On January, 15 and 16 2022 Ancient Kyiv in the Principality of Kyivan Rus invites to the celebration of the Old New Year. In the program: festivities in the Kyivan Rus style, horse riding, equestrian performances, the interactive author`s musical spectacle, hot drinks and dishes, prepared on open fire, the Main New Year`s Residence, traditional crafts fair. Also the Christmas nativity scene will take place.
Ancient Kyiv opens at 10:00. The program starts at 13:30.
The ticket price: a full adult ticket – 200.00 UAH, for pensioners and students – 150.00 UAH; for schoolchildren – 100.00 UAH, for preschool children – for free.
Ancient Kyiv in the Principality of Kyivan Rus is not far from modern Kyiv – only in a 45-minutes’ drive – in the Kyiv region, Obukhiv district, vill. Kopachiv. The Interfax subscribers can save money with the “openbusiness-20” promo code for a 20%-discount for the adult ticket (at full price) to the Principality of Kyivan Rus:
– by previous order by tel.: +38 044 461-99-37, +38 050 385-20-35
– or at the cash desk at the entrance to the «Kyivan Rus Park».
– The Supreme Court of Ontario ruled to pay the relatives of the six victims of the UIA plane crash about $ 78.7 million plus interest. How can this affect the situation as a whole?
– It is difficult for me to comment on what is happening in Canada, to what extent this decision is final, whether it will be implemented … It’s hard to judge. Lawyers will certainly be able to better assess the situation. We live in the situation in which we live. All passengers and all crew members were insured, the families of the victims received all the first insurance payments. The second payments are part of the assessment process between the insurance company and the families regarding the extent of the damage caused, because this damage, as defined by insurance legislation, can be assessed differently depending on the composition of the family: whether the deceased was a breadwinner, whether he had dependents, etc.
This process is long, and in all countries it takes a long time, but it is going on. We control how this happens. We believe that all the issues will be resolved in relation to the relatives of both the deceased passengers and the deceased crew.
– How exactly are negotiations with Iran going on compensation for the cost of the plane? Has Iran started returning funds?
– As for the compensation to the lessor, the owner of this aircraft, it has already been settled, there is no more dispute there.
As for the damage caused directly to UIA, experts are now assessing its size, and we are considering the possibility of arbitration in order as a company to demand compensation from Iran. UIA, with its specialists, experts in the field of aviation, participated in almost all the meetings between the governments of Ukraine and Iran. The last meeting took place in June, there were no more of them. It is difficult to say how much progress has been made on this issue.
– The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine claims that progress is not great.
– Alas, not great. When people turn to us for an expert opinion, we are interested in participating in all negotiations. We’ve also prepared a very serious document – comments on the technical report of Iran, which was posted on the websites of IATA and the Iranian State Aviation Administration. There are comments from all institutions: the Security Service of Ukraine, the Prosecutor’s Office, the National Bureau of Air Accidents Investigation of Ukraine (the authority that conducts investigations into air crashes from the Ukrainian government).
We are forced to state the fact that the investigation itself in Tehran was carried out with insufficient quality, while, according to international law, no one except Iran has the right to conduct this investigation at the site of the disaster. The prosecutor’s office is seriously aimed at continuing the criminal case against, as I understand it, the Iranian authorities, the military authorities, etc. on this issue and establishing criminal facts in this catastrophe.
The process, unfortunately, is not supported by Iran’s goodwill and, accordingly, will go against their wishes. Let’s hope that the common will of Canada, Sweden, Ukraine – the entire coalition will be enough to politically apply the necessary pressure.
– Do you need more trips of Ukrainian specialists to Iran to continue the investigation on this issue? And can this be somehow organized in the current situation?
– There is no point in traveling to Iran. Not so long ago, we organized a trip for the families of the deceased crew members to the crash site, which they visited for the first time in two years, and from their words I know that there is no crash site as such, everything has been cleaned up. It’s just that there is a geographical place where it happened, the Iranian government installed some kind of memorial sign here. But there is nothing left to investigate at the very scene of the incident.
How do we, as an airline, plan to honor this tragic event? Kyiv gave us a site in a public garden in the Dniprovsky Hay (a small forest), which we have already partially landscaped. Trees have been planted there according to the number of dead passengers and crew members; in the spring it is planned to build a symbolic memorial. Now this place is already landscaped. And on January 8, we plan to invite there everyone who is ready to honor the memory of this tragic event, including representatives of the government and relatives of the families of the victims. Many of our workers who carry this pain in their hearts will surely come. We will continue to look after this park and support it as a place of memory.
– Iran avoids negotiations with the international coordination group on compensation for damage to the UIA aircraft. The Foreign Ministry noted that the coordination group will have to seriously consider other ways of resolving this issue within the framework of international law. How will UIA react if Ukraine files a claim with Iran at the UN International Court of Justice?
– This is a government decision. It’s hard for me to judge, but I think that any pressure that Ukraine can exert on Iran in this matter plays an important role.
After there was no fair solution to this disaster, we cannot say that the skies over Iran are safe for civil aviation. That is, Ukraine, taking into account this catastrophe, firmly estimates the sky over Iran as unsafe. None of Ukrainian airlines fly there and there are no plans to fly there. Therefore, maybe, at least by increasing legal pressure, a fair decision will be reached, there will be compensation for the country, the relatives of the victims, and the issue will be settled. This is important for civil aviation. Therefore, we welcome any attempts by the state to move forward on this issue.
– In fact, shortly after the Iranian tragedy, you received another blow – the beginning of the pandemic and an almost complete stop of air traffic between the countries from 2020. Airlines had to pay large amounts of compensation for canceled flights. Have you already settled with your clients on this issue?
– We, of course, did not have the opportunity to immediately pay our passengers all the tickets they had not used. But for almost a year and a half, they paid more than $ 55 million in money for unused tickets. At the same time, we also issued a huge number of flights to passengers with vouchers with an additional bonus of 25%, and in most cases they were already used on flights.
– If to take a percentage, how many of your customers chose a voucher, and how many – payment in cash?
– In total, during the pandemic in 2020-2021, UIA issued refunds for passengers for a total amount of about $ 57 million with “real” money. At the same time, vouchers (promotional codes) were issued for about the same amount, taking into account a 25% bonus. That is, in proportion over 60% of refunds were actually issued in cash. At the same time, the lion’s share of promotional codes has already been converted into tickets, but not all of them are used for the flight.
Today I can honestly say that my conscience before our passengers is clear. We really fulfilled all obligations. If there are any unfulfilled ones, then these are already processes of later cancellations, etc., but we will definitely execute them. After all, we have already proved to our passengers that we fulfill all obligations: either in the form of money (albeit later), or in the form of vouchers that can be used for other flights.
It is due to the fact that the calculations were carried out for a long time, that we were slowly able to practically “wash” $ 55 million out of the circulating assets and at the same time not “kill” the company. But it is still very difficult for us, so at the moment UIA needs to resolve financial issues to support the company in the winter.
– And what about the staff now? How much has these two years of the pandemic changed your approach to personnel policy?
– In the aviation world, people are the most valuable asset. I don’t even know in what other businesses people are such a valuable resource. After all, aviation competence is learned for a very long time and is expensive.
We regret that we were forced at a difficult time in 2020 and 2021 to carry out such a massive layoff, having reduced the staff by almost 40%. Before the pandemic, we had about 2,600 people, but due to the crisis provoked by COVID-19 in the aviation market, we had to reduce the staff to about 1,600 people.
However, we keep in touch with all our dismissed pilots and flight attendants, we know where they are, what they are doing. These are people who left the company not voluntarily, but they probably retained a certain loyalty to the company. And as soon as we begin to increase the volume of traffic, build up our fleet, first of all, we will begin to return these people as well. We are confident that the company will be able to return most of the employees who grew up in the company and are trained in the procedures for working at UIA, especially the young copilots.
This question is very sensitive and important for us. And we want to get back to growth as soon as possible so we can start getting our people back to work.
https://interfax.com.ua/
State-controlled Oschadbank (Kyiv) in 2021 sold property that is not used in banking activities with a book cost of UAH 517 million for UAH 674 million, member of the bank’s board Arsen Miliutin said.
“In 2021, we planned to sell property with a book value of UAH 670 million, sold by the beginning of November, in terms of book value, for UAH 517 million. But the real selling price is UAH 674 million,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
The banker added that one of the main reasons for not fulfilling the plan was the rather lengthy, ongoing negotiations with Kyiv on the sale of the bank’s land plots in Mykilska Slobidka.
Odesa Sea Trade Port handled 22.565 million tonnes of cargo in 2021, which is 3.4% less than in 2020.
According to the website of the SOE Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA), the port handled 19.987 million tonnes (7.5% less) of dry cargo over the past year, liquid cargo – 2.578 million tonnes (47.1% more).
The dynamics of the volume of dry cargo transshipment under the main items in the nomenclature is as follows: grain in bulk – 6.832 million tonnes (6.8% less); containers – 671,532 TEU (3% more); ferrous metals – 4.930 million tonnes (16.9% less); and other bulk (refractory clay, ore, feldspar) – 473,100 tonnes (44.6% more).
“The past year passed for the port under the sign of overcoming the pandemic crisis. In the first half of the year we had a 13.6% gap with the indicators of 2020. In the second half of the year, our partners – stevedoring companies reduced the gap by more than three times… In this context, the record grain harvest in Ukraine came in handy. Operators of port elevators, carriers, the entire transport and logistics structure of the port turned out to be ready for a sharp increase in the volume of grain, starting from August,” head of the Odesa seaport authority Maksym Lapai said.
Currently, transshipment of goods at Odesa seaport is carried out at 16 terminals. All terminals are operated by private companies with the status of port operators.
According to the USPA, the largest increase in cargo turnover over the past year was demonstrated by Olimpex Coupe International LLC – 1.383 million tonnes (45.7% more versus the result of the year before), Novotech-Terminal LLC – 2.524 million tonnes (13.2% more).
The leader among Ukrainian terminals for transshipment of containerized cargo – subsidiary company CTO (a subsidiary of German holding HHLA) in the reporting period was able not only to maintain its position in 2020, but also to increase its indicators to 390,806 TEU (5.1% more).
Production of beer (except for non-alcoholic beer with an alcohol content of up to 0.5% vol.) in Ukraine in 2021 fell by 5.0% compared to the same period in 2020, to 170.5 million decalitres, the Ukrpyvo branch organization of brewers said on its website on Tuesday evening.
In addition, the production of malt in the country last year declined by 19.5%, to 218,500 tonnes.
As reported, beer production in 2020 in Ukraine decreased 0.4% compared to 2019, to 179.7 million decaliters, and malt production fell by 18%, to 275,000 tonnes.
NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy and the companies controlled by it paid UAH 116 billion of taxes, fees and mandatory payments to the state and local budgets in 2021, the company’s press service said on Wednesday.
According to it, proceeds from the group amounted to 10.7% of the total state budget revenues for the last year (according to preliminary data – UAH 1.084 trillion).
In particular, the enterprises of the group transferred to the state budget about UAH 106 billion in taxes, fees and mandatory payments, and the parent company also paid UAH 10.3 billion in VAT for customs clearance of imported natural gas throughout the year.
“The national company provided a tenth of all revenues to the state budget of Ukraine. To understand, almost so much was directed to the needs of the Ministry of Defense in 2021,” Head of Naftogaz Yuriy Vitrenko said on his Facebook page.
“Despite all the reproaches that Naftogaz was spending state funds, this year we proved the opposite. The national company not only did not take a single coin from the state treasury, but also paid all taxes in full,” he said.
