11-year-old Ukrainian Roman Oleksiv, who survived a Russian missile strike on Vinnytsia in 2022, received the international Cinema for Peace Honorary Dove award during the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), Roman and his father Yaroslav announced on Facebook.
“This award is not just about Roman. It is about all Ukrainian children who grow up to the sound of sirens,” said the boy’s father.
Roman received the award at the Cinema for Peace charity event for the documentary film Children in the Fire by director Yevgeny Afineevsky, which tells his story. The event takes place annually during the Berlinale and is dedicated to global conflicts and humanitarian crises.
Roman suffered severe injuries during a Russian missile strike on Vinnytsia, which killed his mother. The boy underwent dozens of operations and lengthy rehabilitation, but managed to return to his studies, creative work, and public activities, becoming a symbol of the resilience of Ukrainian children.
Roman has previously spoken at the European Parliament and received awards in Ukraine for his courage and strength of spirit.
The Experts Club analytical center draws attention to the publication of the International Tax Competitiveness Index 2025, which compares the tax systems of 38 OECD countries across more than 40 parameters and five blocks: corporate taxes, personal income taxes, consumption taxes, property taxes, and cross-border tax rules.
Estonia has topped the ranking for the 12th consecutive year, followed by Latvia and New Zealand. Switzerland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Australia, Israel, Hungary, and the Czech Republic also made it into the top 10. At the other end of the spectrum are France (38th place) and Italy (37th), as well as Colombia, Poland, and Spain.
The authors of the study emphasize that high positions are usually ensured by more neutral and predictable tax structures — a broader base, a smaller role for targeted exemptions, and more understandable rules for taxation of profits and cross-border transactions. In particular, for Estonia, the key factor remains the corporate model with taxation of distributed profits, and for Latvia — similar corporate taxation logic and territorial elements of the regime.
Among the major economies, the United States ranks 15th, Germany 20th, Japan 22nd, and Canada 13th, while the United Kingdom ranks 32nd. France is named the least competitive system in the OECD — the report attributes this, in particular, to the high aggregate corporate income tax rate (36.13% including surcharges) and a set of separate property taxes.
Changes from last year are noted separately: Canada rose from 14th to 13th place; The Czech Republic fell from 9th to 10th place; France fell from 36th to 38th place due to the introduction of a temporary income tax surcharge for companies with high revenues; Germany improved its position from 21st to 20th place.
According to the National Scientific Center “Institute of Agrarian Economics” (IAE), citing data from the State Customs Service, Ukraine increased its imports of agricultural products by 13% compared to 2024, reaching $9.12 billion in 2025.
According to the research institute, EU member states retained their position as the main supplier and provided 53.9% of domestic agri-food imports worth $4.91 billion.
According to the institution, EU member states retained their position as the main supplier for the seventh consecutive year and provided 53.9% of domestic agri-food imports in 2025, worth $4.91 billion, with the value of supplies from the EU increasing by 15% compared to 2024.
According to the IEA, imports from other regions were much lower. Food supplies from Asian countries amounted to $1.635 billion (17.9%), Latin America – $693 million (7.6%), and Africa – $489 million (5.4%). All of them also increased sales of agricultural products for the needs of the Ukrainian domestic market last year.
Since 2017, Poland has held the top spot in the ranking of major suppliers of agricultural products to Ukraine, selling $1.15 billion worth of agricultural goods in 2025, 24% more than in 2024. The top ten exporters also included Germany ($692 million), Turkey ($654 million), Italy ($575 million), the Netherlands ($417 million), Norway ($338 million), France ($317 million), Spain ($314 million), China ($264 million), and the United States ($235 million). In total, these ten countries accounted for 54% of all imports.
In the commodity structure of purchases, 70% of the value was made up of fruits, berries, and nuts ($1 billion), fish and seafood ($999 million), beverages ($870 million), cocoa products ($640 million), food products ($575 million), tobacco products ($493 million), feed ($476 million), coffee and tea ($471 million), vegetables ($467 million), and oilseeds ($418 million).
“Food imports to Ukraine in 2025 reached their highest level in monetary terms since the country gained independence, growing for the third consecutive year amid a full-scale invasion of our state by the Russian Federation. Against the backdrop of a general trend of rising food prices, especially given the significant risks for specialized businesses in Ukraine, the cost of foreign purchases in 2026 is likely to remain high,” concluded Bogdan Dukhnytskyi, a leading researcher at the IAE.
The first Central Asia-Republic of Korea Summit will be held in Seoul on September 16-17, 2026.
The summit is expected to be attended by the heads of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
The main goal of the summit is to expand diplomatic horizons and qualitatively strengthen ties between Seoul and the region. The parties will pay special attention to diversification of supply chains and economic security, which is critical in the current geopolitical environment.
The new format of the dialogue is intended to move cooperation from the plane of individual projects to the plane of systemic multilateral interaction, covering energy, technology, and logistics.
The World Korea writes that the government of the Republic of Korea intends to use the upcoming summit as an opportunity to develop cooperation in the following areas:
– Partnership in critical minerals and energy;
– Industrial and digital transformation;
– Transportation and logistics ties;
– Cooperation in defense and security;
– Cooperation in Agriculture, Climate and Health.
Ukrnafta JSC became one of the largest importers of diesel fuel in January 2026 and ranked among the top two in terms of volume, the company reported on Monday.
“The state-owned company imported 68,000 tons of Arctic and winter diesel fuel into Ukraine, which is almost 15% of the total volume of imports during this period,” Ukrnafta said.
Most of the fuel was purchased from the Polish state-owned concern Orlen, with purchases also made from Romania’s OMV Petrom and Lithuania.
“The company is working to provide customers with high-quality Euro-5 fuel, so in January it focused on purchasing Arctic diesel, which is recommended for use in extremely low temperatures,” said Ukrnafta CEO Bohdan Kukura.
According to the consulting group A-95, a total of 455,600 tons of fuel were imported into Ukraine in January 2026, which is 44% more than in the same period last year.
As reported, according to the top 10 A-95’s top 10 largest importers of light petroleum products in 2025, Ukrnafta ranked seventh with an annual volume of 424,000 tons, increasing its imports by 288% (109,200 tons) compared to 2024.
JSC Ukrnafta is Ukraine’s largest oil production company and operates the largest national network of gas stations, UKRNAFTA. The company has 1,807 oil and 164 gas production wells on its balance sheet.
In 2024, the company entered into asset management with Glusco. In 2025, it completed an agreement with Shell Overseas Investments BV to purchase the Shell network in Ukraine. In total, it operates 663 gas stations.
The company is implementing a comprehensive program to restore operations and update the format of its network of gas stations. Since February 2023, it has been issuing its own fuel vouchers and NAFTA cards, which are sold to legal entities and individuals through Ukrnafta-Postach LLC.
The largest shareholder of Ukrnafta is Naftogaz of Ukraine with a 50%+1 share. In November 2022, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine decided to transfer the company’s corporate rights, which were previously owned by private owners, to the state, and they are now managed by the Ministry of Defense.
Walnut exports from Ukraine in 2025 fell by 90% compared to the average annual figures for the previous five years, to $9.2 million, according to Gennady Yudin, president of the Ukrainian Nut Association.
“The export security regime introduced in December 2024 established additional control requirements and minimum export prices for shelled and unshelled nuts. This measure effectively halted exports through official channels: shipments of shelled nuts fell by 97% in 2025, and in-shell nuts by 76%,” he wrote on Facebook.
According to the expert, Ukraine is rapidly losing its global leadership in walnut exports, despite its harvest and strategic logistical position. In 2020-2024, Ukraine exported more than 160,000 tons of walnuts worth $461.4 million (an average of $92.2 million per year – IF-U), which accounted for one-third of the horticultural sector’s total foreign exchange earnings. However, in 2025, against the backdrop of record walnut imports to the EU (over EUR 1 billion), Ukraine’s share amounted to only EUR 6.8 million.
At the same time, Ukraine lost its position in the Georgian market, where it had previously been one of the three largest suppliers. In 2025, nut imports from Ukraine to this country practically ceased, while China ($7.9 million) and Uzbekistan ($4.2 million) became the main players.
The head of the association emphasized that while global demand is growing, in particular, consumption in the EU has increased by 75% over the decade, the Ukrainian industry is becoming unprofitable.
Yudin pointed out the need for immediate adjustment of regulatory legislation regarding the preparation of primary documentation for nuts harvested in households. Since more than 90% of the gross walnut harvest in Ukraine comes from private plots, forest belts, and field plantations, the lack of a transparent and simplified mechanism for legalizing such purchases creates “bottlenecks” for official exporters.
The Ukrainian Nut Association emphasized that without solving this problem, legal businesses lose profitability, which reduces the investment attractiveness of the industry and allows new players in the nut market to displace Ukraine from the global market.
