During the first three months of 2022, Ukraine’s largest gambling company paid UAH 147 million in licenses, taxes, and fees to the state budget.
In the condition of Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, the country needs more stable budget revenues than ever before. After the legalization of the gambling industry in Ukraine, it has the potential to become a new growth point for the country’s economy, and now legal gambling operators use the opportunity to fill in the State budget during the war.
Parimatch Ukraine (legal entity – Parimatch LLC) became the first officially licensed bookmaker in Ukraine in 2021. For two years of activity, the organizer of gambling paid UAH 262.8 million to the state budget of Ukraine: UAH 216 million paid for a license to carry out gambling activities, and UAH 46,8 million paid for an online casino license.
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has declared recently that despite the war, the state budget must be filled and provide the necessary expenditures. Parimatch Ukraine, as a responsible business and leader in the gambling industry, continues to meet all its financial obligations on time. In particular, the company has already fully paid for operating licenses in 2022, as well as all necessary taxes to the state budget of the total amount of UAH 147 million.
We will continue to adhere to all financial obligations to the state and demonstrate what honest and responsible business is. We have adapted the company’s strategy and understand how to move forward and what our new goals are. Restoring the company’s economic condition and keeping jobs is the most important and urgent help to the country. After all, now we need stable financial revenues, and people need timely wages and a social assistance program, – Natalia Gilevych, CEO of Parimatch Ukraine said.
A successful business is impossible without a team, and the team needs more help in times of uncertainty and increased danger. During the first days of the war, Parimatch Ukraine focused on supporting colleagues by reconnecting with everyone, making sure they were safe, and evacuating them and their family members if needed.
We have revised the social assistance list, added the rent compensation to those who were forced to leave their homes, and travel compensation for those who moved around Ukraine or abroad. We also provided military ammunition for our colleagues who decided to join the Armed Forces and the Territorial Defense, – the company’s CEO added.
After solving the most pressing issues, the company launched psychological support and regular online meetings with psychologists, and daily yoga or stretching classes to restore physical condition.
Over the years, Parimatch Ukraine has become known as a company that has devoted much effort to the development of sports in Ukraine, it is the largest patron and sponsor that worked with top teams in the world as well as the most famous athletes. It is to be recalled, the Parimatch brand has announced that it is to withdraw its franchise from Russia. The decision has already been implemented at the legal and technical levels.
Dynamics of balance of payments of Ukraine (USD mln)
NBU
The Cabinet of Ministers has legally confirmed the decision to terminate trade relations with the Russian Federation, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko has said.
“A very important decision was made. This is a legal confirmation of the actual termination of trade relations with the Russian Federation, which happened on February 24,” Svyrydenko said on the national telethon on Saturday evening following the government meeting.
According to her, such a decision would annually block Russia’s foreign exchange earnings by at least $6 billion.
Losses among civilians from February 24, when Russia started the war against Ukraine, until 24:00 on April 8, amounted to 4149 civilians (in the report a day earlier – 3893), including 1766 dead (1626), reports the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Saturday.
The daily summary traditionally states that the increase in indicators in it should not be attributed to the previous report only for cases that occurred on April 8, since during the day OHCHR also verified a number of cases that occurred in previous days, however, the increase in the number of deaths is largest in the entire war.
“OHCHR believes that the actual figures are much higher as information is delayed from some areas of intense fighting and many reports are still awaiting confirmation,” the document says.
According to him, this applies, for example, to Mariupol and Volnovakha (Donetsk region), Izyum (Kharkiv region), Popasnaya (Luhansk region), Borodyanka (Kyiv region), where there are reports of numerous civilian casualties. They are subject to further verification and are not included in the above statistics.
“The majority of civilian deaths or injuries were caused by the use of explosive devices with a wide area of effect, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as rocket and air strikes,” the report says.
According to confirmed UN data, 452 men, 284 women, 43 boys and 27 girls died, while the sex of 69 children and 891 adults has not yet been determined.
Among the 2,383 wounded are 45 girls and 44 boys, as well as 126 children whose gender has not yet been determined.
Compared to the previous day, seven children were killed and 18 more injured, according to the UN.
OHCHR indicates that in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as of midnight on April 9, there were 560 (432) dead and 944 (842) injured in government-controlled territory, and 70 (67) dead and 269 (263) injured in territory controlled by self-proclaimed “republics”.
In other regions of Ukraine under government control (in Kyiv, as well as in Zhytomyr, Zaporozhye, Kiev, Sumy, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnepropetrovsk, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions), the UN recorded 1136 (1127) dead and 1170 (1162) wounded .
The report also states that, according to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, as of 08:00 on April 9, 176 (167) children were killed, 324 (306) were injured.
The UK will supply Ukraine with technology and know-how to ensure that Ukraine is never blackmailed or threatened, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said after meeting with the Ukrainian president in Kyiv.
“We – the UK and other partners will supply equipment, technology, know-how, intelligence, so that Ukraine will never be subjected to the horrors of invasion, so that Ukraine will never be blackmailed or threatened in any way,” Johnson said at a briefing with the President of Ukraine in Kyiv on Saturday.
The EU is preparing the next wave of sanctions against the Russian Federation, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has said.
“We can never match the sacrifice of the Ukrainian people, never can we match that, but we are mobilizing our economic power to make Putin pay a very, very heavy price. We have as you said imposed five waves of unprecedented sanctions against Russia and we are already preparing the next wave,” von der Leyen said at a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Friday.
