The head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (CFG), Oleksandr Klymenko, decided to cancel the decision to close the so-called “Rotterdam + case” as illegal and unfounded, the SAP press service reports.
It is noted that Klymenko also completely changed the group of prosecutors in this case due to ineffective supervision over compliance with laws during the pre-trial investigation.
“Such decisions were made based on the results of studying the case materials, a thorough study of the findings of prosecutors during the closure of this criminal proceeding, and the results of a meeting with the participation of prosecutors and detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, who carried out the pre-trial investigation,” the report explains.
It is specified that the head of the SAP revealed “numerous inconsistencies in the conclusions and arguments of the prosecutor when closing this case, the incompleteness of the study of the case materials by the prosecutor, the inconsistency of the prosecutor’s conclusions with the actual circumstances of the criminal proceedings.”
“This means that further decisions on this case will be made by the renewed composition of prosecutors in full compliance with the requirements of the Criminal Procedure Code,” the SAP stressed.
They recalled that on September 21, 2022, the Appeals Chamber of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court (VAKS) completed consideration of the appeal against the ruling of the investigating judge of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court dated October 13 of the same year to refuse to satisfy the complaint against the decision to close criminal proceedings.
Based on the results of the consideration, the collegium of the court partially canceled the decision of the investigating judge and closed the proceedings on complaints from representatives of Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant JSC and Zaporozhye Ferroalloy Plant JSC against the decision of the SAPO prosecutor to close criminal proceedings dated March 24, 2017.
“The SAP is awaiting the full text of the said court decision. The legal position of the court set forth in the full text of the decision will be taken into account in the further pre-trial investigation and decision-making on the case. At the same time, the illegality and groundlessness of the prosecutor’s decision to close this proceeding does not cause any doubt,” the prosecutor’s office concluded.
The profit of Ukrainian banks in January-August 2022 amounted to UAH 8.4 billion, which is 5.4 times less than in the same period last year (UAH 45.6 billion), the press service of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on Thursday.
According to the report, the profit of Ukrainian banks in August amounted to UAH 5.05 billion, which is 37% less than the profit in July (UAH 8.05 billion).
The regulator noted that the income of banks in August increased by 20.3%, and expenses by 17.9%.
According to the regulator, the income of banks for 8 months of this year increased by 32% against the figure for the same period last year – up to UAH 227.5 billion. Including commission income increased by 2.25 times – up to UAH 130.846 billion.
At the same time, the result from the revaluation and from purchase and sale transactions was positive and amounted to UAH 39.617 billion, while for the same period last year it was negative and amounted to UAH 1 billion.
At the same time, the expenses of the banking system in January-August 2022 increased by 72% compared to this indicator in 2021, to UAH 219 billion, including contributions to reserves, by 12.4 times, to UAH 89.4 billion. At the same time, fee and commission expenses increased by 0.8% to UAH 21.93 billion,
As reported, Ukrainian banks doubled their net profit in 2021 to UAH 77.5 billion compared to UAH 41.3 billion in 2020.
The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology notes a multiple drop in the share of those wishing to leave for permanent residence in the United States or EU countries in the event of obtaining citizenship of these countries from the fall of 2020.
“In October 2020, KIIS conducted an all-Ukrainian telephone survey, which, among other things, posed the question “And if you were now granted US or EU citizenship without conditions, would you go to these countries for permanent residence?” At that time, 28% of all adults of Ukrainians were ready to go abroad.In September 2022, we asked this question again… 91% became more of those who would not want to leave,” the press release on the results of the study says.
At the same time, KIIS notes that currently about 10% of adult Ukrainians are now abroad as refugees. “However, even if half of them would answer yes to this question (recent surveys of Ukrainian refugees show that in fact the majority still want to return home, that is, the answers “yes” would most likely be less than half), then the decline in emigration sentiment would also be significant, from 28% to around 13%.
According to the results of the study, in all regions of Ukraine, the absolute majority of the population (90-92%) would not want to travel abroad.
In terms of age, younger respondents are more willing to emigrate, but in fact, among all ages, the vast majority (at least 84%) would not want to go to live in the US/EU. “In 2020, almost half (46%) of young people under 30 would like to leave, now it is 13%,” the KIIS stressed.
The survey was conducted on September 7-13 by the method of telephone interviews using a computer (CATI) among 2,000 respondents from all regions of Ukraine, controlled before February 24, and did not cover citizens who left abroad. The statistical sampling error under normal circumstances (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) did not exceed 2.4% for indicators close to 50% and 1.1% for indicators close to 5%. In war conditions, a certain systematic deviation is added to the error, but the results obtained still retain high representativeness, the KIIS notes.
Internal and external debt of Ukraine in 2009-2022
SSC of Ukraine
It is necessary to achieve an extension of the Istanbul food deal, as this will help feed the world, US President Joe Biden said during a speech at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
“I am grateful for the work of the UN, including the leadership of Secretary General António Guterres, thanks to which it was possible to create a mechanism that allows exporting grain from Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea … We need to ensure that it is extended,” Biden said during of his speech, noting “faith in the need to feed the world”.
The US President added that Russia is trying to blame the food crisis on the sanctions that Western countries have imposed against it. However, according to him, “our sanctions regimes quite clearly allow Russia to export food and fertilizers.”
Biden also said the US will donate $2.9 billion in humanitarian aid and food security assistance this year.
Agroholding KSG Agro has begun exporting sunflower oil to Poland and Italy, and the first batch of 2,000 tons of rapeseed has been sent to Slovakia, according to a press release from the agrarian group on Thursday.
“Currently, there are very good conditions for agricultural producers to export to the EU – in fact, there are no taxes (in particular, VAT) and import duties. So, if you solve problems with transportation, establish efficient logistics, you can have a good source of replenishment of foreign exchange income”, – quotes the agricultural holding of its owner Sergey Kasyanov.
According to him, the export of agricultural products to the EU makes it difficult to increase the cost of logistics and increase its time. So, if earlier one delivery to the EU was carried out on average in 5-7 days, then in the conditions of the Russian military invasion and queues at border crossings, delivery can last 20-30 days.
It is specified that the supply of sunflower oil to Poland and Italy will be carried out with the help of flexitanks – polymer containers designed for the transportation of liquid cargo on conventional trucks.
In addition to KSG Agro LLP, we are currently negotiating with partners regarding the possibility of bottling and refining sunflower oil in the EU countries in order to quickly increase its exports and sell products ready for consumption.
“We managed to build effective supply chains for export supplies of both grain and high value-added products (vegetable oil) to the markets of the EU countries, despite the blockade of seaports. In 2022-2023, we plan to focus on developing the export of our products in order to increase foreign exchange earnings. There are all the prerequisites for this, for example, high demand in the EU for grain and the same rapeseed,” Kasyanov summed up in the message.
The vertically integrated holding KSG Agro is engaged in pig breeding, as well as the production, storage, processing and sale of grains and oilseeds. Its land bank is about 21 thousand hectares.
According to the agricultural holding, he is in the top 5 pork producers in Ukraine.
In 2021, the holding increased its net profit by 16 times compared to 2020, to $20.27 million, revenue by 44%, to $30.75 million, while doubling EBITDA to $12.28 million.
The owner and chairman of the board of directors of KSG Agro is Sergey Kasyanov.
