The decision of the Supreme Court to refuse the Ostchem Holding Limited company of Dmytro Firtash to comply with the decision of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce to recover over $300 million from Odesa-Port Side Plant for gas supplies causes mixed feelings and bears risks of consequences, Minister of Justice Denis Maliuska has said.
“The decision was also a surprise for me… On the one hand, as a citizen, I am glad that the funds will not be recovered from the state-owned enterprise, and on the other hand, the argumentation and how it looks in terms of possible consequences, perhaps this is not yet the end of the story, risks remain,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Commenting on commercial arbitrations against Ukraine in general, Maliuska said that he does not see the danger of making any critical decisions regarding Ukraine this year.
As reported, in 2016, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce decided to recover $250 million from Odesa-Port Side Plant in favor of Ostchem Holding Limited for the gas that the company supplied to the plant in 2013.
In March 2017, by a decision of the Yuzhny City Court, this decision was legalized on the territory of Ukraine. The validity of this decision was also recognized by the Court of Appeal of Odesa region. In July 2018, the Supreme Court reversed those decisions.
Again, Ostchem was able to achieve a positive decision for itself in the Kyiv Court of Appeal in April 2019. According to a document published in the unified register of court decisions, Odesa-Port Side Plant, in accordance with the decision of the Stockholm tribunal, had to pay Ostchem almost $193.3 million in principal and $58 million in fines.
The plant objected to the ruling made by the Ukrainian court, noting that the company had been stopped since the middle of 2018 and the implementation of the decision of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce would lead to bankruptcy and threats of a man-made and environmental disaster. In addition, the State Property Fund said that the contracts signed by plant and Ostchem are void. Odesa-Port Side Plant and the State Property Fund filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, which satisfied it in June 2021 and finally refused Ostchem to comply with the decision of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce to recover over $300 million from the plant.
Ostchem has not yet announced what action it has taken or will take following the Supreme Court’s verdict.
Ukraine does not have too high expectations from the visit of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Ukraine, but this will be the first long substantive conversation between the German Chancellor and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where they synchronize their positions, with which the Chancellor will go to Moscow, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba has said.
“We are positive about the fact that Chancellor Scholz will visit Kyiv first, before visiting Moscow. We do not have any too high expectations, but this will be the first long substantive conversation between the German Chancellor and the President of Ukraine, where they really synchronize their position with which the chancellor will go to Moscow,” Kuleba said at a press conference in Kharkiv on Friday, answering a question from Interfax-Ukraine.
He stressed that Scholz’s visit to Ukraine is extremely important. “We hope that it [the visit] will exceed our expectations,” Kuleba added.
Since the stabilization of the foreign exchange market, the National Bank has bought $600 million, First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko said.
“The National Bank is now buying funds (from the foreign exchange market), has already bought $600 million. We can state that the panic in the foreign exchange market has passed,” she said at a meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in Kharkiv.
At the same time, she indicated that by the end of 2022 inflation is expected to stabilize and reach the target of 5%.
Eight centers for growing seedlings with a closed root system will be built in Ukraine in 2022 using the technologies of the Swedish company BCC, according to the website of the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine.
“During this year, we plan to build eight seed breeding factories, which will significantly increase the capacity for growing planting material. This will allow us to successfully implement the Green Country presidential program (President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky) and plant one billion trees in 3 years,” the agency said.
According to the plans for the construction of forest planting complexes published by the department, plants for growing seedlings will be located in Volyn, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
According to the agency, this year it is also planned to expand forest planting complexes in Ternopil and Khmelnytsky regions. In addition, in 2021, seed breeding plants were put into operation in Lviv and Donetsk regions.
As reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in June 2021 signed a decree on the implementation of the Green Country project in Ukraine to increase the number of forests in Ukraine. The goal of the project is to increase the area of forests in Ukraine by one million hectares in 10 years. It is also planned to plant one billion trees in Ukraine in the next three years.
The production of beer in Ukraine (except for non-alcoholic beer with an alcohol content of up to 0.5% by volume) in January 2022 decreased 3.7% compared to January 2021, to 9.4 million decalitres, according to a posting on the website of the branch organization of brewers Ukrpyvo on Thursday.
As reported, in 2021 Ukraine produced 5% less beer compared to 2020 – 170.5 million decalitres, and in 2020 its production decreased by 0.4% compared to 2019, to 179.7 million decalitres.
Malt production in Ukraine in Jan grows by 11%
Malt production in Ukraine in January grew by 10.8%, to 18,600 tonnes.
Malt production in 2021 amounted to 218,500 tonnes, which is 19.5% less than in 2020.
At the same time, the year before last, its production decreased by 18% compared to 2019, to 275,000 tonnes.
Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko said that a lockdown due to the omicron coronavirus strain is not envisaged in Ukraine, the press service of the Ministry of Health reported.
“There will be no lockdown. We work in an adaptive quarantine that provides for a ‘red zone,” the press service of the Ministry of Health quoted Liashko as saying.
It is reported that at present there are enough vaccines against coronavirus in the country, so it is inappropriate to talk about tightening quarantine measures.
At the same time, the Ministry of Health notes that as soon as the vaccination rate reaches 70%, adaptive quarantine will also end.
