The Cabinet of Ministers has allocated UAH 148.21 million for the construction of new border crossing points in 2025, according to the government’s Procedure for the Use of Funds Provided for in the State Budget for the Development of the Road Network and Maintenance.
In particular, UAH 21.8 million is earmarked for the construction of a border crossing point for the Dyida-Berehradaroc road connection and a service area in front of the checkpoint. UAH 4.5 million is allocated for the construction of an entry-exit control point for the opening of the Velyka Palad-Nagyhodosh road border crossing point with the placement of a complex of facilities intended for public services and connection to engineering networks. UAH 81.8 million is allocated for the construction of the Velyka Palad-Nagyhodos automobile border crossing point.
UAH 20 million has been allocated for the construction of an international checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Romanian state border between Bila Tserkva (Ukraine) and Sighetu Marmatiei (Romania) with access roads to the road border bridge. Also, UAH 20 million was allocated for the construction of service areas in front of the Uzhhorod checkpoint.
Earlier it was reported that according to the Operational Plan of the Strategy for the Development of Border Infrastructure with the EU and the Republic of Moldova until 2030, Ukraine plans to build 16 international automobile checkpoints on the border with the EU. In particular, 7 of them were planned to be built in Zakarpattia region.
In particular, UAH 1.5 million out of the required UAH 1.08 billion has already been allocated for the construction of the Dyida automobile checkpoint in 2024. In 2026, it is planned to allocate UAH 355 million, in 2027 – UAH 400 million, in 2028 – UAH 333.05 million at the expense of the state budget and international technical assistance, in particular the CEF, the text of the operational plan says.
In 2024, UAH 1.45 million was allocated for the construction of the Velyka Palad automobile checkpoint in Zakarpattia region out of the UAH 386.01 million required for the construction of the checkpoint and its service area. In 2025, it was planned to allocate UAH 382.56 million from the state budget and international technical assistance.
The construction of the Bila Tserkva checkpoint was launched in 2024, with UAH 19.5 million allocated out of the required UAH 1.51 billion for the construction of the checkpoint, access roads, and a road border bridge. In 2025, UAH 174.08 million is expected to be allocated, in 2026 – UAH 963.42 million, and in 2028 – UAH 362.5 million from the state budget and international technical assistance.
As reported earlier, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the procedure for using funds for the development and maintenance of roads at the expense of UAH 12.6 billion provided for in the budget program “Development of the Network and Maintenance of Public Roads”.
Imports to Ukraine of power generating sets and rotating electrical converters (UKTZED 8502) in January-2025 increased almost eightfold in monetary terms compared to January-2024, to $178.36 million, according to statistics from the State Customs Service (SCS).
According to the State Customs Service, in January of this year, the most frequently imported electric generators and converters were from Austria (14.1% of total exports of these products or $25.13 million), the United States (13.6% or $24.2 million) and Romania (13.3% or $23.7 million), while a year earlier it was the Czech Republic ($6.7 million), China ($5.6 million) and Turkey ($3.4 million).
In addition, in January, imports of electric batteries and separators to Ukraine more than tripled to $94.83 million, most often imported from China (77.8%), Bulgaria (11%) and Taiwan (3.3%).
As reported, at the end of July 2024, Ukraine exempted the import of power generating equipment and batteries to Ukraine from customs duties and VAT.
According to the State Customs Service, in 2024, imports of electric generators and converters to Ukraine increased by 3.7% compared to 2023, to $732.5 million, and batteries more than doubled to $950.6 million.
State-owned Sense Bank (Kyiv) has entered into a multicurrency credit line agreement with OKKO Group equivalent to EUR 20 million, the bank’s press service reports.
According to the terms of the agreement, the funds can be used for both investment purposes and working capital replenishment, and the term of the agreement is 5 years.
Commenting on the event, Olena Gorobets, Sense Bank’s Director of Corporate Business for Industrial Enterprises, noted that providing financial instruments for critical enterprises is one of the priorities of the financial institution.
“Even in today’s challenging environment, our company finds ways to develop and invest in the Ukrainian economy, provide customers with quality fuel and quality service. An important key to this is financial mobility, the ability to freely operate working capital at any time. The new credit line gives us such opportunities,” comments OKKO Vice President for Finance Nazar Kupibida.
As reported, on February 10, Sense Bank launched the grant program “Support for Energy Resilience of Micro and Small Enterprises in Ukraine”, which is being implemented by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and the German government and is being implemented by the German federal company Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH together with the Entrepreneurship Development Fund.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), as of December 1, 2024, Sens Bank was ranked 9th among 62 banks operating at that time (UAH 143.56 billion) in terms of total assets. According to them, the net profit of the financial institution for this period amounted to UAH 3.83 billion.
State-owned Oschadbank’s pre-tax profit for 2024 amounted to UAH 18.7 billion, compared to UAH 9.3 billion in 2023 and UAH 0.6 billion in 2022, the bank said in a press release on Thursday.
According to the report, the amount of income tax and dividends that Oschadbank will pay to the state budget based on its performance in 2024 is expected to amount to UAH 12.2 billion: UAH 9.9 billion of income tax and UAH 2.3 billion of dividends, which is UAH 5.8 billion more than in 2023.
The bank notes that such results were made possible by increasing the balance sheet currency while developing its business. This contributed to an increase in Oschad’s net interest income by UAH 5.5 billion, or 29%.
In addition, work with problem borrowers and other measures to resolve bad debts helped the bank to release provisions by UAH 2.3 billion.
According to the release, the volume of Oschadbank’s net loan portfolio in 2024 increased by UAH 22 billion, or 25%, and exceeded UAH 111 billion. This became possible due to active lending to both businesses (+UAH 15.9 billion since the beginning of the year) and individuals (+UAH 6.1 billion).
It is noted that an important area of Oschad’s investment was investments in government debt securities, the portfolio of which increased by UAH 72.8 billion (in nominal terms), or 68% since the beginning of 2024. Over the past year, the bank purchased UAH 120 billion worth of government bonds, which increased its market share from 16.3% to 20.3%, and its share in the growth of government bonds in the banking system reached 32%.
Oschadbank also clarified that it had tripled the transfer of taxes, fees and paid dividends to the state budget in 2024 to a record UAH 17.2 billion, of which UAH 10.6 billion was income tax (including UAH 2.9 billion in 2023 and UAH 7.7 billion in 2024).
According to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), as of December 1, 2024, Oschadbank ranked 2nd (UAH 439.37 billion) in terms of total assets among 61 banks in the country. The net profit of the financial institution for 11 months of last year amounted to UAH 12.86 billion.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of Serbia Ivica Dačić said that the Criminal Police Department, together with the Belgrade Police Department, conducted one of the largest cocaine seizures in recent times, Euronews reports.
“Today in Surčin, during the detention of two people, nine kilograms of cocaine were seized. The detainees were taken into custody for 48 hours, after which they will be transferred to the prosecutor’s office for further consideration,” Dacic said in a statement from the Interior Ministry.
According to Interior Ministry video footage, the bags of cocaine were hidden under the car’s gear lever.
The cost of cocaine on the black market in Europe varies depending on the country and specific conditions. According to local police, in Latvia, the wholesale price for a kilogram of cocaine is about 30,000 euros, and the retail price is 120 euros per gram.
In the Czech Republic, the retail price of cocaine is approximately 136 US dollars per gram.
In Austria, a 137 kg shipment of cocaine was valued at 14 million euros, which corresponds to approximately 102,200 euros per kilogram.
It should be noted that these figures can vary significantly depending on the country, region and current market situation.
Source: https://t.me/relocationrs/462
The Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies-members of the Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of Ukraine (APMU), joined by other leading domestic pharmaceutical companies, have signed a declaration on reducing the prices of medicines.
According to the declaration, starting March 1, Ukrainian manufacturers will reduce the cost of their drugs by 30%. The price reduction will apply to the 100 most widely used medicines.
The initiative is being implemented in pursuance of the National Security and Defense Council’s decision on additional measures to ensure the availability of medicines for Ukrainians.
The UBA clarifies that this decision of the National Security and Defense Council also provides for the adoption of a number of regulatory acts, one of which is the full implementation of the “Bolar exception”, which has long been in force in the EU.
According to the UBA, the implementation of the Bolar Exemption will allow new and affordable medicines to enter the market faster, which will promote competition and expand patient choice.
At the same time, the FDA notes that “reducing prices is not an easy decision, especially in the context of rising exchange rates, rising import and logistics costs.”
“Pharmaceutical production is critically dependent on foreign markets: more than 80% of raw materials for Ukrainian medicines are purchased abroad. At the same time, investments in research and development of new drugs reach tens of millions of dollars annually. Despite these challenges, companies understand their social responsibility and are ready to take a step towards patients,” said the President of the UBA Petro Bahriy.
As reported, on Wednesday, domestic producers of the most popular medicines signed a declaration to reduce prices for the 100 most popular drugs by 30% starting March 1. Among the signatories are the Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of Ukraine (AMPU) and pharmaceutical companies Farmak, Borshchahivskiy Chemical Pharmaceutical Plant (BCPP), Darnitsa, Arterium Corporation, Kyiv Vitamin Plant, Yuria-Pharm, Interchem, Kusum Farm, and Viola Pharmaceuticals.
The list of the 100 most popular medicines most often purchased by Ukrainians includes 20 items of Darnitsa, 17 items of Farmak, 22 items of Kyiv Vitamin Plant, five items of Kusum Farm, six items of Yuria-Pharm, eight items of Arterium, two items of Viola, three items of BCPP, and 10 items of InterChem.
Earlier, pursuant to a presidential decree, the government reduced the maximum supply and distribution markups on medicines from 10% to 8% and introduced maximum trade (retail) markups not exceeding 35%, which are charged to the purchase price including taxes.
