From June 27, only trucks weighing more than 7.5 tons and scheduled buses will pass through the Yagodin-Dorogusk checkpoint to reduce queues at the border, the State Border Service of Ukraine reports.
“Cargoes up to 7.5 tons and light vehicles will not be processed. Empty trucks will move in separate traffic lanes, while fuel trucks will continue to be processed in the first place,” the message on Facebook said.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has allowed the state-owned Ukrposhta to buy Alpari Bank.
“The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine granted Ukrposhta permission to acquire Alpari Bank. In conditions when many bank branches are closed, there is no connection in many places, and only Ukrposhta operates there, it is very important that modern banking services appear there. And Ukrposhta” he will definitely do it,” CEO of Ukrposhta Igor Smelyansky wrote on his Telegram channel on Friday.
He also said that this decision would save the country up to UAH 10 billion in three to four years.
“We thank the Antimonopoly Committee for the positive decision, we thank those who supported us, and we are preparing the last step – the decision of the NBU,” Smelyansky said.
As reported, in 2021, Ukrposhta submitted documents to agree on a deal to buy Alpari Bank from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and the National Bank of Ukraine.
According to the NBU, as of January 1, 2022, the sole shareholder of Alpari Bank was a UAE citizen Bakhtari Hedayat-Allah Musa. According to the central bank, as of March 1, 2022, the bank is solvent and has assets in the amount of UAH 221.9 million.
Agrarians of Odessa and Mykolaiv regions harvested 92.1 thousand tons of early grain and leguminous crops on a total area of 42.2 thousand hectares by June 24, according to the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine on Friday. It is specified that a total of 90 thousand tons of winter barley from 41.1 thousand hectares and 2 thousand tons of winter wheat from 1.2 thousand hectares were threshed.
Accordingly, the average yield of winter barley was 21.9 c/ha, winter wheat – 17.8 c/ha.
The agency clarified that on the same date last year, the harvesting of winter crops had not yet begun.
“Despite the constant shelling, people and special equipment also work during the curfew. The necessary permission can be obtained from the district military administrations,” the Ministry of Agrarian Policy summed up in the message.
On June 24, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Ukraine’s ambassadors to Georgia, the Slovak Republic, the Portuguese Republic, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Lebanese Republic by a series of decrees.
The relevant decrees No. 439/2022, No. 440/2022, No. 441/2022, No. 442/2022, No. 443/2022 are published on the website of the head of state.
So, Igor Dolgov was dismissed from the post of Ambassador of Ukraine to Georgia, Yuriy Mushka was dismissed from the post of Ambassador to Slovakia, Inna Ognivets – the post of Ambassador to Portugal.
Zelensky also fired Serhiy Burdilyaka from the post of Ukrainian ambassador to Iran and Igor Ostash from the post of ambassador to Lebanon.
In 2017, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko appointed Igor Dolgov, former Deputy of Defense of Ukraine for European Integration, to the post of Ambassador of Ukraine to Georgia.
In 2016, Poroshenko appointed diplomat Yuriy Mushka as Ambassador of Ukraine to the Slovak Republic, and Igor Ostash as Ambassador to Lebanon.
In 2015, Poroshenko appointed Inna Ognivets as Ambassador of Ukraine to the Portuguese Republic and Serhiy Burdilyak as Ambassador of Ukraine to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The war caused and continues to cause significant damage to the economy of Ukraine. Today, perhaps, the construction and real estate markets suffered the most from the hostilities. Thus, the report of the National Bank of Ukraine “On Financial Stability” dated June 17, 2022 indicates that since the beginning of the war, the market has practically stopped, both in terms of construction and the sale of housing. At the same time, according to the NBU, the situation has begun to level off in recent weeks, and above all in the regions that are least affected by the destruction from the war.
The most favorable situation is in the western regions of the country, while the National Bank notes that a number of significant problems remain there. First of all, this is a market imbalance, when the prices declared by sellers are not supported by demand and are supported artificially.
As for construction, here, according to the regulator, the situation is more optimistic. Developers have restored work on almost 50% of the facilities in the country. The most positive dynamics is observed in the western regions, in the center and in the Odessa region.
As for the office real estate market, according to the NBU, it suffered to a greater extent from the massive transition of staff to remote work.
The Open4business portal asked financial expert Igor Stakovichenko to comment on the current situation. In his opinion, the severity of the crisis in the real estate market directly depends primarily on the intensity of hostilities in various regions of the country, as well as on the well-being of the population.
“We see that the demand for housing in the same Kharkiv and Dnipro collapsed almost equally. At the same time, housing construction in Kharkiv is at a standstill, while in Dnipro it is being restored. This is due to the risk assessment by developers, since the Kharkiv region is now under devastating shelling by the aggressor,” the expert believes.
In his opinion, most of the prices in both the primary and secondary markets are dictated by the overestimated expectations of developers who continue to hope to find a buyer for their goods despite changes in the economy and a decrease in the income of part of the population.
“Builders think in the old way, and form the price based on the cost and those mark-ups that were fair in the pre-war period. Buyers have become much more cautious and assess the risks, in particular, the presence of bomb shelters, evacuation routes, and so on. As for the secondary market, here prices are often drawn from the ceiling, hoping more for luck, ”said Stakovichenko.
According to the expert, market recovery can be expected after the end of the war, when the demand for housing will increase and investors’ fears will decrease.
CONSTRUCTION, EXPERT, FINANCY, IGOR STAKOVICHENKO, MARKETS, REAL ESTATE MARKET, STAKOVICHENKO
The Cabinet of Ministers has launched three new grant programs to support businesses, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal said.
“The first is irrevocable grants for the creation and development of processing enterprises. This may be an enterprise in the woodworking, metalworking, agricultural processing, furniture or construction sectors,” he said during a government meeting on Friday.
He added that the state will provide up to UAH 8 million in grant funds for those who already own a processing business or want to start one. It is fashionable to spend the grant on the purchase of equipment, the main requirement is to create at least 25 new jobs. In this case, the business owner must invest 30% of his investment. To receive a grant, an entrepreneur should submit a working idea, the prime minister explained.
The Cabinet of Ministers also approved a grant program for the IT sector and high-tech startups in the amount of UAH 750 thousand to UAH 3.5 million with the requirement to create at least five jobs.
In addition, the government launched the Start in IT grant program for IT education with a budget of UAH 1.8 billion, Shmygal noted. Thus, the state plans to finance educational grants up to UAH 30,000 for 60,000 Ukrainians. Funds can be spent on paying for a school or courses that will be determined by the Ministry of Finance.
This program is not for students or current professionals, but for those who have lost their jobs or are down and want to learn new skills in the profession of a developer or web designer, he pointed out.
Gradually, the details of these and other programs within the framework of the eWork project will become available in DIA, the head of government said.
