“Nova Poshta has joined the “Plus” preference program in the Army+ mobile app for military personnel, which allows them to send and receive cargo up to 30 kg for 1 hryvnia at offices in the frontline regions: Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported on Monday.
“Nova Poshta, just like the military, understands that every second is worth its weight in gold. Especially in the delivery of valuable, necessary and symbolically important things for the defenders of Ukraine. A generator, a Mavic or even a child’s drawing that is dear to the heart. The main principle of “Plus” is to be a warm, humane service for the military. And this principle coincides with the principles of Nova Poshta. Therefore, we are glad that they have joined our program,” said Deputy Minister of Defense for Digitalization Kateryna Chernogorenko.
To use the service, it is enough to generate a barcode in the application and show it to the branch operator, who will activate the offer, the Ministry of Defense telegram channel reports.
The “Pluses” program in the Army+ mobile application for military personnel is based on cooperation with businesses and provides them with a number of preferences in everyday life. In particular, in December 2024, Ukrzaliznytsia joined the program by introducing a special reserve of tickets for the military and Ukrnafta by providing discounts on fuel and 30% off the menu of filling stations.
In 2024, Zhydachiv Pulp and Paper Mill (ZhPPM, Lviv region) reduced its output by 13.7% compared to 2023, to UAH 455.3 million, according to statistics from Ukrpapir Association.
According to the data provided by the association to Interfax-Ukraine, in physical terms, corrugated packaging output decreased by 12.7% to 19.9 million square meters, paper output by 11.2% to 3.8 thousand tons, and containerboard output by almost 30% to 10.9 thousand tons.
At the same time, in December-2024, the plant reduced the production of corrugated boxes by 7% to December-2023 and to 1.5 million square meters by November-2024, while paper and cardboard production increased by 13.6% and decreased by 1.7% to 1.17 thousand tons, respectively.
As reported with reference to the association’s data obtained from the main industry enterprises, in 2024, the production of cardboard boxes in Ukraine increased by 12.3% compared to 2023, to 590.1 million square meters, and paper and cardboard by 3.1%, to 601 thousand tons (in particular, cardboard production decreased by 0.7%, to 463.5 thousand tons, and paper production increased by 18.2%, to 137.5 thousand tons).
ZhPPM has a paper production capacity of 43 thousand tons per year (base paper for corrugation, linerboard, cover paper), cardboard production capacity of 50 thousand tons, corrugated cardboard and corrugated packaging capacity of 120 million square meters, and injection molded containers (tray for 30 eggs) capacity of 72 million units per year.
The plant has a full production cycle: from processing of technological raw materials to production of finished corrugated products and cast containers.
In 2023, the plant produced UAH 527.6 million worth of products, up 3.3% compared to 2022. According to the Clarity-project project, in the same year, ZHBK increased its net profit by 51.2% to UAH 63.14 million by 2022, with net income growing by 5.6% to UAH 563.55 million.
In 2024, Ukraine transported about 11.36 million tons of Russian oil through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline, reducing transit by 16% compared to last year.
“This is the lowest value at least since 2014, and probably in the entire history of Ukraine’s independence since 1991,” former Energy Minister Olha Buslavets posted on Facebook late last week.
According to her, most of the Russian oil in 2024 was supplied to Hungary – more than 4.7 million tons, which is almost the same as in 2023. In addition, 3.9 million tons of oil were transported to Slovakia (-15%) and 2.7 million tons (-35%) to the Czech Republic.
As reported, in July 2024, Ukraine tightened sanctions against Russia’s LUKOIL, effectively banning the transit of oil to Central Europe through the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline. The company was a major supplier of raw materials to both Hungary (about a third of the country’s imports) and Slovakia (40-45%).
At the same time, in September, the Hungarian MOL Group announced an agreement with Russian oil suppliers and pipeline operators to ensure its transportation via the Druzhba pipeline through Belarus and Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia. According to MOL Group, the company has taken over ownership of the relevant volumes of crude oil on the border of Belarus and Ukraine.
Also in September, EC spokesman Olof Gill said that after Ukraine banned LUKOIL’s oil transit to Hungary and Slovakia, the European Commission (EC) quickly took all necessary steps to resolve the issue. He noted that LUKOIL is not the only oil supplier to Hungary and Slovakia.
Lviv-based Cardboard and Paper Company LLC, a major Ukrainian manufacturer of cardboard tubes, produced products worth UAH 1 billion 333 million in 2024, up 5.1% year-on-year.
According to statistics provided toInterfax-Ukraine by UkrPapir Association, the company thus consolidated the positive production dynamics it had achieved in the first nine months of the year.
In physical terms, the company reduced its output of cardboard products by 5.8% to 24.9 thousand tons last year, while it increased its production of paper base for sanitary products by almost 10% to 8.7 thousand tons.
Production of toilet paper in rolls decreased by 5.5% to 5.79 million units.
At the same time, in December, the company increased its paper and cardboard production by 14.7% compared to December 2023, but decreased by 19.3% compared to November 2024, to 2.3 thousand tons.
LLC “Cardboard and Paper Company” produces products and semi-finished products from waste cardboard (cardboard sheets, corners, sleeves), pulp and recycled waste paper (toilet paper, towels, napkins TM Papero). The company supplies its products, in particular, to the EU countries.
Among its customers are Biosphere, Arterium, Nestle, Khlibprom, Yarych, and Galych dairy companies.
TikTok is no longer available to users in the U.S., the result of a controversial law that forces the popular platform to go offline unless it separates from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, npr.org reported.
“When users tried to open the app around 10:35 p.m. ET, a message appeared saying, ‘Sorry, TikTok is currently unavailable. A law banning TikTok has gone into effect in the United States. Unfortunately, this means you cannot use TikTok right now.”
The post goes on to say that newly elected President Donald Trump has promised to “work with us on a solution to restore TikTok as soon as he takes office. Please stay tuned! ”
Around the same time, TikTok also stopped appearing in the Apple and Google Play app stores. A law recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Apple and Google to remove the service from their app stores. It also ordered web hosting companies, including TikTok’s internal cloud provider, Oracle, to stop supporting the app. Otherwise, they will face penalties that could reach billions of dollars.
In 2024, Ukraine increased its exports of goods by 15% to $41.7 billion, while agricultural exports brought the country half of 50% of its export earnings of $20.9 billion, according to the review of Ukraine’s economy during the war, which is conducted monthly by the Center for Economic Strategies in cooperation with the German Economic Team (GET).
The analysts noted that the mining and metallurgical complex received $6.9 billion (17%) of export earnings in 2024, the food industry – $3.7 billion (9%), and machine building – $3.6 billion (9%). At the same time, sugar exports in 2024 reached 750 thousand tons and brought producers $420 million, the highest figure since 1997, when Ukraine started keeping statistics.
The top ten export products that brought Ukraine the highest foreign exchange earnings included sunflower oil and corn – $5.1 billion each, wheat – $3.7 billion, iron ore – $2.8 billion, steel and rolled products – $2, 4 billion, rapeseed – $1.8 billion, soybeans and meal – $1.3 billion each, wood and timber – $1.1 billion, poultry – $1 billion, furniture – $0.8 billion, steel pipes and barley – $0.6 billion each, and cast iron – $0.5 billion.
At the same time, total imports in 2024 grew by 11% to $70.7 billion, experts said.
According to their information, the main imported goods last year were oil and oil products – $6.8 billion (10%), cars – $4.4 billion (6%), pharmaceuticals – $2.0 billion (3%), mobile phones – $1.3 billion (2%), fertilizers – $1.2 billion (2%) and drones – $1.1 billion (2%).
