Tour operator Join UP! has served more than 145 thousand Ukrainian tourists since the beginning of the year, compatriots choose tours lasting 7-10 days from 450-500 euros per person, said Iryna Mosulezna, managing director of Join UP! in Ukraine, to Interfax-Ukraine.
“Despite the difficult circumstances, Ukrainians are increasingly planning vacations. Today, vacations are perceived not as a luxury but as a necessity for mental recovery, and this directly affects the travel market. We have been seeing positive dynamics for several years in a row. If in 2022, 158,675 tourists used Join UP! services, in 2023 – already 238 thousand, and in 2024 – 260 thousand. And in the first half of 2025 alone, we have already had more than 145 thousand tourists,” Mosulezna said.
According to the company, on average, Ukrainian tourists choose tours lasting from 7 to 10 nights. The cost starts at around 450-500 euros per person, depending on the destination, hotel type, and season.
The most popular destinations with all-inclusive programs are Turkey and Egypt.
“At the same time, Ukrainians have become more likely to book in advance: we received the first bookings for October 2025 in September 2024. This trend is gradually bringing us back to pre-docking and pre-war planning habits,” says Mosulezna.
Among the new hits of the season is the Aegean coast of Turkey, which offers a more European type of vacation, a calmer rhythm and opportunities for independent leisure.
In Egypt, the new El Alamein resort is of great interest – a modern all-inclusive format that surpasses the usual ideas about vacationing in this country.
The popularity of European destinations is also growing. In 2025, in addition to Barcelona, Join UP! opened new charter flights to Alicante and Palma de Mallorca. The company is also actively working with Greece, which provides even more options for summer vacation.
“We are also currently seeing an increase in demand for economical bus tourism, especially among travelers from the south of Ukraine. The most popular destination is Bulgaria, as the nearest and most affordable seaside resort. Tourists also choose tours to Turkey, Greece, and Montenegro,” Mosulezna said.
As reported, the travel company Join UP! LLC was established in 2013, with an authorized capital of UAH 72 million 671 thousand. The ultimate beneficiaries are Yuriy and Oleksandr Alba.
The brand’s international expansion covers eight markets: the Baltic States, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic. Preparations for the launch of operations in Slovakia and Hungary are nearing completion. Last year, the brand also opened its first international franchise agency in Katowice, Poland.
On June 19, the Export Credit Agency (ECA) announced a tender for voluntary insurance of motor vehicles (CASCO), according to the state procurement system Prozorro. The expected cost of purchasing the services is UAH 50 thousand. The deadline for submission of documents is June 28, 2025.
The Export Credit Agency of Ukraine (ECA) is a state institution that supports non-resource exports by insuring the risks of enterprises and banks. The agency insures foreign economic contracts, export credits, bank guarantees, and investment loans against military risks.
Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) has revised the average daily speed of its freight rolling stock, increasing it by an average of 38%, according to the company’s press service.
“Ukrzaliznytsia has revised the average daily speed of its own freight rolling stock, which will make the use of the company’s cars much more profitable for customers. Carriers will spend less time on transportation and, therefore, pay less for the use of cars,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the company’s statement, the revised speed standards cover the following types of rolling stock owned by Ukrzaliznytsia: grain cars; tank cars; covered cars; cement cars; converted specialized rolling stock; container and fitting platforms. The new values came into effect on June 16 and will remain in force until December 31, 2025.
For fitting platforms, new speed limits have been set at the following levels: domestic and import transportation: wagon/container dispatch – 170 km/day (previously: 154 km/day); route or container trains – 197 km/day (previously: 154 km/day). For exports via land border crossings: wagon/container shipments – 213 km/day (previously: 139 km/day); route or container trains – 213 km/day (previously: 139 km/day). Transportation to port stations: wagon/container dispatch – 182 km/day (previously: 156 km/day); route or container trains – 264 km/day (previously: 156 km/day).
The updated speed indicators were established based on a detailed analysis of the actual movement of cars in the first half of 2025. In particular, it was found that for a number of types of rolling stock, the actual average daily speed significantly exceeds the current standards, according to the report.
“For rolling stock, the speed will increase by an average of 38%. This will allow shippers to deliver cargo in fewer days using Ukrzaliznytsia cars, which will directly reduce logistics costs and promote the development of container transportation both within Ukraine and to other countries,” Ukrzaliznytsia said.
The company’s CEO, Oleksandr Pertsovsky, noted that the significant acceleration of freight traffic standards will make orders for UZ cars more attractive to customers even in the current surplus market, as well as provide advantages in competition with private operators, which have recently dominated the market.
Farmers in three regions of Ukraine have begun harvesting early grains and legumes and have harvested 34,800 tons of grain from the new harvest from an area of 14,200 hectares, which is 28% less than a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food.
The ministry noted that in the Odesa, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions, 33,900 tons of barley were harvested from an area of 13,600 hectares with a yield of 24.9 centners per hectare, and 900 tons of peas were harvested from 600 hectares with a yield of 15.2 centners per hectare.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the largest harvesting areas are expected in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Poltava, Vinnytsia, and Cherkasy regions, where the main work will begin in late June – early July.
The report states that this year, 1.398 million hectares are planted with barley in Ukraine, 210,400 hectares with peas, and early grains and legumes occupy a total of 11.1 million hectares.
As reported, the harvest in Ukraine in 2024 officially began on June 21, when farmers in the Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions harvested 48.3 thousand tons of grain from the new harvest, including 1.1 thousand tons of wheat with a yield of 22.0 cwt/ha, 39.9 thousand tons of barley with a yield of 29.8 cwt/ha, and 7.3 thousand tons of peas with a yield of 22.0 cwt/ha.
The subsidiary of Ukrzaliznytsia, TsTS Liski, has announced a tender for the purchase of 1,520 20-foot containers, including 1,020 Open Top containers and 500 Pallet Wide containers, according to a statement on Prozorro.
The open tender will be held according to the Dutch auction principle (price reduction – IF-U), with a starting price of UAH 469,088,082 (excluding VAT). The minimum price reduction step is 0.5% or UAH 2,345,440.
The auction is scheduled for June 27. The deadline for delivery of the containers is December 31, 2025.
According to the technical specifications, the Open Top container is designed for transporting a wide range of bulk cargo, hot pellets, and metal products. The container must have a steel all-welded frame.
The Pallet Wide container is designed for the transportation of a wide range of bulk cargoes that are explosion-proof, granular, and non-caking by rail, water, and road transport in domestic and international traffic. It must transport a wide range of piece goods on Euro pallets in width (two rows).
A record 386 cases of animal cruelty were recorded by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine (PGO) in the first five months of 2025. This is 3.7 times more than in the same period last year. In 80% of cases, suspects have already been charged, but only 4% of all proceedings have reached court.
A record 386 criminal proceedings under Article 299 of the Criminal Code (cruelty to animals) were opened in Ukraine in the first five months of 2025. The previous record — 220 cases per year — was set in 2020. Over the year, the number of cases of cruelty to animals increased almost fourfold: from 105 last year to 386 this year.
“The increase in the number of criminal proceedings for cruelty to animals is not about an increase in violence, but about a decrease in silence. Thanks to educational work, accessible legal tools, and support from civil society organizations, people are reporting violations more and acting in accordance with the law,” comments Anastasia Gevchuk, a legal analyst at UAnimals, an animal and environmental rescue organization.
There was a sharp spike in the spring of this year: more cases were opened in April than in the whole of last year. By comparison, at the beginning of 2025, an average of 21 cases were opened per month, as in previous years. At the same time, 213 new cases were opened in April alone — ten times more than usual. In May, the number of cases decreased by 110, but this is still five times higher than in previous years.
At the same time, cases of animal cruelty have been investigated more effectively. In previous years, suspects were charged in only 20% of cases — effectively, in one in five cases. This year, suspects have been charged in 80% of cases. However, due to the sharp increase in the number of cases, fewer cases under Article 299 have reached court: from 13-15% in previous years, this figure has fallen to 4%.
“This surge in new cases this year is, in particular, the result of the persistent work carried out in 2024: the launch of chatbots where people can report animal cruelty, the publication of templates that can be submitted if you encounter such a situation, training for investigators and prosecutors, etc., conducted by UAnimals. In addition, in February 2025, specialized training was held for law enforcement officers, which increased their awareness and, accordingly, their effectiveness in recording such cases,” notes Anastasia Gevchuk.
За даними пошуковика по судовому реєстру Бабуся цьогоріч суди вже винесли 20 вироків за жорстоке поводження з тваринами. Злочинці отримують реальні терміни ув’язнення за жорстокість до тварин. For example, in Lviv region, a man was sentenced to five years in prison for beating a dog to death with a bat. However, there are also cases in the register where offenders were punished with fines and suspended sentences.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/animals-cruelty-2025
