The National Bank of Ukraine has issued a new commemorative coin dedicated to the traditional sacred holiday – Christmas, the National Bank of Ukraine announced on Facebook.
“Our new commemorative coin, ”Spirit of Christmas,” embodies the deep traditions of this joyous family holiday, which have kept Ukrainians together for generations. It features a stylized image of a golden straw didukh, a traditional attribute of Ukrainian Christmas, and is filled with the warmth and comfort of a pre-Christmas meal of a Ukrainian family. And although many families are separated by distance today, we are still together in our hearts at the festive table,” the NBU press service quoted the head of the central bank, Andriy Pyshnyy.
The coin with a face value of 10 hryvnias is made of 925 silver, with a pure precious metal weight of 31.1 grams. The decorative elements include double-sided local gilding with a diamond insert (1.5 mm).
The obverse features a stylized image of a straw didukh in the center of the composition. Its base is decorated with a straw angel, symbolizing protection and good news. The background of the composition is divided into two planes resembling a window illuminated by the light of stars on Christmas Eve. One of the stars symbolizes the Star of Bethlehem (with a diamond shining in its center).
The reverse side depicts a traditional pre-Christmas meal of a Ukrainian family, where the images of the father, mother, and children are visually identified with celestial bodies: the halos around their heads symbolize the Sun (wife), the Moon (husband), and the stars (their children). In front of the family is a table with 12 dishes: kutia, varenyky, pampukhy, fish, and other traditional treats, as well as garlic heads—a talisman against evil spirits.
Artists Volodymyr Taran, Oleksandr Kharuk, Serhii Kharuk, and sculptors Anatolii Demianenko and Volodymyr Atamanchuk worked on the creation of the coin.
The mintage is up to 15,000 pieces.
The commemorative coin will be available in the NBU’s online numismatic store and through distributor banks starting in January 2026.
Corum Druzhkivka Machine Building Plant (Corum DrMZ), part of the Corum Group (DTEK Energy), plans to ship a skip with a lifting capacity of 23 tons for the DTEK Energo mine in late 2025 or early 2026, the plant announced on Facebook.
“This is not the largest skip in the history of Corum DrMZ, but it belongs to a large type series. Its height is about 16 m. The new equipment is part of the mine’s lifting complex upgrade program,” the statement said.
The skip is designed to transport coal and rock mass along the vertical shaft of the mine.
The plant also reports that by the end of this year, it plans to complete the manufacture and delivery of metal structures for energy infrastructure facilities.
“These are complex dimensional elements that must operate within a precisely defined geometry and integrate accurately into existing structures. The length of individual items reaches almost 45 m, and the total tonnage of metal exceeds 110 tons,” the company notes.
According to Korum DrMZ, it has manufactured similar metal structures before: in the spring of this year, the volume of similar work amounted to more than 97 tons.
“The current order is a one-off, but the plant is well acquainted with this type of work and has the technical expertise,” the statement said.
Korum DrMZ, which relocated from Druzhkivka (Donetsk region) to Dnipro in 2022, in January-September this year, according to YouControl, incurred losses of almost UAH 90 million, compared to a net profit of UAH 4.6 million for the same period last year and slightly lower net sales revenue of UAH 844.6 million.
In January-October, the plant manufactured 336 units of mining equipment, repaired 12 units of equipment, and produced over 821,000 parts.
Corum Group is a leading manufacturer of mining equipment in Ukraine. It is part of DTEK Energy, an operating company responsible for coal mining and coal-fired power generation within Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK energy holding.
The crop division of the Alebor Group grain trading company has completed the 2025 production season, the company’s press service reported on Facebook.
According to the report, the company’s specialists grew and harvested wheat from 2,000 hectares with a yield of over 7 tons/hectare, corn from 1,100 hectares with a yield of 14.5 tons/hectare, rapeseed from 1,500 hectares with a yield of 3.6 tons per hectare, and sunflower from 1,800 hectares with a yield of 3.85 tons per hectare.
Alebor Group is a trading company founded in 2006 in the Cherkasy region. Its structure includes the Khristinivskoye Grain Receiving Enterprise (with a storage capacity of 74,000 tons of grain), the Voronovitske Grain Receiving Enterprise (104,000 tons of grain), Chesne Grain Receiving Enterprise (27,500 tons of grain), transport companies Boleko and Avtoera with a fleet of 210 heavy-duty grain trucks, and construction company Alebor Real Estate.
According to information on the company’s website, Alebor Group is one of the top 20 grain trading companies in Ukraine, exporting about 2 million tons of grain annually. The group has its own land bank of 6,500 hectares. The company’s founder is Oleksiy Kustov.
KMZ Industries is the largest manufacturer of elevator equipment in Ukraine and produces a full range of products, including silos, grain dryers, transport equipment, and separators, as well as providing automation and installation services.
According to the company, it has built more than 5,000 facilities. KMZ Industries silos with a total volume of more than 12.5 million cubic meters are in operation.
The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) approved a $40 million loan agreement for a 10-year term for one of the subsidiaries of Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, Astarta Agricultural Holding.
“DFC will co-finance with the International Finance Corporation capital investments and operating expenses related to the construction of a soybean protein concentrate (SPC) plant,” the agricultural holding company said.
According to Vyacheslav Chuk, director of commercial operations and strategic marketing at the agricultural holding, in September 2025, Astarta intends to continue investing in the construction of its soy protein concentrate plant in 2026, with investments amounting to approximately EUR 40 million.
In 2024, Astarta began investing in the construction of a plant for processing soybean meal into soy protein concentrate with a capacity of 500 tons/day (approximately 100,000 tons/year) in the Hlobyn Industrial Complex (Poltava region). The agricultural holding will invest over EUR 76 million in the purchase of equipment and technologies and will create 110 new jobs.
Astarta and its structural unit Astarta Agro Protein signed the first investment agreement with the Ukrainian government to receive compensation from the state for significant investments. Under the agreement, the state will provide the agricultural holding with a number of incentives, including exemption from import duties on new equipment, import VAT on new equipment, and income tax for up to five years.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine and is the largest sugar producer in Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220,000 hectares, dairy farms with 22,000 head of cattle, an oil extraction plant in Hlobyn (Poltava region), seven elevators, and a biogas complex.
In the first half of 2025, Astarta reduced its net profit by 10.3% to EUR47.11 million, and its consolidated revenue decreased by 29.3% to EUR320.71 million.
The agricultural company Cygnet has completed the 2025 sugar production season and produced 31.4 thousand tons of sugar between September 30 and December 18, according to its press service on Facebook.
“The average daily processing was 2.8 tons of sugar beets per day. The sugar content of the raw materials received was 17.25%. Overall, the 2025 season was characterized by difficult weather conditions. Due to the rainy autumn, transporting beets from the fields was a difficult task. The sugar factory received and processed 216.6 thousand tons of beets. It produced 31.4 thousand tons of sugar, 98% of which is category I,” said Pavlo Perkhalo, head of the sugar production department, whose words are quoted in the report.
He specified that due to the weather, the company was forced to reduce its average daily processing by 10%, but overall the results are good. The juice extraction period lasted 77 days.
Cygnet cultivates about 29,000 hectares in the Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia regions, where it grows corn, soybeans, winter wheat, and sugar beets. The company’s assets include an elevator with a simultaneous storage capacity of 60,000 tons and a sugar factory with a processing capacity of up to 2,800 tons of beets per day (both in the Zhytomyr region).
The company also has a dairy business (605 cows), whose products are sold to local processors.
The creation of an Interdepartmental Coordination Commission (National Coordinator) to combat crime under the Cabinet of Ministers will eliminate the fragmentation of powers among authorities in this area and help bring the national system for combating organized crime closer to European standards.
This opinion was expressed to Interfax-Ukraine by Khristina Bilak, an employee of the Barristers law firm, commenting on the draft amendments to the law on the organizational and legal basis for combating organized crime registered in the Verkhovna Rada.
She noted that the relevant commission will become a permanent consultative and advisory body under the Cabinet of Ministers and will ensure the coordination of actions by state bodies involved in the fight against organized crime, strategic planning, threat assessment, monitoring, and control of the implementation of state policy in the field of combating organized crime, and will bring the national system of combating organized crime closer to European standards of management and coordination.
In particular, according to the draft law, the National Coordinator will develop comprehensive action plans based on defined priorities and summarize information on their implementation, completion, or reasons for non-implementation.
At the same time, the lawyer noted that, according to the government decree of September 27, 2022, until the creation of the national coordinator, his functions are entrusted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The draft law was developed to fulfill Ukraine’s commitments in the field of European integration. The creation of a permanent national coordinator for combating organized crime is also one of the recommendations of the European Commission set out in the report on Ukraine’s progress within the framework of the 2023 European Union Enlargement Package.
