The system of cyber protection of state information resources of Ukraine and critical infrastructure facilities at monitoring sites recorded 1.233 million suspicious events from July 14 to July 20, 2021, which is 4% less than in the previous week.
According to the State Service for Special Communication and Information Protection, the overwhelming majority of recorded suspicious events concern attempts to obtain user rights (43%), obtain administrator rights (17%), and violations of corporate security policy (20%).
The system of state bodies’ protected access to the Internet blocked 72,155 different types of attacks, which is 3% less than in the previous week. Of these, 98% are application-level network attacks, and 11 DDoS attacks were also recorded and blocked.
During this period, the Government Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) registered and processed 1,680 cyber incidents, which is 19% more than in the previous week.
The vast majority of processed incidents belong to the UACOM domain zone (about 99%). The majority of incidents are related to the distribution of malware (46% of the total) and phishing (53%).
Fourteen countries of the European Union allowed entry for Ukrainian tourists as part of easing restrictions previously imposed to counter the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus infection.
“Country by country, we are returning the full effect of visa-free travel with the EU. Freedom of travel for Ukrainians is among the priorities of the Foreign Ministry,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on its Facebook page on Monday.
The Foreign Ministry recalled that recently the EU Council has included Ukraine in the recommended list of third countries, for whose citizens it is proposed to abolish temporary restrictions on non-compulsory travel to the European Union.
“According to the recommendation of the EU Council, European countries began to open up one after another for all types of travel of Ukrainians. In less than two weeks, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Spain, Portugal were added to the list. In most countries, you need a certificate of complete vaccination or a fresh negative test for entry,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said.
The ministry drew attention to the fact that the specific conditions of entry into each individual country may differ. All details, as well as a list of vaccines approved in the country, can be checked on the interactive map of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at: http://tripadvisor.mfa.gov.ua. Answers to common questions about traveling abroad in 2021 can be found at: https://cutt.ly/8mOax7X
Ukrainian transport companies carried 1.263 billion passengers in January-June 2021, which is 4.2% more than in January-June 2020, the State Statistics Service has reported.
The passenger turnover of transport enterprises in the specified period amounted to 27.9 billion passenger-kilometers, which is 21.1% less than in January-June last year.
According to the State Statistics Service, 38.9 million passengers used railway transport in January-June 2021 (including city commuter trains), which is 19.6% more than in the same period in 2020, and 524.2 million passengers used road transport (1.8% more).
Air transport reduced passenger traffic by 68.4%, to 3.4 million people.
In addition, according to the State Statistics Service, in January-June 2021, some 189.2 million passengers used trams (5.9% less versus January-June 2020), subway carried 217.5 million people (23.2% more), trolleybuses some 289.6 million people (1.6% more).
During the specified period, water transport carried 0.1 million passengers (a rise of 689%).
As noted by the State Statistics Service, the indicators are given without taking into account the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, Sevastopol and part of the non-controlled territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine announced the average cost of gasoline at UAH 26.64 per liter and diesel fuel at UAH 22.25 per liter, on which the fuel selling price caps at filling stations at the end of July is based.
Thus, taking into account the trade markups, the price cap for “ordinary” gasoline for its sale through the filling station network shall not exceed UAH 31.64 per liter and for “ordinary” diesel fuel – UAH 29.25 per liter.
Compared to the middle of the month, the average price for gasoline fell by UAH 0.23 per liter, for diesel fuel – by UAH 0.35 per liter.
Norwey’s Scatec saw EBITDA of NOK 55 million ($1/NOK 8.8759) in Ukraine in the first half of 2021, which is 34.1% more than in the first half of 2020.
According to the company’s report on Friday, its revenue grew by 47.8%, to NOK 68 million, while net production increased by 75%, to 49 GWh, and OPEX increased 2.6 times, to NOK 13 million.
At the same time, negative cash flow to equity amounted to NOK 3 million versus positive NOK 15 million in the first half of last year.
Scatec said that in the second quarter of this year compared to the second quarter of last year, its EBITDA in Ukraine increased by 11.4%, to NOK 39 million, revenue rose by 26.3%, to NOK 48 million with an increase in net production was 54.5%, to 34 GWh, while OPEX tripled to NOK 9 million.
In the second quarter, the company managed to reach a positive free cash flow on equity of NOK 7 million, which, however, is more than twice less than in the second quarter of last year – NOK 16 million.
According to the report, the Rengy, Chigrin, Kamianka and Boguslav projects in Ukraine that failed to meet certain loan covenants on 31 March 2021 are compliant with all covenants on 30 June 2021. The non-current non-recourse debt of NOK 921 million in Ukraine which was classified as current on 31 March 2021 have been reclassified back to non-current in the statement of financial position on 30 June 2021
Scatec also said that the 148 MW Progressovka project and the 55 MW Chigirin project in Ukraine reached commercial operation in early July 2021. The Progressovka project has been a collaboration with PowerChina Guizhou Engineering Co. Ltd., who has provided construction financing and Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) services to the project. The Construction financing from PowerChina is classified as trade and other payables in statement of financial position, and amounts to NOK 671 million on 30 June 2021. The loan is due 1 June 2022 and Scatec is working on securing long term financing with a local or international bank group.
In general, in the first half of 2021, Scatec increased EBITDA by 93.3%, to NOK 1.363 billion with an increase in revenue by 2.2 times, to NOK1.892 billion and net production by 2.3 times, to 1,714 GWh.
As reported, the total capacity of solar generation facilities built by Scatec in three regions of Ukraine has reached 314 MW.
Scatec is headquartered in Oslo, Norway. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker SCATC. The largest shareholders are state-controlled Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil) with 13.08%, Scatec Innovation AS with 12.26% and the manager of state pension funds of Norway Folketrygdfondet with 8.97%.
The rise in railway tariffs for freight transportation may increase the load on road transport and road infrastructure, as well as increase prices for final products in the energy and construction sectors.
This opinion was expressed by representatives of core business segments at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
“Ukrzaliznytsia, as a monopoly carrier, is once again simply raising tariffs. What will this mean for the cement industry: firstly, the prices for the transportation of coal will rise, and secondly, the prices for the transportation of raw materials and additives to cement will rise. Thirdly, prices will rise directly for the final product for the consumer,” Executive Director of the Association of Cement Producers of Ukraine (Ukrcement) Liudmyla Kripka said.
According to preliminary estimates of the association, such an increase in tariffs will affect both the cost of cement and the final product for the consumer by about 5-8%, which, in turn, will increase the cost of construction projects.
At the same time, Kripka said that Ukrzaliznytsia may not receive the expected income from the increase in tariffs due to the transfer of enterprise logistics to the segment of road transportation.
“As a result, Ukrzaliznytsia will not receive income, but the load on road transport will increase,” she said.
Director General of the Federation of Transport Employers of Ukraine Volodymyr Husak agreed with this forecast. According to him, Ukrzaliznytsia will not be able to implement the plan to receive about UAH 2 billion by the end of this year from the increase in freight rates.
“This money will not be available, as we will see an accelerated withdrawal of Ukrzaliznytsia’s clients primarily to highways. This trend has been observed for several years… Due to the reorientation of goods to highways, there will be an additional load. Roads will collapse faster. There will be no effect from the implementation of the Big Construction program of the President of Ukraine,” he said.
In addition, Husak said that due to the rise in the cost of transportation of building materials – crushed stone, cement – the volume of the Big Construction program will also decrease.
At the same time, maintaining low prices in the passenger segment and an increase in the cost of cargo transportation will ultimately lead to an increase in tariffs in the energy sector, Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Employers of the Fuel and Energy Complex of Ukraine Serhiy Chekh said.
“What will the implementation of this order [of the Ministry of Infrastructure] mean for us, power engineers? This is extra UAH 40-50 per tonne of transported coal and about 3% growth in the cost of electricity at the exit from the thermal power station,” he said.
Experts emphasize that for the effective development of the rail transport market, it is necessary to ensure equal competitive conditions, introduce projects for the use of private locomotives, and update legislation in this area. In addition, it is necessary to update the management and supervisory board of Ukrzaliznytsia for effective governance, to carry out its reform in accordance with the government’s plans.
As reported, earlier in July, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine published a draft order on a two-stage increase in tariffs for cargo transportation of a group of goods of 1 and 2 tariff classes from September 2021 by 8%, and from January 2022 – by 20.4% and 6.5%.
