The corporatization of the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine,” provided for in the draft government action program published on Monday, involves transforming the state-owned enterprise into a joint-stock company, with 100% of the shares belonging to the state, Yulia Pliska, director of the GR and corporatization department of the state-owned enterprise, told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to her, the State Forestry Agency of Ukraine (SFAU) has developed a special bill for the corporatization of the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine,” which is currently being reviewed by the relevant ministry. Virtually all of Ukraine’s largest state-owned companies have been corporatized under a special law. If the corporatization of State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” takes place without a special bill, it will be necessary to legislate certain aspects of the process that will regulate the specifics of the enterprise’s transformation into a joint-stock company.
“The advantages of corporatization are a management model that is understandable to international investors, which is a prerequisite for attracting investment. An independent assessment of assets will open up the possibility of attracting funds from international financial organizations: the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Unlike a unitary enterprise, a joint-stock company has greater flexibility in implementing investment projects. In addition, a joint-stock company has the right to direct funds from the sale of illiquid assets to the development of the company,” said Pliska.
The corporatization of Lisy Ukrainy is expected to accelerate the introduction of new modern technologies, upgrade the material and technical base, and thus increase production efficiency. However, the state will remain the owner of forest lands, which, as before, will not be subject to privatization.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers, in its draft Action Program published on Monday, named the adoption of new legislation on the timber market and the corporatization of the state-owned enterprise Lisy Ukrainy as one of its priorities.
In January-July 2025, Ukraine reduced imports of nickel and nickel products by 26.7% compared to the same period in 2024, to $12.446 million (in July – $1.875 million), while exports of nickel and nickel products amounted to $746,000 (in July – $139,000) compared to $423,000 for the first seven months of 2024.
Nickel is used in the production of stainless steel and for nickel plating. Nickel is also used in the production of batteries, in powder metallurgy, and in chemical reagents.
Ukraine will expand its diplomatic presence around the world in 2025-2026, according to the draft Action Program of the Government in the sphere of responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was made public on Monday.
According to the draft published on Monday, four more Ukrainian embassies and up to nine new consular offices are to open by the end of 2025.
In addition, there are plans to upgrade the status of two existing consulates and approve the decision to establish 10 to 20 honorary consulates of Ukraine.
By the end of 2026, three new diplomatic missions are expected to begin operating in Latin American countries.
In January-July of this year, Ukrainian enterprises increased imports of copper and copper products in value terms by 29.1% compared to the same period last year, to $109.984 million.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service of Ukraine on Tuesday, exports of copper and copper products during the period increased by 12.7% to $55.437 million.
In July, copper imports amounted to $16.821 million, while exports amounted to $9.357 million.
Copper is widely used in electrical engineering, pipe manufacturing, alloy production, medicine, and other industries.
In January-June 2025, the KSG Agro agricultural holding increased its revenue to $9.4 million, which is 20.2% more than in the same period of 2024, and operating profit by 37.5% to $765,000, the press service of the agricultural holding reported.
“The increase in sales revenue and operating profit during this difficult period of war is a remarkable result and further confirmation of the correctness of our vertically integrated holding strategy, which we began to implement long before the start of the war. In addition, our pig herd renewal program, which we intensified in 2024-2025, played an important role,” said Sergey Kasyanov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of KSG Agro.
As reported, during 2025, the KSG Agro agricultural holding actively rejuvenated its herd at its own pig farm. In June-July, the pig herd was replenished with 500 purebred breeding sows from Danish Pig Genetics, supplied by Breeders of Denmark A/S (Denmark). The agricultural holding claims that this will allow KSG Agro to renew its pig herd with 4,000 highly productive F-1 hybrid sows already this year.
KSG Agro is a vertically integrated holding company engaged in pig breeding, as well as the production, storage, processing, and sale of grain and oilseeds. Its land bank in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions is about 21,000 hectares.
According to KSG Agro, it is one of the five best pork producers in Ukraine.
In 2023, the agricultural holding began implementing a “network-centric” strategy, under which it will move from developing a large location to a number of smaller pig farms located in different regions of Ukraine.
In January-July of this year, Ukraine increased imports of coke and semi-coke in physical terms by 6.1% compared to the same period last year, to 364,669 thousand tons from 343,678 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS) on Tuesday, imports of coke in monetary terms decreased by 2.8% during this period, to $121.049 million.
It was mainly imported from Poland (89.62% of supplies in monetary terms), Indonesia (7.90%), and the Czech Republic (2.45%).
During the period in question, Ukraine exported 3 tons of coke worth $2,000 to Albania.
As reported, Metinvest suspended the operations of the Pokrovsk Coal Group in January this year due to changes in the situation on the front line, electricity shortages, and the deterioration of the security situation.
Last year, Ukraine increased its imports of coke and semi-coke in physical terms by 2.01 times compared to 2023, to 661,487 thousand tons, importing it mainly from Poland (84.76% of supplies in monetary terms), Colombia (7.74%), and Hungary (2.69%). In monetary terms, imports increased by 81.9% to $235.475 million.
In 2024, the country exported 1,601 thousand tons of coke worth $368 thousand to Moldova (99.18%) and Latvia (0.82%), while in January, March, October, and November 2024, there were no exports, and in 2023, exports amounted to 3,383 tons worth $787 thousand.
