Ukrtelecom’s total income in the first half of 2021 amounted to UAH 3.4 billion (more than 10% more than in the same period in 2020), and Internet income exceeded UAH 1 billion (more by 7.4%), the company’s press service has said on Monday.
Ukrtelecom’s EBITDA in the first six months amounted to UAH 1.1 billion (an increase of 29%). EBITDA margin increased by 4.5 percentage points (p.p.), to 31.3%.
It is noted that for the specified period, the company’s telecommunications services income amounted to almost UAH 2.4 billion. Private subscribers were provided with services for almost UAH 1.5 billion, and business consumers – for UAH 692 million. The fixed optical Internet user base grew by 83%, to 203,000 subscribers.
In the business segment, Internet income increased by 10.2%, to UAH 226 million, and in the mass segment – by 6.6%, to UAH 786 million.
Ukrtelecom notes that the connection of small towns and villages to high-speed optical Internet continues. Currently, work is underway in almost 150 settlements, where more than 4,500 km of fiber-optic cable have been laid.
“Throughout the country, 850 medical and 1,250 educational institutions, as well as 380 territorial communities are already using optical Internet from Ukrtelecom. Of these, 156 medical and 233 educational institutions, 21 territorial communities have been connected this year. Ukrtelecom is awaiting the announcement of tenders by local communities to participate in the Ministry of Digital Transformation’s program to provide modern optical Internet for social infrastructure and rural population,” the company said.
According to it, in January-June 2021, income related to asset management also increased, in particular, from receipts from commercial lease of property not involved in production processes. It amounted to more than UAH 213 million, which is almost 41% more than in the same period last year.
In addition, the operator has launched a three-year fleet renewal program, which provides for the replacement of more than 1,300 vehicles used in production activities, including for disaster recovery teams, deploying fiber-optic networks, connecting and servicing subscribers.
Capital investments in the first half of 2021 amounted to almost UAH 310 million.
“The problem remains with the debt of local budgets to reimburse the company’s expenses for telecommunications services provided to citizens entitled to benefits. As of June 30, this figure exceeds UAH 124 million,” the company said.
In 2021, Ukrtelecom has already paid UAH 975 million in taxes to the budgets of all levels.
The state budget in January-June 2021 had a deficit of UAH 43.2 billion, and the general fund deficit was almost UAH 50.2 billion, the State Treasury Service of Ukraine has reported.
According to the data on its website, the state budget deficit in June 2021 amounted to UAH 9.47 billion, including the deficit of the general fund reached UAH 18.4 billion.
As the State Treasury Service said, borrowings in the first six months of 2021 amounted to UAH 264.7 billion, including external – UAH 51.5 billion, while repayments for the specified period reached UAH 231 billion, including on external liabilities – almost UAH 24.7 billion.
According to the State Treasury Service, privatization in January-June of this year brought UAH 1.048 billion, while at the end of the year UAH 12 billion is expected to be received under this item.
In general, state budget receipts in the first half of the year amounted to almost UAH 592 billion, including UAH 505.9 billion in the general fund, and expenditures reached UAH 633.6 billion, including UAH 558.7 billion in the general fund, according to the data of the State Treasury Service.
The State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine has put up for electronic auction five hydrocarbon sites with a total starting cost of UAH 207.8 million (excluding the cost of geological documentation), the authority has said.
At the auction on October 20, 2021, in particular, Pivdenno-Rusanivska area (Sumy and Poltava regions) was put up for UAH 92.5 million (hereinafter without VAT), Zhukivska area (Poltava region) – for UAH 5.306 million, the Kitvan area (Ivano-Frankivsk region) – for UAH 1.925 million, Reshetylivska area (Poltava region) – for UAH 2.229 million and Tynivske area for UAH 107.847 million.
As reported, following the results of electronic trading in 2020, the State Service of Geology and Subsoil attracted UAH 826 million of direct revenues to the state budget. In 2021, a plan was announced to receive at least UAH 750 million.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) have signed an agreement to formalise their cooperation on low-carbon hydrogen and to develop hydrogen supply chains.
“I am very pleased that the EBRD and GTSOU are cooperating to support each other’s activities regarding hydrogen. Ukraine relies heavily on fossil fuels across all sectors of its economy and hydrogen can represent a good alternative for decarbonisation, and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Supporting the green transition of our economies is a key priority for the EBRD,” EBRD Managing Director for Green Economy and Climate Action Harry Boyd-Carpenter said.
CEO of GTSOU Sergiy Makogon said that the challenge of hydrogen therefore is to develop technology to scale up hydrogen use, to create the necessary conditions and infrastructure for its production, transportation and consumption.
“All this requires time, effort and cooperation by all stakeholders. We recognise the role of natural gas as one of the key energy sources and transition fuel on the path to carbon-free economy, which will remain significant for this transition period. As the operator of the gas transmission system, our task is now to prepare our infrastructure for the decarbonised energy markets of the future,” he said.
According to the report, the EBRD recently launched a study on the potential for developing different segments of the hydrogen supply chain across many of the economies where it invests, including Ukraine.
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
