On Thursday, July 30, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency hosted a press conference, titled “Who Destroyed Ukraine’s Horse Breeding, and Why? How to Save the Industry? The Opinion of the Heads of Horse Breeding Enterprises.” The conference was attended by Director of Oleksandria stud farm of SE Horse Breeding of Ukraine Oleh Rodionov, Director of Dubrovsky stud farm of SE Horse Breeding of Ukraine Vadym Danylevsky, Director of Lozovsky stud farm of SE Horse Breeding of Ukraine Ihor Dubovyk, former Head of Odesa Hippodrome Kostiantyn Savchyts, President of the Anti-Corruption Entrepreneurial front Ihor Yehorov, lawyer of JSC Ri Group Sabina Knysh, as well as other directors of state-owned horse breeding organizations.
“We have gathered to tell Ukraine and people what is happening at the strategic enterprise. We will not ride to the Olympics on a pig. And such stud farms as Derkulsky, where ten generations of grooms, coaches, jockeys worked, have been completely ruined,” Oleksandria stud farm director Oleh Rodionov said.
Ihor Dubovyk, the director of the Lozovsky stud farm of SE Horse Breeding of Ukraine, said today the horse breeding industry is primarily based on state stud farms. He called on industry representatives to unite and convey their position to the authorities. According to him, the industry urgently needs to put things in order and provide state support to horse breeding.
“During the reform of the agro-industrial complex, livestock breeding in general, and especially horse breeding, suffered the greatest losses. Horses were distributed, sold, and wages were paid with horses. Until 1997, there were two stud farms and 18 pedigree horse farms in Ternopil region. To date, there is not a single stud farm and not a single breeding farm. Now horse breeders have to travel to the villages and beg, as there is simply nothing to feed the horses. What is this if not a crime?” Director of the Western Plemkonetsentr branch Yuriy Volynets said.
According to lawyer Sabina Knysh, on the basis of the documents received by the new management of the state enterprise, it was established that the heads of the stud farms of Luhansk region (Striletsky, Lymarivsky, Derkulivsky, Novooleksandrivsky) committed a number of offenses, with the use of state property, illegal operations for sowing, harvesting and selling crops in land plots owned by the Horse Breeding of Ukraine. It was also established that the managers appointed by Zinchenko K.M. have a criminal record, and that some were convicted of serious crimes.
“The schemes for the illegal receipt of profits from state lands are run by the local farmer-authority Khabib Makhachevich Batirsultanov, whose wife works in the prosecutor’s office of Luhansk region, and the funds are withdrawn through fictitious operations through Dubrava LLC controlled by Khabib,” Knysh said.
According to the lawyer, in order to retain power at the state enterprise Horse Breeding of Ukraine, Zinchenko, Orekhov O.V. (his deputy) in collusion with Batirsultanov and other interested persons have initiated actions blocking the activities of the new management of the enterprise, placed articles in the media and arranged protest actions and the like. The purpose of these actions is to focus public attention not on abuses on the part of Zinchenko and his team, but on the alleged usurpation of power in the state enterprise by Zhara K.K. (LLC Millennium), which previously provided services for sowing, processing and harvesting at the Horse Breeding of Ukraine.
“However, these facts are not confirmed by anything, which cannot be said about empty acts of acceptance and transfer of not yet grown, but not harvested crops between the Luhansk branch of Horse Breeding of Ukraine and LLC Dubrava,” the lawyer said.
Leading horse breeders of Ukraine have called on the Cabinet of Ministers to urgently intervene in the situation, bring the perpetrators to justice, create a commission comprised of specialists and develop an action program to bring the industry out of the crisis.
BREEDING, DANYLEVSKY, DUBOVYK, DUBROVSKY, HORSE, INDUSTRY, KNYSH, RODIONOV, SAVCHYTS, YEHOROV
Foreign ministers of Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania – the countries that founded the Lublin Triangle format – agreed to meet in Ukraine in the fall, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
“We are already working on the content of our new partnership, making plans and believe that the Triangle should become an important element in the configuration of forces in Central Europe and in Europe as a whole. I can inform you that we have reached an agreement with my Polish and Lithuanian colleagues on that the next meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Lublin Triangle will be held in Ukraine this fall. We are committed to maintaining a dynamic dialogue and the dynamic development of our new format,” he said at an online briefing on Friday.Kuleba recalled that the Lublin Triangle is the first international format that Ukraine has been creating in its Western vector since independence, since 1991.
“Usually, when it comes to different European formats and structures, we join or seek to join the existing structures. Here we are already taking a leadership position and, together with partners, create new mechanisms that meet our regional and European interests,” the minister explained.As reported, Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine have established the Lublin Triangle format. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that that format would become an important element in strengthening Central Europe and Ukraine, as a full member of the European and Euro-Atlantic family of nations.
The likelihood of cooperation between the State Agency for Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) and Alitalia in the development of road infrastructure and “smart roads” was discussed by Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy and Italian Ambassador to Ukraine Davide La Cecilia in Kyiv on Friday.
“The minister briefed the ambassador on a number of important investment projects that are planned in the industry, in particular, in the construction of highways, bridges, concessions of seaports and railway stations. The parties also discussed possible cooperation between Ukravtodor and Alitalia in the development of road infrastructure and ‘smart roads.’ In addition, they noted the importance of developing airports and container trains,” the ministry said in a message on its website.
Krykliy also stressed the interest of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine in the resumption of the work of the Ukrainian-Italian Council for Economic, Industrial and Financial Cooperation with the aim of enhancing relations in the field of transport and infrastructure.
He positively noted the long-term and mutually beneficial relations between Ukraine and Italy in the field of aviation and confirmed his readiness to act on the principle of reciprocity, positively considering all requests from air carriers that will be appointed by the Italian side.
In addition, the parties discussed further cooperation between the two countries in road traffic.
At a meeting on Thursday, July 30, Head of the President’s Office Andriy Yermak said that, on behalf of President Volodymyr Zelensky, the President’s Office, together with the National Olympic Committee, work on the issue of the IOC head’s arrival in Ukraine, and believes that this would be a good opportunity to show the country’s preparation to become one of participants of competition to host the Olympic Games.
“Minister of Youth and Sports Vadym Gutsait reported that NOC President Serhiy Bubka is working on the issue of Ukraine’s participation in the competition for the Olympic Games in 2028 or 2030. He also said that as a former participant in the Olympic Games he supports the implementation of the project, which will give a significant impetus for the development of mass sports and sports of the highest achievements, in particular its winter sports,” the press service of the President’s Office said on Thursday, July 30.
The meeting participants discussed a project to create in Ukraine a high-mountain all-season sports and tourist cluster “Borzhava”. It was presented by Gernot Leitner, a representative of Austrian ski industry, a long-term participant in the preparation of Summer and Winter Olympic Games, the beneficial owner of Borzhava Asset.
He said that the coronavirus pandemic in the world has created such conditions when each state undertakes to develop domestic resources. In his opinion, Ukraine has unique resources and nature, and the location of the future cluster – mountainous Borzhava with its location and transport links will contribute to the development of tourism potential of the entire region.
Leitner hopes that this meeting will become a key one for the development of the project, the signing of a memorandum, which sets out all the steps that must be taken by the state, communities and investors, and its implementation.
“The sooner you are ready to submit a detailed project, deadlines, estimates to the president – the better. We are ready to assist at all levels. As soon as these two stages are passed, after processing the memorandum by lawyers, we will be ready to sign it,” Yermak said.
The position of good prospects for Ukraine from the implementation of the project was supported by the Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Ihor Petrashko, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Roman Abramovsky. Petrashko said that the mechanisms of public-private partnership and “investment nanny” can be used for this. In turn, Abramovsky stressed the importance of preserving natural environment in the place of the cluster.
Canadian company Black Iron, which is implementing the investment project to create a new iron ore production facility in Kryvy Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region), has announced its decision to accelerate the expiry date of the common share purchase warrants dated March 29, 2019 and April 5, 2019.
The company said in its press release on July 30 that the warrants were issued in connection with a private placement of units, with each share purchase warrant being exercisable into one additional common share of the company at a price of $0.09 per share until March 29, 2022 and April 5, 2022, as applicable.
“The Warrants are subject to the right of the Company to accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants if the Company’s common shares close at or above $0.15 per share for more than 10 consecutive trading days on the Toronto Stock Exchange (the “Acceleration Event”). The Company is entitled to accelerate the expiry of the Warrants to that date that is 30 business days from the date of issuance of a news release announcing the exercise of the acceleration right,” it said.
Black Iron also noted that the press release constitutes notice to the holders of warrants that the Acceleration Event has occurred and the company has elected to accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants. This notice only affects the warrants dated March 29, 2019 and April 5, 2019 and not any other warrants the company has issued.
In addition, it is reported that Black Iron’s management have recently initiated discussions with institutional investors on a royalty that could contribute materially to the funding required for project construction and are receiving strong interest.
“Negotiation of a Heads of Agreement on the commercial terms to be included in a binding contract for a high potential $60 million investment in exchange for being awarded the construction contract for the Shymanivske project have concluded positively with one company and are well advanced with a second. Further details on this will be disclosed in due course noting that a binding contract would only be entered into with only one of these two companies, should the parties reach an agreement, who will then lead the future planned construction of the project,” the company said.
The Deposit Guarantee Fund sold the head office of insolvent Delta Bank in Kyiv to Valmi Invest LLC for UAH 66.65 million.
According to the results of auctions posted in the ProZorro.Sale system, the auctions was held according to the Dutch model with a lower price. The initial price of the office was UAH 156.27 million, the guarantee payment was 10%.
Five more companies participated in the auction apart from Valmi Invest, three of them placed their stakes.
Delta Bank’s office in Kyiv has an area of 3,883 square meters and is located on the first through fourth floors of the multi-storey building at 38 Druzhby Narodiv Boulevard near the subway. It is equipped with office furniture and equipment.
