Ukraine’s national team is participating for the first time in the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI), whose third final is being held in Astana from August 2 to 8, 2026. More than 500 school students from 108 countries have arrived for the competition.
Ukraine did not participate in the first two IOAI competitions, held in 2024 in Burgas, Bulgaria, and in 2025 in Beijing.
The Ukrainian team includes four participants from Kyiv and Irpin. One of the finalists represents the A+ Architectural and Engineering Collegium.
More than 2,200 school students from across Ukraine took part in the selection process for the national team. The program included testing basic digital skills and media literacy, assessing knowledge of artificial intelligence, machine learning and data processing, a technical English-language examination and a practical round.
After the main stages, the 50 best participants underwent three weeks of training with artificial intelligence instructors. The final composition of the national team was determined based on the results of the training, tests, practical assignments and interviews.
The official national coordinator of the IOAI in Ukraine is the A+ educational holding company, which received accreditation from the international olympiad in November 2025. Oleksandr Shapovalov is the project’s national coordinator, Oleksandra Hryshko is the international coordinator, Vitalii Sandul is the academic director, and Vasyl Orishchuk is the head of the scientific committee.
Developer KAN Development became the general partner of the Ukrainian national team, while the ITVDN educational IT platform became the olympiad’s partner in Ukraine.
The olympiad includes individual and team competitions. Participants work on practical tasks involving artificial intelligence and machine learning, analyze data, create models and evaluate their quality. Each country may send up to two teams, each consisting of no more than four school students and a team leader.
The first team round took place on August 3 following the official opening ceremony. The final stage of the team competition and the awards ceremony will take place on August 7.
During the individual rounds, participants work for six hours. Based on the results of the first stage of the team competition, the organizers select the ten best national teams, which earn the right to continue competing in the final.
A total of 103 countries and territories and more than 120 teams initially registered to participate in IOAI 2026. Following the opening, the organizers reported delegations from 108 countries and territories. The difference is related to the final composition of the participants who arrived in Astana.
The International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence was established in 2024. The first tournament in Bulgaria brought together 41 teams from 32 countries, while the second in China attracted about 300 school students from more than 50 countries. The fourth IOAI is scheduled to take place in Singapore in 2027.
Ukraine’s debut at the IOAI comes amid the development of a national system of artificial intelligence competitions. The Ukrainian selection process was open to school and college students between the ages of 14 and 20, and participation in all its stages was free of charge.
AI olympiad competitions differ from traditional computer science contests. Writing a program is not enough: participants must prepare and analyze data, select a machine-learning method, train a model, verify its accuracy and justify the result obtained.
Participation in the IOAI enables Ukraine to compare the level of preparation of its school students with teams from leading technological countries and begin developing its own system for training young artificial intelligence specialists.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, reported that 8.4 million Ukrainian citizens are currently abroad.
“More than 8.4 million of our citizens are currently outside Ukraine. It is our duty to ensure that each of them knows: Ukraine remembers them and is ready to protect their rights,” Lubinets wrote on Telegram on Tuesday.
According to “Serbian Economist”, the Ukrainian agricultural holding MHP has invested over 100 million euros in the modernization and development of production facilities in Serbia, Serbian Ambassador to Ukraine Andon Sapundži said in an interview with Mind.
MHP operates in the Serbian market through Perutnina Ptuj Topiko, a company specializing in the production and processing of poultry meat.
The company’s products are sold on the domestic market in Serbia and exported to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, and North Macedonia.
MHP acquired over 90% of the shares in the Slovenian company Perutnina Ptuj in 2019. The total investment in the acquisition of the group amounted to approximately 221 million euros. The deal to purchase a controlling stake was officially completed in February 2019.
Since the deal was structured through a Slovenian company, these funds were not included in the statistics on Ukrainian direct investment in Serbia. Officially, their total volume from 2010 to the first quarter of 2026 was estimated at only approximately 9 million euros.
MHP remains the most prominent example of a major Ukrainian business operating in Serbia. Other Ukrainian companies operating in the country are predominantly small and medium-sized enterprises.
Following the acquisition of Perutnina Ptuj, the Ukrainian group began expanding its production base in Serbia. In particular, the company built seven modern broiler farming facilities in Bačka Topola. MHP refers to Serbia as Perutnina Ptuj’s largest market in the Balkans.
MHP was founded in 1998 and is an international company in the food and agrotechnology sector. The group’s headquarters are located in Kyiv, and its production assets are situated in Ukraine, Spain, and countries in Southeast Europe. The company employs over 39,000 people, and its products are exported to more than 70 countries. Yuriy Kosyuk is the founder and CEO of MHP.
In 2025, MHP’s revenue totaled $3.766 billion, EBITDA was $569 million, and net income was $187 million. The group’s shares have been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2008.
Heating bills were the main reason for the initiation of enforcement proceedings related to utility payments in Ukraine during the first half of 2026. Over the course of six months, 46,186 thousand enforcement proceedings were initiated regarding heating debts. These cases account for 42.5%, or, rounded, 43%, of all new utility debts, according to Opendatabot.
In second place are debts for water supply—19,416 thousand cases, or 17.9%.
Another 12,648 thousand cases, or 11.7%, are related to payments for housing maintenance services. Gas supply accounts for 11,538 thousand cases, or 10.6%, while electricity accounts for 9,947 thousand, or 9.2%.
A total of 7,020 thousand cases were opened due to debts for waste collection, while another 1,806 thousand were related to other types of utility services.
The largest group of debtors consisted of Ukrainians aged 46 to 60—they accounted for 38,119 thousand cases, or 35.1%.
People over 60 accounted for 27,695 thousand cases, or 25.5%, while citizens aged 36 to 45 accounted for 26,076 thousand, or 24%. The share of debtors under 35 was about 15%.
Women were involved in 60,141 thousand new cases, that is, more than half of all cases. The highest number of cases against a single individual in 2026 was recorded for a resident of the Mykolaiv region born in 1952—15 cases, all due to electricity debt.
In total, 108,561 thousand proceedings regarding utility debts were initiated in Ukraine from January through June. Of these, 70,206 thousand—or 65%—remained open and unpaid as of early July.
Sales of new passenger cars in July of this year fell by 10.5% compared to the same month in 2025—to 5,754 thousand units, according to a report by “Ukravtoprom” on its Telegram channel.
According to the association, the most popular brand remains Japan’s Toyota, which increased its sales by 20% to 985 units.
Skoda took second place with 693 units (+24%), while VW came in third with 444 units (-10%).
The top ten most popular brands also included Renault with 345 units (-47%); BMW with 308 units (+17%); Hyundai with 298 units (=); Mazda—259 units (+66%); BYD—229 units (-69%); Suzuki—194 units (+39%); and Audi—156 units (-38%).
The Toyota RAV-4 crossover was the month’s best-seller.
According to Ukravtoprom, a total of about 38,800 new passenger cars were sold in the country from January through July, which is 1% less than a year ago.
According to Ukravtoprom, the new passenger car market in 2025 grew by 17% compared to 2024, reaching 81,300 units.
