National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 13/05/20
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of May 13
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
The New York-based law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has paid $11 million or more to avoid a lawsuit by former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who blamed the firm for aiding in her political persecution, The New York Time reported on May 10. “Skadden’s Ukraine work, which has already led to federal investigations and steep fines, centered around a report produced by the firm that [former Ukrainian President] Mr. [Viktor] Yanukovych’s allies used to try to justify his government’s treatment of Ms. Tymoshenko, a leading rival of Mr. Yanukovych. She was imprisoned starting in 2011 on abuse of office charges that the international community widely condemned as politically motivated,” it said.
The New York Times said referring to people familiar with the settlement that Skadden paid $11 million or more to settle the case before a lawsuit was filed.
“Funds from the settlement appear to have been passed through [law firm] Reid Collins to Ms. Tymoshenko and [Tymoshenko’s lawyer] Mr. [Serhiy] Vlasenko. That arrangement appears to be reflected in records filed by Ms. Tymoshenko and Mr. Vlasenko with the Ukrainian government, which show that they each received about $5.5 million from Reid Collins between July and last month,” reads the article.
According to The New York Times, the records do not mention Skadden. In his filings, Vlasenko characterized the money as “foreign income.” Tymoshenko described it in a filing this month as “compensation for the damage caused by the political repression of 2011-2014, which was received in the United States at the stage of precourt settlement.”
The Ministry of Digital Transformation has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine.
The ministry said in a statement on its website that the partnership was signed by UNICEF Representative in Ukraine Lotta Sylwander and Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for European Integration Valeria Ionan.
The first joint project of the Digital Transformation Ministry and UNICEF was the educational series On Cyberbullying for Teens, which is already available on the Diia: Digital Education platform.
She said in the new reality caused by [coronavirus] COVID-19, millions of children are temporarily closed in their homes with gadgets and we must take care of their safety online. So they are very glad to do this in such an interesting way together with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) could provide a loan in the amount of EUR 50 million to Unit Holdings LLC for the development of the UNIT.City innovative campus.
According to an explanatory note to the draft Cabinet of Ministers resolution on approval of the letter of the government of Ukraine to the European Investment Bank on the Innovative Campus for Ukraine project, the bank on December 12, 2019 received a request for support from Unit Holdings in the amount of EUR 50 million to finance the development of project documentation and building individual components of the innovative campus.
The government, in turn, plans to approve and send a letter to the bank on the belonging of the financing proposal to the scope of the framework agreement Between Ukraine and the EIB.
The Innovative Campus for Ukraine project is implemented by Unit Holdings within the framework of the goals of the state policy, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers activity program adopted by the parliament in October 2019.
UNIT.City Innovation Park officially opened in April 2017 in the territory of the former Kyiv Motorcycle Plant.
Unit Holdings LLC was established in November 2017. Its core business is the development of construction projects. According to the unified state register, the ultimate beneficiary is the founder of UFuture holding, Vasyl Khmelnytsky.
UFuture is a holding company that combines Khmelnytsky’s business and social projects. It has a diversified portfolio of assets in real estate, infrastructure, industry, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals and IT. The value of UFuture’s assets is estimated at $550 million. The total capitalization of the businesses in which it invested exceeds $1 billion.
Nova Poshta Global, a part of the Nova Poshta Group, has started delivering parcels from China’s AliExpress trading platform to Ukraine by trucks. The press service of the company said on Tuesday that last week a truck with parcels from AliExpress departed from the Chinese city of Urumchi and overcame the distance of around 6,000 kilometers before reaching the sorting center in Kyiv on May 12.
The truck delivered 7,467 parcels from AliExpress for Nova Poshta clients.
“The pilot shipment showed that it is possible to meet the planned time of delivery by truck. In general, the journey from Urumchi to Warsaw took six days and the two more days to Kyiv. The transit and customs did not take a long time. We continue introducing the multimodal delivery services and testing new means of transport and routes in order to make delivery time as short as possible for our customers,” the press service quoted Nova Poshta Global CEO Yuriy Benevytsky as saying.
Now the company can deliver parcels from AliExpress by air, railway and motor vehicles.
As reported, Nova Poshta Global noted a 28% increase in Ukrainians’ orders from AliExpress compared to April last year.
Nova Poshta Global (formerly Nova Poshta International) has been providing international express delivery services since 2015, and is part of the Nova Poshta group of companies. Nova Poshta Global is developing the NP Shopping service – the delivery from online stores in the United States, China, Britain and Poland, provides import and export services for businesses and the ability to ship from any Nova Poshta branch to most countries of the world.
