Insurance Company “Universal” (Kyiv) collected 2.04 billion UAH in insurance premiums from January through June 2026, which is 27% more than during the same period in 2025, according to the insurer’s website.
According to the data, of this total, UAH 678.9 million (+25%) came from comprehensive auto insurance (CASCO), UAH 616.8 million (+36%) from health insurance, UAH 172.9 million (+45%) from compulsory motor third-party liability insurance (OSCPV), UAH 157.3 million (+14%) from accident insurance — 157.3 million UAH (+14%), aviation insurance — 129.9 million UAH (+24%), property insurance — 92.2 million UAH (+11%), travel insurance — 42 million UAH, and other types of insurance — 152 million UAH.
The main shareholder of IC “Universalna” is Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (Canada)—a holding company that, through its subsidiaries, is primarily engaged in accident insurance, property insurance, and investment management.
Metinvest B.V. (Netherlands), the parent company of the Metinvest mining and metallurgical group, reduced its debt to $1.027 billion as of June 30, 2026, down from $2.242 billion at the end of 2021.
According to Metinvest B.V.’s annual report, released on Monday, Metinvest made significant progress in reducing its debt burden during the reporting period. As a result, total debt as of December 31, 2025, stood at $1.441 billion, a 15% decrease compared to the previous year. At the same time, the net debt-to-EBITDA ratio rose to 1.4x, an increase of 0.4x compared to the previous year.
It is noted that bonds listed on the Euronext Dublin stock exchange continued to constitute the bulk of the group’s capital structure—representing 88% of the debt portfolio, compared to 85% as of December 31, 2024.
Metinvest continued to actively manage its debt obligations. In the first half of 2025, the issued Senior Notes totaling EUR300 million were fully repaid upon maturity. As a result, the total amount of debt repaid since the beginning of 2022 reached $801 million.
In addition, it is noted that the overall reduction in debt during this period was driven by the full and timely repayment of senior bonds (two series); liability management measures, including cash tender offers and private repurchases; scheduled repayment of bank loans; a reduction in reliance on short-term trade finance; and the optimization of lease assets. These results were achieved despite the war and the loss of operational control over certain Ukrainian assets.
In parallel with measures to reduce its debt burden, Metinvest continued to secure targeted financing to support its operations and investment priorities. Specifically, in July 2025, a 11.5-year buyer’s credit facility in the amount of EUR23.6 million was secured for Northern GOK to finance the purchase of equipment for a project to thicken tailings. This credit line, guaranteed by the Finnish export credit agency Finnvera, marked Metinvest’s first instance of securing long-term financing for capital expenditures in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion.
In addition, in April 2026, the group successfully completed the redemption of bonds maturing in 2026, marking another important milestone amid the ongoing war. To date, Metinvest has fully repaid three separate bond series, with total payments on these instruments exceeding $1 billion. These results were achieved despite the challenges of full-scale war, the loss of control over certain Ukrainian assets, and ongoing operational difficulties. At the same time, no debt has been restructured since the start of the war. According to pro forma figures, taking into account the redemption of the 2026 bonds, the group’s net debt-to-EBITDA ratio was less than 1x, the report notes.
As previously reported, Metinvest’s EBITDA in 2025 decreased by 24.2% compared to 2024—to $765 million from $1.009 billion. The year ended with a net loss of $191 million, compared to a net loss of $1.152 billion in 2024. Revenue decreased by 6% to $7.242 billion. At the same time, revenue from the mining segment fell by 25% year-over-year to $2.135 billion due to the absence of coking coal concentrate sales and a decline in iron ore product sales (by 11%). The segment’s contribution to total revenue was 29% (a decrease of 8 percentage points year-over-year).
In 2025, revenue from the metallurgical segment increased by 6% year-over-year to $5.107 billion, primarily due to growth in sales of finished products, semi-finished products (up 4% and 7%, respectively), and other products and services (up 40%). Meanwhile, coke sales fell by 20% year-over-year. This segment accounted for 71% of total revenue in the reporting period (an increase of 8 percentage points year-over-year).
For the year, the group posted an operating profit of $319 million, compared to an operating loss of $858 million in 2024.
At the time, Metinvest CEO Yuriy Ryzhenkov noted in his comments that the full-scale war continues to test both the nation and the group, which remains steadfast.
Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical enterprises. Its facilities are located in Ukraine—in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions—as well as in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The holding company’s main shareholders are the SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%). Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of the Metinvest Group.
The population in Ukraine’s government-controlled territories currently stands at 29 million people, according to Ella Libanova, director of the Mykhailo Ptukha Institute of Demography and Quality of Life Research at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
In an episode of the Open Reality special project, she reported that this joint estimate by the State Statistics Service (SSS) and the Institute of Demography—made without a census—is based on data from mobile operators and government registries. “As of today, this is the joint estimate by the SSS and our Institute—29 million. I always say that it’s plus or minus about 300,000,” Libanova noted.
Since no population census has been conducted in Ukraine since 2001, the researchers used data from three mobile operators as a basis, supplementing it with other sources.
“We used this database as our foundation and supplemented it with various available sources of information for verification and refinement: the labor market; data from the Pension Fund, aggregated with data from tax authorities, which includes not only pensioners; data from the Migration Service and the Ministry of Justice from the demographic registry; we also used the ‘school registry’ and EHealth,” the expert explained.
Libanova acknowledged that this method is not ideal, but there is currently no alternative to it.
She also noted that, according to Eurostat, approximately 4.3 million Ukrainians currently reside in European Union countries.
At the same time, according to Libanova, there is no reliable data on the number of Ukrainians who have left for Russia since the start of the full-scale war. She also noted that a policy of demographic replacement is being carried out in the territories temporarily occupied by Russia: the Ukrainian population is being displaced and replaced by people from other regions of Russia, which, in her opinion, is a continuation of the practice of population assimilation.
“Kernel,” one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural holdings, reduced oilseed processing by 32% in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026 (FY, April–June 2026) reduced oilseed processing by 32% compared to the same period last year—to 645,000 metric tons, the company reported in its operating report on Monday.
“The total volume of oilseed processing for FY 2026 amounted to 3.185 million metric tons, which is 8% less than in FY 2025, due to limited availability of sunflower seeds on the domestic market as a result of one of the worst sunflower harvests in Ukraine in the last decade,” the document states.
At the same time, Kernel noted that this decline was partially offset by the processing of alternative oilseeds, particularly soybeans and rapeseed.
According to the report, sales of edible oil in the fourth quarter fell by 12% to 338,000 metric tons, reflecting a decline in oilseed processing volumes during the quarter.
“However, sales remained relatively high thanks to the sale of vegetable oil inventories accumulated in previous quarters. Total sales of edible oil for fiscal year 2026 reached 1.407 million metric tons, which is 2% more than in fiscal year 2025,” the report states.
Bottled sunflower oil accounted for 14,000 metric tons of the quarterly total, compared to 19,000 metric tons in the previous quarter.
At the same time, the volume of grain stored in elevators (silos) from April through June of this year totaled 320,000 metric tons, compared to just 34,000 metric tons during the same period last year. As a result, the Group’s total grain intake for the 2026 marketing year reached a record high of 4.341 million metric tons, which is 60% more than in the 2025 marketing year.
“The year-over-year growth was primarily driven by a higher share of corn in the Group’s 2025 harvest mix, which led to an increase in grain processing volumes, as well as a rise in grain intake from third-party suppliers,” the document states.
Kernel’s grain exports from Ukraine in the last quarter of fiscal year 2026 totaled 2.011 million metric tons, which is 33% more than in the previous quarter and more than double the figure for the corresponding period of the previous year. “This was driven by an increase in grain supply on the domestic market, as farmers accelerated grain sales toward the end of the season. Total grain exports from Ukraine for fiscal year 2026 reached 6.265 million metric tons, which is 15% more than in fiscal year 2025,” the report notes.
Transshipment through export terminals in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026 totaled 2.699 million metric tons, which is 3% more than in the previous quarter and 49% higher than in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025. Of this volume, grain accounted for 80%, edible oils for 12%, and the remainder consisted of vegetable meal.
“For the year, Kernel’s terminals handled a record 9.587 million metric tons of agricultural products, a 5% increase from the previous year, thanks to significant grain exports in the second half of the fiscal year,” the document states.
Kernel Agricultural Holding is the world’s largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil, Ukraine’s largest grain exporter, the operator of an extensive network of logistics assets, and a leading producer of grains and oilseeds in Ukraine. It is one of the largest producers and sellers of bottled oil in Ukraine. It is engaged in the cultivation and sale of agricultural products.
For the first nine months of fiscal year 2026, Kernel reported a 5% decline in net income to $208 million, while its revenue increased by 0.4% to $3.092 billion and EBITDA rose by 1% to $403 million.
The largest suppliers of beer to China in the first half of 2026 were Germany ($53.2 million), the Netherlands ($45.8 million), and Spain ($41.5 million), according to data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) of the People’s Republic of China.
From January through June, China imported beer from 54 countries, while exporting its own beer to more than 100 countries worldwide.
On July 17, the state-owned enterprise “Boryspil International Airport” (Kyiv) announced a tender for liability insurance for business entities operating at high-risk facilities, according to the Prozorro electronic public procurement system.
The estimated cost of the services is 94,400 UAH.
The deadline for submitting bids is July 27.
