Passenger flow through western border of Ukraine in february 2024, thousand
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Prime Minister holds first official bilateral talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at NATO summit in Washington
The new government will stick to plans to spend at least £3 billion a year on military support for Ukraine “for as long as it takes” in its conflict with Russia, Keir Starmer has said.
After his first official bilateral talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Washington, the Prime Minister confirmed that military aid would continue until at least 2030-31.
To date, the United Kingdom has pledged nearly £12 billion to support Ukraine since February 2022, of which £7.1 billion is for military aid. The rest is for humanitarian and economic support.
During his talks with Zelenskyy, Starmer emphasized that Ukraine is on an “irreversible” path to NATO membership. However, diplomats at the NATO summit say that setting any firm timetable would be a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Thursday, the prime minister will tell his fellow leaders this: “NATO was founded by the generation that defeated fascism. They understood not only the value of our strength, but also the value of our values.
“These values are under threat again. Putin needs to hear a clear message coming out of this summit – a message of unity and determination that we will stand by Ukraine with all means necessary and for as long as it takes to protect our shared values and our common security.”
At the summit, Starmer met with U.S. President Joe Biden for the first time. Photo: Shawn Thew/EPA
British officials said that despite the potential return to the White House of Donald Trump, whose commitment to NATO and Ukraine remains unclear, they are focused on getting the alliance in the best shape possible, regardless of who wins the US election.
Starmer called on NATO allies to increase defense spending in response to rising global threats, including from Russia, as he unveiled an overview of the UK’s plans to spend tens of billions of pounds more on the military.
He will tell the other 31 NATO countries that the front line of defense in the Euro-Atlantic region is in the Ukrainian trenches, and that the international community cannot waver in the face of unrelenting Russian aggression.
One of Kyiv’s most urgent requests from NATO is for multi-year funding to allow it to plan its defense against Russian forces. The UK will deliver a new package of artillery and 90 Brimstone missiles in the coming weeks.
Next week, the government will launch a strategic defense review, but it is likely to take up to a year, meaning that Starmer is under increasing pressure to confirm a timetable for increasing UK defense spending to the 2.5% of GDP target.
However, Luke Pollard, the Secretary of State for the Armed Forces, said on Wednesday that the government will not increase spending on the military if it cannot ensure economic growth.
“The way to increase public spending on defense, on schools, hospitals or prisons is through the growth of our economy,” he said in an interview with the BBC.
“If we don’t grow our economy, we won’t have the money to support the public services and ambitions we have – and that includes defense.”
A senior G10 source suggested that the 2.5% commitment would remain in place regardless of whether the new government meets its growth targets, and even if it raises difficult questions about how it will be funded.
“Yes, of course,” they said. “The commitment to defense is absolute. But we are also confident that we will get growth in the economy, so I don’t agree that we should wait for one or the other.”
Downing Street could not confirm whether the Strategic Defense Review would be published before the Comprehensive Spending Review, expected this fall, but suggested it would not take a full year.
Starmer first met Joe Biden at an event on the sidelines of the NATO summit. They exchanged a few words in private, shaking hands in front of the cameras. Later, Starmer held his first bilateral talks with the US president at the White House.
The prime minister, a passionate soccer fan, presented the president with an Arsenal shirt with the name “Biden” and the number 46 on the back, a reference to his status as the 46th president of the United States. “It’s [Starmer’s] team, and [he] thought it would be a personal gift,” said a senior official at No. 10.
Earlier, he presented Emmanuel Macron, the French president, with an Arsenal shirt. He also presented Biden with a framed copy of the original Atlantic Charter that led to the creation of NATO, as amended by then-Labor Prime Minister Clement Attlee.
Freight transportation by rail, mln tons
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Nova Poshta LLC, the largest logistics operator in Ukraine and a member of the NOVA group, has fully placed its issue of interest-bearing unsecured E series bonds with a total nominal value of UAH 1 billion.
According to a report by the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), the company registered the report on the results of the issue on July 4, while the issue was initially registered on April 26 this year.
On May 21, the State Oschadbank (Kyiv) announced that it had entered into an agreement with Nova Poshta to purchase 15-month series E bonds worth UAH 650 million. It was clarified that this is the third deal since 2019 to finance Nova Poshta by the state-owned bank through the purchase of corporate bonds.
“Thanks to the financing raised, Nova Poshta has the opportunity to actively invest in the development and improvement of operational processes, quickly recover from the shelling of infrastructure, and our customers can continue to receive quality service,” Serhiy Yermolenko, Director of the Corporate Finance Department of the NOVA Group, was quoted as saying.
As reported, on April 26, the NSSMC also registered a UAH 1 billion issue of F series bonds on April 26, but there is no information on the results of this issue yet.
According to the 2023 report, the public offering of E series bonds started on February 19 this year, F series – on March 19, and their maturity dates are February 18 and March 18, 2027, respectively.
In 2023, Nova Poshta made two bond issues – “C” and “D” – each with a nominal amount of UAH 800 million. The C series bonds were issued for a 12-month term with a 24% p.a. interest rate, while the D series bonds were issued for a 20-month term with a 23% p.a. interest rate.
Earlier, in February 2023, Nova Poshta redeemed the UAH 700 million of Series B bonds issued in March 2020.
In 2023, the consolidated net income of “Nova Poshta” LLC amounted to UAH 43.65 billion, which is 53.3% more than in 2022, and the consolidated net profit reached UAH 4.28 billion, which is 31.1% better than in 2022.
According to its unconsolidated financial statements, in 2023, Nova Poshta LLC increased its net profit by 85.7% to UAH 3 billion 967.2 million, while its revenue increased by 54% to UAH 36.47 billion.
The Government of Japan has handed over two Nikken mechanized demining vehicles to the State Emergency Service (SES), which will be sent to Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions on July 9, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported.
“We would like to thank the government and the Embassy of Japan, as well as the JICA international cooperation agency, for their help and joint resilience in difficult times for Ukraine,” Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko was quoted as saying in a statement on the press service’s Telegram channel on Tuesday:
For his part, Japanese Ambassador to Ukraine Matsuda Kuninori expressed his admiration for the pyrotechnics and sappers who are tirelessly clearing Ukrainian soil of explosive devices.
“The transferred vehicles will be sent to Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions today to perform the necessary tasks,” the statement said.
Arkeonews reports that Chinese and Uzbek archaeologists have discovered an ancient settlement dating back to the 8th century BC in Uzbekistan, near the Surkhandarya River.
According to the newspaper, a group of Uzbek and Chinese archaeologists made three major discoveries between April and June.
While thefirst discovery relates to a settlement dating back to the 8th century BC, where a square-shaped architectural structure with several rooms, including a kiln and garbage pits, was found, offering insight into the ancient civilization that once flourished there, another major project involved the study of theancient Kushan Empire.
As a result of the joint efforts, twenty-five ancient tombs and six structures of the Kushan Empire were found. The KushanEmpire was a powerful political system that ruled the territory of modern Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It was founded in the first century AD by the nomadic Yuezhi people.
Archaeologist Wang Meng noted that such findings are crucial for establishing the chronology of the Kushan culture in the region, helping to trace the development of civilization around the Surkhandarya region.
In the third project, the archaeologists focused on theFerghana Valley in eastern Uzbekistan, where they explored and studied 84 ruins between April and May. The research also uncovered precious cave paintings that helped paint a picture of the ancient culture of Uzbekistan’s Namangan region.
These discoveries mark the latest milestones in a longstanding archaeological partnership between Northwestern University and Uzbekistan that began in 2009. Through 2024, more than 70 joint projects have been implemented in Central Asia to study historical exchanges along the ancient Silk Road.
