurance, services, and other services. The group’s flagship company is Galnaftogaz, which operates one of the largest petrol station chains in Ukraine under the OKKO brand, with around 400 petrol stations. The founder and ultimate beneficiary of the group is Vitaliy Antonov.
On April 24, 2025, the Government of Albania officially suspended the agreement on mutual visa waiver with the Republic of Belarus signed in February 2020. This decision cancels the partial suspension introduced in May 2024, which applied only to diplomatic passports. Now Belarusian citizens are required to obtain a visa to enter Albania.
Earlier, in May 2024, Albania partially suspended the agreement, limiting visa-free entry for holders of diplomatic and service passports. The current measure completely abolishes the visa-free regime for all categories of Belarusian citizens.
The decision takes effect immediately and is published in the official gazette of Albania.
Source: https://t.me/relocationrs/881
