Mykola Solsky submitted a letter of resignation from the post of Minister of agrarian policy and food of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada will consider it at one of the next plenary sessions, said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk.
“The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine received a statement from Mykola Solsky on resignation from the post of Minister of agrarian policy and food of Ukraine. The statement will be considered at one of the next plenary sessions,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.
The Ministry of agrarian policy and food in turn published a comment from Solskiy about the application submitted to the Parliament.
“Yes, I wrote a letter of resignation from the post of Minister. In such a situation, I believe it is the right step. The Verkhovna Rada will decide to accept my resignation – I will be grateful for such a decision, will decide that I should work further – I will continue to work”, – he explained.
As reported, on April 23, the NABU notified Solsky about suspicion in the possession of state land for 291 million UAH and an attempt to seize land for another 190 million UAH.
The Minister denied the accusations and stated that “the events, which, according to NABU, are reported in the suspicion to me, relate to the period 2017-2018, that is, at the time when I was a lawyer and was neither the Minister of agrarian policy and food of Ukraine, nor the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on agrarian and land policy”.
According to his information, the circumstances of seven years ago concern a dispute between state enterprises and individuals, in particular ATO military personnel, over lands granted to them in possession in accordance with the law.
On April 25, leading agrarian associations petitioned the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court to take Solskyy on bail, and also expressed confidence in the work of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
The HACC heard the prosecution and defense sides during the trial on Thursday. SAP demanded for the current Minister of detention, and in case of a decision to release on bail two representatives of agrarian associations – chairman of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation Maria Didukh and deputy head of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Rada Denis Marchuk – to prohibit Solskiy communication with other suspects, travel from Kiev, obliged to wear an electronic bracelet and bail 200 million hryvnia.
According to the broadcast of the meeting, the court declared a break and will continue consideration of the motion SAP on Friday morning.
State enterprise “International Airport “Boryspil” (Kiev) on April 25 announced a tender for the purchase of services of compulsory insurance of civil liability of owners of land vehicles (OSAGO), reported in the system of electronic public procurement Prozorro.
As noted, the expected cost of the purchase of services is UAH 157 thousand.
Security of the tender offer is not required.
The deadline for submission of bids is May 3
Kyivstar’s Home Internet has the largest gigabit network among Ukrainian Internet providers. The company has invested more than UAH 44 million in Gigabit development during the full-scale invasion alone.
At the beginning of 2024, the number of Kyivstar fixed-line subscribers reached 1.15 million, and more than 70% of them have access to gigabit tariff plans.
Thanks to the rapid modernization of gigabit equipment, Kyivstar Home Internet subscribers can increase the speed from the standard 100 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s. In particular, this became possible in big cities: Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Rivne, Khmelnytsky, Lutsk, Ternopil, and cities of regional significance: Bila Tserkva, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Netishyn, Drohobych, Mukachevo, Novovolynsk, Boryspil, etc.
“With the number of gadgets and users in Ukrainian homes constantly growing, increasing the standard speed from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps is a hygienic improvement in the convenience of Internet access. That is why our focus in 2021 is to modernize our equipment in different cities of Ukraine for the qualitative development of Gigabit,” commented Sergiy Sukhoruk, Head of Fixed Line Communications at Kyivstar.
Subscribers can choose a tariff plan, and instead of the standard 100 Mbit/s speed, they can receive Internet at up to 1 Gbit/s. This allows users to download large files faster, connect more devices without sacrificing speed and watch videos on large screens in the best quality.
Before upgrading to a gigabit plan, users should make sure that their router is capable of supporting it. If it does not, they should replace it.
Gigabit speed from Kyivstar is available in most tariff plans of the Home Internet service. To test it, current subscribers can change their tariff to one that allows them to use speeds up to 1 Gbps, try it for 50 UAH/month or connect the appropriate Superfast. New Kyivstar fixed-line subscribers can use the Try Gigabit service and test gigabit speeds for free for the first 3 months.
For more information about Kyivstar’s gigabit speed, please follow the link.
In addition, Kyivstar continues to connect shelters across the country to the Internet free of charge. During the full-scale invasion, 1490 shelters were connected, and the company invested over UAH 700 thousand in this initiative. The company has also provided free Internet connection to 1550 modular houses for IDPs and will continue to do so upon request to wifi@kyivstar.net.
About Kyivstar:
Kyivstar is Ukraine’s largest electronic communications operator, serving about 24 million mobile subscribers and more than 1.1 million Home Internet subscribers as of December 2023. The company provides services using a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies, including 4G, Big Data, Cloud solutions, cybersecurity services, digital TV, etc. Kyivstar is developing new telecom technologies in Ukraine and plans to invest USD 600 million in this area over the next three years. The company helps Ukraine overcome the challenges of wartime and has allocated over UAH 1.8 billion over the past two years to support the Armed Forces, subscribers, and social projects. Kyivstar’s shareholder is the international VEON Group. The Group’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ (New York) and Euronext (Amsterdam) stock exchanges. Kyivstar has been operating in Ukraine for 26 years and is recognized as the largest taxpayer in the telecom market, the best employer and a socially responsible company. For more information: pr@kyivstar.net, www.kyivstar.ua
On April 24, the second edition of the European Festival: Ukrainian Spring”.
The first concert event of the festival was preceded by a reception hosted by the German Embassy in Sweden. The opening was attended by representatives of the Swedish government and parliament, ambassadors of foreign countries, as well as cultural and public figures.
“It is a real honor to organize this reception today, and support for Ukraine is very close to our hearts. Every day we think about the terrible ordeal, when the nights are filled with air raids and attacks and many troubles and difficulties. At the Ukrainian Festival, we are talking about how best to support Ukraine in its struggle to define its own history and defend its sovereign state in peace and freedom,” said Joachim Berthele, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany to Sweden, at the opening ceremony.
The festival is organized under the coordination of the Ukrainian Institute in Sweden by a number of diplomatic and cultural institutions from different countries working in Stockholm, as well as with the support of the European Commission and the European Union Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC).
The concept of the festival is to present Ukraine as an integral part of the common European cultural heritage.
“All our efforts should be aimed at supporting Ukraine. Every cultural event should draw attention to the terrible crime that Russia continues to commit on Ukrainian soil. Music cannot stop the aggressor, but it can be a weapon, and we need to be reminded every day to get it: Ukraine not only exists and has a voice, Ukraine is an integral natural part of Europe,” said Natalia Pasichnyk, director of the Ukrainian Institute in Sweden, pianist.
At the opening concert, she and the Calmus vocal ensemble from Leipzig presented a new vision of Johann Sebastian Bach’s world-famous work “The Well-Tempered Clavier” with religious texts and vocal arrangements.
“Natalia Pasichnyk is a co-author of Bach’s new musical work with the Calmus Ensemble from Leipzig. This is a world premiere on stage, and it is also the first performance for Calmus in Stockholm. So we are looking forward to a very special evening,” said Joakim Berthele before the concert.
Calmus vocalists emphasized that they believe that supporting attention to Ukraine through cultural events is important and effective.
“It definitely works when we keep reminding people about Ukraine at our concerts. From the very beginning of the full-scale invasion, we always sang Mykola Lysenko’s Prayer for Ukraine at our concerts – “God, Great, One”. We sang it to tell people: “There is a war in Europe!” We did this in the United States and everywhere we performed. I’m convinced that it definitely helps when we combine art and people’s awareness of what’s going on,” said Friedrich Brax, one of the members of Calmus Ensemble.
The organizers dedicated the first concert day to the memory of opera singer Vasyl Slipak. He was a soloist at the National Opera in Paris, went to defend Ukraine, and was killed by a Russian sniper near Bakhmut on June 29, 2016. Each day of the festival is dedicated to an artist-warrior who died at the front.
The festival will run until May 7, with the grand finale featuring a performance by world-renowned Latvian violinist and conductor Gidons Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica orchestra.
Photos and videos from the gala reception and concert: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NUlzjHORdW8qRGtyTC4bhyPl2wY8GfQo?usp=drive_link
The full program is available on the festival’s website: https://www.europeanspring.eu/program
The National Bank of Ukraine has raised its forecast of international reserves to $43.4 billion at the end of this year from $40.4 billion and to $44.3 billion at the end of next year from $42.1 billion.
“Compared to the previous forecast, the risk of insufficient international financing this year has significantly weakened, but the risks of rhythmicity of its receipt remain,” the NBU said in a press release on Thursday.
The central bank reminded that in March, about $9 billion was received from international partners, which allowed to increase international reserves to almost $44 billion.
In addition, in recent days, Ukraine has received positive news from the United States about the approval of a military and financial assistance package, and another tranche of EUR 1.5 billion has been received from the EU.
“In view of this, Ukraine can count on $38 billion of external budgetary assistance this year,” the NBU said.
According to its updated forecast, the estimate of the current account deficit this year has been downgraded from $16.9 billion to $20.2 billion, but next year it has been improved from $19.8 billion to $18.2 billion.
For more details on macroeconomic indicators of Ukraine and the world, GDP of major countries and other economic topics, please see one of the video analyzes of the Experts club think tank – https://youtu.be/w5fF_GYyrIc?si=Ymo-FlMFNGfLLdK-
You can subscribe to the Experts club channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@ExpertsClub
EXPERTS CLUB, GDP, international reserve, MACROECONOMICS, NATIONAL BANK
In April, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) imposed economic restrictions (sanctions) on Pervomaiskyi Specialized Quarry, which holds a special permit No. 4310 for the extraction of granite from the Sofiyivske deposit in Mykolaiv region. NADRA.INFO reports.
The sanctions were imposed for a period of 10 years and include, among other things, the revocation or suspension of special permits for the use of subsoil. The decision of the National Security and Defense Council was put into effect by the Decree of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy No. 219/1014 of 04.04.2024 (source). The sanctions were also imposed on SPMK-17 LLC, which owns 91.87% of Pervomaisky Specialized Quarry ALC (YouControl).
– The area of the Sofiyivske field is 39.2 hectares. Reserves (cat. A+B+C1) are more than 27 million cubic meters of granite (according to the Public Audit of Subsoil Use as of the fall of 2021).
NADRA.INFO wrote that in April 2021, the National Security and Defense Council imposed sanctions on Pervomaiskyi Specialized Quarry ALC for a period of three years. After that, the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine suspended the special permit. Following this year’s decision on sanctions, the State Service of Geology and Subsoil updated the grounds for the suspension (download the order, annex).
– Pervomaiskyi Specialized Quarry ALC was founded in July 1995. The authorized capital is UAH 2 million. Registered in the village of. Migiya, Pervomaiskyi district, Mykolaiv region. The ultimate beneficial owner: Amirkhanyan Seda. Director: Volodymyr Baida.
As a reminder, in 2023-2024. The State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine suspended a number of mining and prospecting special permits for the use of subsoil to Ukrainian companies on the grounds that the business owners had previously been sanctioned by the National Security and Defense Council. For an overview of the consequences, please follow the link.
The European Business Association proposes to revise the sanctions policy in the field of subsoil use.
