From February 20 to March 3, the Marine Corps & Air Force Trials 2026, a major veterans’ competition, took place in San Diego, California. This is an annual competition for servicemen and veterans of the US Marine Corps and Air Force, which serves as a qualifying stage for the American team for the Warrior Games.
The Ukrainian team was invited as an international team along with the British team to expand cooperation and exchange experience in the field of veteran sports and rehabilitation through sports.
The competitions included wheelchair basketball and rugby, sitting volleyball, archery and shooting, rowing on simulators, athletics, powerlifting, cycling, and swimming.
First and foremost, the team did not go for awards or achievements, but for the rehabilitation of participants through sport. However, the team managed to win quite a few prizes at the competition in California.
The Ukrainian team won first place in sitting volleyball and second place in wheelchair rugby. This is a first for our team.
In swimming, rowing on simulators, and cycling, Yaroslav Begas, Ivan Artyukh, and Oksana Rudyk took first place, while Artem Peredeev took first place in powerlifting. In archery, Oleksandr Zirka took first place in the individual competition. In the team competition, Oleksandr Zirka, Artem Perederyev, and Mariana Nitskevich took second place. Mariana Nitskevich also took second place in the individual competition.
In running, Oleksiy Dernov took first place in the 1500 meters. He also took third place in the 800, 400, 200, and 100 meters. In cycling, Vadym Goncharenko and Oleksiy Dernov finished second. In the shot put, Oleksandr Batalov and Vadym Honcharenko took first place. Oleksandr Batalov also came second in the discus throw.
The qualifying stage for the Ukrainian national team was the all-Ukrainian competition “GART” — the first national multi-sport competition for veterans who were wounded, injured, or fell ill during military service. The national team for the 2026 Marine Corps & Air Force Trials was selected from among the 400 participants in this tournament. It consists of 13 male veterans and 2 female veterans.
The formation, training, and participation of the Ukrainian national team is provided by the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine in cooperation with the Come Back Alive Initiative Center. The general partner of the Ukrainian team is Ukrgasbank.
We would like to add that in April, the “Gart” wheelchair basketball competition for veterans will start in Lviv, preceded by a week-long camp for beginners in this sport. We invite veterans to participate in the tournament.
Registration form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQCmcejNST02gPuvrMr-Cax2fAP6iLGD7WkADLjpXQNAP9Vg/viewform
COMPETITION, Marine Corps & Air Force Trials 2026, UKRGASBANK, veterans' team
PrJSC Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NFP, Dnipropetrovsk region) is trying to recover UAH 95.825 million in debt from PrJSC Marganetsky Mining and Processing Plant (MGZK, Dnipropetrovsk region) under a repayable financial assistance agreement.
According to court documents in case No. 904/1083/26 in the Commercial Court of Dnipropetrovsk region, copies of which are available to Interfax-Ukraine, NZF has filed a lawsuit against MGZK and is seeking to recover the debt.
The claims are based on the defendant’s improper performance of the terms of the agreement for the provision of repayable financial assistance No. 2203530 dated November 21, 2022.
The court left the statement of claim without consideration and gave the plaintiff seven days from the date of delivery of this ruling to remedy the deficiencies in the statement of claim, namely to provide proper evidence of payment of the court fee in the amount of UAH 831,840 thousand.
The ruling came into force upon its signing by the judge on March 6, 2026, and was made public on March 9.
Earlier it was reported that the Zaporizhzhya Ferroalloy Plant (ZFP) filed a lawsuit to recover from MGZK the debt under the contract for the supply of ferroalloys No. 11-2022/32 dated January 27, 2022, in the total amount of UAH 42 million 174.790 thousand. The claims are based on the defendant’s breach of contract in terms of payment for the delivered goods.
NZF, ZZF, and MGZK are part of the informal Privat Group.
NZF is Ukraine’s largest producer of silicon and ferromanganese. The average monthly output of ferroalloys during stable operation of the enterprise is about 55-60 thousand tons.
According to the NDU data for the fourth quarter of 2025, Sofalon Investments Limited owns 15.503% of the shares of PJSC, Rougella Properties Ltd. – 9.6904%, Dolemia Consulting Ltd. – 15.7056%, Sonerio Holdings Ltd. – 9.2158%, Manjalom Limited – 5.8824%, Treelon Investments Limited (all – Cyprus) – 15.1013%.
The NFP is controlled by the EastOne group, created in the fall of 2007 as a result of the restructuring of the Interpipe group, as well as the Privat group (both based in Dnipro).
MGZK develops the eastern part of the Nikopol manganese ore deposit (Grushevsko-Basanska section). The combine includes four mines, one of which is under construction, one quarry – Grushevsky, and an enrichment plant.
According to NDU data for the fourth quarter of 2025, the largest shareholders of MGZK are Couttenmax Holdings Limited, Mosfilia Investments Limited, and Humax Enterprises Limited, each of which owns 23.8933% of the company’s shares, as well as Fianex Holdings Limited (all based in Cyprus), which owns 24% of the shares.
The cost of this year’s sowing campaign for Ukrainian farmers will increase by about 15% compared to last year and will amount to about UAH 700 billion ($17 billion), said Denis Marchuk, deputy head of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council (VAR).
“The difficulty is that this season’s sowing campaign will be more expensive. In total, it will cost Ukrainian producers around UAH 700 billion to carry out this work. Accordingly, this will be reflected in the final price of food products,” the expert said.
According to him, the main reasons for the increase in prices are the rise in fuel prices (by 10-15%), mineral fertilizers (by 20%), plant protection products, and seeds. This will lead to an increase in the price of the final food product by 3-5%.
Marchuk also added that due to weather conditions and snow cover in some regions, sowing will begin with a delay of about two weeks. At the same time, work is already actively underway in the south of the country.
The structure of crops will remain largely traditional: sunflower, corn, spring wheat, barley, soybeans, and buckwheat. At the same time, due to climate change, farmers are increasingly experimenting with niche crops, in particular chickpeas.
The deputy head of the UAA emphasized the importance of government support for agricultural producers, especially in frontline regions, where working conditions are the most difficult.
According to preliminary data, Ukrainian metallurgical companies reduced steel production in January-February of this year by 13.2% compared to the same period last year, to 1.026 million tons.
According to information from the Ukrmetallurgprom association on Monday evening, 515,000 tons of steel were produced in February, compared to 511,100 tons in the previous month.
As reported, Ukrainian steel companies reduced steel production by 2.2% in 2025 compared to 2024, to 7.409 million tons.
In 2024, Ukraine increased steel production by 21.6% compared to 2023, to 7.575 million tons.
In 2023, Ukraine reduced steel production by 0.6% compared to 2022, to 6.228 million tons.
In 2022, the country reduced steel production by 70.7% compared to 2021, to 6.263 million tons.
In pre-war 2021, 21.366 million tons of steel were produced, which was 103.6% of the 2020 level.
As part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front military initiative, Metinvest is working on exporting bunkers for the border between Poland and Russia, the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Alexander Mironenko said in an interview with Pryamyy TV channel.
“We are mainly working with our Western partners on shelters. This is very relevant right now: we are showing them our solutions for the construction of various structures. For example, a hospital that fully complies with NATO Role2 standards. It has been inspected by numerous delegations: military medics, engineers, and foreign specialists, and everyone agreed that the solutions are quite effective,” said Myronenko.
According to him, the company has presented its engineering solutions based on “hideouts” at many military-themed exhibitions and meetings, and they are very popular.
“We are currently working on entering the international market with these solutions, for example, for the construction of the border between Poland and Russia, using our experience and proposals for underground structures. The NATO army does not have such experience, so they are very interested in this. And we exchange information and experience with them,” said the COO.
He added that the shelters have undergone a major transformation. Initially, they were simply “barrels” buried in the ground. “Now we provide a full service — it is essentially an underground house with its own lighting, generator, stove, and all amenities: just plug the generator into the outlet, and the room is ready for use,” the COO clarified.
“The unique product we are proud of is, of course, the protective structures for the Patriot and SAMP/T air defense systems. And now we are developing protection for the Hawk air defense system control module, which operates in Ukraine. In my opinion, this is a unique experience, because we are talking about state-of-the-art technology designed to protect the sky from the enemy, but certain shortcomings have been revealed in real combat conditions. Together with the military, we corrected them – we made the control modules, radar installations, and other systems safer so that personnel could feel confident even in dangerous situations and conduct air defense of our cities and towns,” explained the top manager.
He added that the company plans to continue supporting the military in all areas, both through the purchase of equipment and through the provision of its own products.
“In production, we will focus on protecting equipment: we will improve existing solutions and develop new ones for different types of equipment. The second area is the development of ”shelters” and solutions based on them. An underground training center has already been built on the basis of such shelters, and we are now completing the construction of another large underground center for pilot training. This is a large niche in which we plan to continue working and developing,” Myronenko concluded.
According to preliminary data, Ukrainian metallurgical companies reduced their total rolled steel production in January-February this year by 16.8% compared to the same period last year, from 957,000 tons to 797,000 tons.
According to information from the Ukrmetallurgprom association on Monday evening, 390,300 tons of rolled steel were produced in February, compared to 406,400 tons in the previous month.
As reported, Ukrainian steel companies increased their total rolled steel production by 4.8% in 2025 compared to 2024, to 6.521 million tons from 6.222 million tons.
In 2024, Ukraine increased its total rolled steel production by 15.8% compared to 2023, to 6.222 million tons from 5.372 million tons.
In 2023, Ukraine increased its total rolled steel production by 0.4% compared to 2022, to 5.372 million tons.
In 2022, the country reduced its total rolled steel production by 72% compared to 2021, to 5.350 million tons.
In pre-war 2021, 19.079 million tons of rolled steel were produced, which was 103.5% of the 2020 level.
