The Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Korea has launched a new Economic Innovation Partnership Program (EIPP) with Ukraine for the next four years, for which the Korean government will allocate $10 million, according to a statement on the website of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine on Friday.
According to the Ministry of Economy, the initiative provides for strategic consulting, project development, and pre-project research aimed at long-term economic cooperation between the two countries. It is expected that up to 25 initiatives may be implemented under this program.
During a meeting with First Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Oleksiy Sobolev, representatives of the delegation from the Korea Infrastructure and Urban Development Corporation (KIND) outlined which projects would be prioritized.
The Ministry of Economy, in turn, noted that it sees great prospects for partnership with KIND under the new program, both in the public and private sectors, in particular with regard to possible involvement in financing priority initiatives for the government within the framework of the Unified Project Portfolio of Public Investments, as well as private projects presented in the investment guide.
“We hope that KIND will participate in the technical preparation of projects, as we do within the PPF and PPU with the World Bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Another promising area is privatization, consulting assistance, and attracting investors,” the ministry’s press service quoted Sobolev as saying.
The Ministry of Economy reported that KIND is ready to join the master planning of industrial parks in Ukraine and work on reducing risks for investors. The parties discussed the possibility of involving the Republic of Korea in cooperation with the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and export credit agencies to expand military risk insurance mechanisms.
The parties agreed to coordinate work in each area of cooperation and to sign a memorandum of understanding that would allow work to begin on selecting projects for financing and implementation.
The Korean state corporation KIND has been implementing projects to rebuild Ukraine for more than two years, including a transport master plan for the Kyiv region, a plan to reconstruct and rebuild Ukrainian airports, railway renovation, and other projects involving cities and municipalities.
In the Netherlands, the cost of shelter for Ukrainian refugees will increase from October, from the current €105 per month to €244, according to Minister for Asylum and Migration Mona Keizer.
“The increase in personal contributions will be used to cover the shelter’s operating costs, such as gas, water, and electricity,” Keizer explained. With this measure, she hopes to reduce the difference between asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees.
According to RTL, a single Ukrainian currently pays €105 per month, but this amount will increase to €244 in October. Families with two minor children must pay a maximum of €488, depending on their situation.
The death toll from flooding in south-central Texas has risen to 52, including 15 children, according to EFE.
“Fifty-two people have died in flooding in south-central Texas, including 15 children,” the report said.
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Lait Jr. said hundreds of rescue workers remain in flooded areas and search and rescue efforts are still ongoing.
He asked residents to send information about missing loved ones and their last known location.
Avesterra Group intends to increase its poultry population to 10 million, build a feed mill, and expand its land bank to 25,000 hectares, co-owner Dmitry Dobkin said in an interview with Liga.net.
“We will build poultry farms. We currently have capacity for 4.1 million birds. We need to develop this to 10 million birds per batch. In turn, this pace of development requires the modernization of the existing feed mill or the construction of a new one. This is because the existing one will definitely not be able to cope with the new production capacity,” he said.
Dobkin said that the group had accumulated a land bank of 3,000 hectares for the construction of a modern poultry processing plant in the Volyn region. However, in order to be independent from external cataclysms and to provide the poultry farm with feed, there are plans to expand the land bank to 25,000 hectares of fields.
He said that another way to minimize production risks is to create their own incubation facility, including the formation of a parent flock.
“Then the entire chain from egg to finished meat will be ours,” Dobkin emphasized.
Avesterra Group was established in January 2025. It includes Volodymyr-Volynskyi Poultry Farm and Lutsk Agrarian Company, which produce 53,000 tons of broiler meat per year. Annual revenue is about UAH 4 billion. Of the 5,000 tons of total production, 700 tons are sold under the Epicur brand, and the rest under the Chebaturochka brand.
In June 2025, the group launched a processing plant, in which it invested EUR 60 million. It is located in Volyn, covers 30,000 square meters, and has new treatment facilities.
The business is owned in equal shares by the Dobkin family.
Volodymyr-Volynskyi Poultry Farm accounts for about 5% of the Ukrainian chicken market. It has seven branches: Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Lviv, and Volodymyr. The factory’s infrastructure consists of 100 poultry houses, a slaughterhouse, and a feed mill. The company also has its own land fund of 3,000 hectares, where it grows cereals and legumes for the production of compound feed, as well as industrial crops. The factory employs over 1,500 people.
The TAS Agro agricultural holding has begun harvesting early grains from winter wheat in the Southern cluster and has already threshed about 600 hectares, the agricultural holding’s press service reported on Facebook.
TAS Agro specified that the harvest started at the optimal time and that grain yields are fully in line with standards.
“This year, we will make maximum use of our own equipment, which has been updated in recent years. However, we will not refuse to lease combines for economic reasons. In total, we plan to use 75 units of grain harvesting equipment during the harvest. This is more than last year, as the area under early grain crops has increased, particularly in the Southern cluster. Almost all of our own grain transshipment equipment will also be used,” said Oleg Zapletnyuk, CEO of TAS Agro.
According to him, in parallel with the harvesting campaign, the agricultural holding is working on organizing logistics and sales of the harvested crop. Storage facilities and some elevators have already been certified to the international standard ISO 22000:2018.
For the 2025 harvest, TAS Agro has sown 22,000 hectares of winter wheat, 14,000 hectares of winter rapeseed, 16,000 hectares of sunflower, 15,000 hectares of soybeans, and 7,000 hectares of corn.
Soon, in the Southern cluster, parallel to the wheat harvest, the rapeseed harvest will begin. Over the next few weeks, the harvest will spread to other clusters, the agricultural holding concluded.
TAS Agro was established in 2014. Its land bank includes 88,000 hectares in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, and Mykolaiv regions. It specializes in crop production, and the agricultural holding’s elevator capacity is about 250,000 tons. The livestock business is represented by a herd of 5,500 head of cattle, of which 2,500 are dairy cattle.
The agricultural holding is part of the TAS group, founded in 1998.
Its business interests include the financial sector (banking and insurance segments) and pharmacies, as well as industry, real estate, and venture projects.
The founder of TAS and beneficiary of the TAS Agro agricultural holding is Serhiy Tihipko.
Support is lowest in France, Spain and Poland, while 21% back authoritarian rule under certain circumstances
Only half of young people in France and Spain believe that democracy is the best form of government, with support even lower among their Polish counterparts, a study has found.
A majority from Europe’s generation Z – 57% – prefer democracy to any other form of government. Rates of support varied significantly, however, reaching just 48% in Poland and only about 51-52% in Spain and France, with Germany highest at 71%.
More than one in five – 21% – would favour authoritarian rule under certain, unspecified circumstances. This was highest in Italy at 24% and lowest in Germany with 15%. In France, Spain and Poland the figure was 23%.
Nearly one in 10 across the nations said they did not care whether their government was democratic or not, while another 14% did not know or did not answer.
Thorsten Faas, a political scientist at Berlin’s Free University, who worked on the study, said: “Among people who see themselves as politically to the right of centre and feel economically disadvantaged, their support of democracy sinks to just one in three.
“Democracy is under pressure, from within and without.”
The study was carried out in April and May. More than 6,700 people between the ages of 16 and 26 in Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Poland responded to the ninth annual survey by the YouGov institute for the Tui Foundation, which funds projects dedicated to youth in Europe.
Forty-eight per cent worry that the democratic system in their own country is endangered, including 61% in Germany, where the economy – Europe’s biggest – is ailing and the far right has made significant inroads, fuelled in part by increased backing from young voters.
The return of Donald Trump to the White House, the rise of China, and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine have shifted power away from Europe in the respondents’ perception, with just 42% counting the EU among the top three global players.
Despite – or perhaps because of – Brexit, the figure was highest among Britons at 50%. Of those surveyed in the UK, 73% wanted a return to the EU, while nearly half of young Europeans (47%) sought stronger ties between the EU and Britain.
The US was seen by 83% as part of the power trio, followed by China with 75% and Russia on 57%.
Rising polarisation is also driving young Europeans to the ideological fringes along with their elders, but a notable gender divide has emerged in the process.
Nearly one in five – 19% – described themselves as politically right of centre, up from 14% in 2021, while 33% called themselves centrists, 32% as leftist and 16% without any designation.
Women in Germany, France and Italy identified as progressive in higher numbers than four years ago, while young men in Poland and Greece have grown more conservative in the same period.
Support for tougher restrictions on migration has grown across the board since 2021, to 38% from 26%.
Most young Europeans expressed hope in the EU’s potential, and two in three overwhelmingly supported their country remaining in the bloc if it still was. But 39% described the EU as not particularly democratic and just 6% said their own national governments worked well, with little need for significant changes.
More than half – 53% – felt the EU was too focused on details and trivial matters. They would like the bloc to tackle the high cost of living, bolster defence against external threats and create better conditions for companies to improve the economy.
Elke Hlawatschek, the head of the Tui Foundation, said: “The European project, which has brought us peace, freedom of movement and economic progress for decades, is seen as unwieldy.”
Greek people see the strongest need for fundamental overhaul of their political system and are most sceptical about the EU, which Faas described as rooted in enduring trauma of the eurozone debt crisis that drove their country’s economy to the brink.
Despite stronger support for climate protection among young Europeans, just one in three said it should take priority over economic growth. The figure has slipped from 44% in 2021.
BREXIT, EUROPE, EUROPEAN UNION, FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY, NEWS, Young people
