Among Ukrainian politicians, Volodymyr Zelensky (39.5% of Ukrainians trust him), Vitali Klitschko (33.8%), Serhiy Prytula (31.6%) and Volodymyr Groysman (31%) enjoy the highest level of trust from the population among Ukrainian politicians, evidenced by the results of an all-Ukrainian public opinion poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) from February 23 to March 1, 2021.
According to the survey, 39.5% of Ukrainians trust President Volodymyr Zelensky, while 54.3% do not trust him (the balance of trust-distrust is -14.7%); Kyiv mayor Klitschko is trusted by 33.8%, 52.8% do not trust him (balance -19%); public activist, volunteer and TV presenter Prytula is trusted by 31.6%, 34% do not trust him (balance -2.3%); ex-prime minister Volodymyr Groisman has trust of 31%, 53.1% have no confidence in him (balance -22.1%); Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov has trust of 28.3%, no trust from 30.6% (balance -2.3%).
At the same time, 26.3% of Ukrainians trust MP Yulia Tymoshenko, 67.6% have distrust of her (the balance of trust and distrust is 41.3%); MP Yuriy Boiko has trust of 24.6%, 52.2% have no confidence in him (balance -27.6%), ex-MP Oleh Liashko is trusted by 23.2%, 69.5% do not trust him (balance -46.3%), 22.4% trust Ihor Smeshko, 22.6% do not trust him (balance -0.2%), the fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, is trusted by 21.9%, 73.5% have no confidence in him (balance -51.6%).
The level of trust in other politicians is below 20%.
If we compare the percentage of confidence in a politician with the same indicator in January 2021, the greatest changes can be traced in the case with Zelensky – an increase from 35.6% to 39.5%, Prytula – an increase from 27.3% to 31.6%, Boiko – a decrease from 28.9% to 24.6%, Medvedchuk – a decrease from 19.6% to 16.2%, Palytsia – a decrease from 5.3% to 3%.
The respondents were also asked a similar question about trust in the leaders of other states.
As it turned out, 30.3% Ukrainians trust Alexander Lukashenko, while 56.8% do not trust him, so his balance of trust-distrust is -26.5%. Moreover, compared to January 2021, the level of trust in him decreased.
Joe Biden is trusted by 29.4% of Ukrainians, and not trusted by 25.5%. Its balance is positive and amounts to + 3.9%, respectively. Compared to January 2021, no significant changes have been observed.
Vladimir Putin was the most unfavorable among Ukrainians – 82.4% do not trust him versus 10.8% of those who trust (-71.6% balance).
The public opinion poll was conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology from February 23 to March 1, 2021 using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). Some 1,207 respondents living in 86 settlements of all regions of Ukraine (except for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) were randomly selected during three rounds with a quota selection at the final round, which is representative for the population of Ukraine aged over 18.
The margin of sampling error for the full sample is not more than 2.9% for indicators close to 50%, 2.5% for indicators close to 25%, 1.9% for indicators close to 12%, and 1.3% for indicators close to 5%.
The Parkovyi data center (Ante Mediam LLC, Kyiv) notes the growing demand for server equipment placement in data processing centers (data centers).
As member of the supervisory board of the Parkovyi data center Tetiana Honcharova has told Interfax-Ukraine, the lockdown and its consequences have caused great demand in the digitalization of business.
“We are seeing an increase in the demand for server equipment placement. The reason for the demand in this segment is the unprofitability for the business to maintain and provide its own server rooms with the required level of security,” she said.
According to Honcharova, the trends of 2020 were a noticeable increase in interest in cloud services from the public sector, as well as an increased attention to cloud data backup from large businesses.
She also noted that, despite the pandemic, 2020 turned out to be quite productive for the cloud services market.
“As for the Parkovyi, we see a 20% growth over 2020. On average in the market, according to our analysts, over the next five years, there will be a 15% growth annually. Considering that our team started work in the middle of the year, the growth of Parkovyi in 2020 exceeded the market average,” Honcharova said.
The Parkovyi data center, located in the territory of the Parkovy congress and exhibition center in Kyiv, was put into operation in May 2013. It is certified according to the TIER III security level, owns an international certificate in the field of information security ISO/IEC 27001:2013 and a certificate of conformity for technical information protection systems issued by the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine.
The total area of the data center is 2,730 square meters, the number of racks is 400 units. The data center is connected to two independent energy sources with a capacity of 4 MW.
The volume of sales of companies operating in the service sector of Ukraine in the fourth quarter of 2020 amounted to UAH 264.2 billion, which in comparable prices was 10.4% higher than the level of the fourth quarter of 2019, the State Statistics Service has said.
According to the report, the volume of services provided to the population amounted to 17.4% of the total volume of services provided in the country (UAH 46.05 billion).
The State Statistics Service reminded that in the fourth quarter of 2020 the volume of service provided by companies grew by 10.9% compared with the previous quarter.
Clear Energy Group plans to launch the fourteenth biogas plant for the group this month, the group’s CEO, Andriy Hrinenko, has said.
“We have built 14 landfill stations on landfill gas. These are, in particular, Kharkiv, Bila Tserkva, Kryvy Rih, Kherson, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kremenchuk, Lutsk, Chernihiv, Poltava. In March, we are launching a biogas station in Ternopil,” he said in interview to the online portal Energy Reform.
Thus, the total capacity of all biogas plants of the group will be 15.1 MW, which is 75% of the entire market for electricity generation from landfill gas in Ukraine.
According to Hrinenko, the group sees great prospects in the development of landfills for the production of electricity and heat, and the decision to work in this area was made several years ago, based on the fact that the market for processing solid household waste remained underestimated.
“Now in Ukraine, 10 million tonnes of household waste is produced annually. This is gold under our feet, which we do not use. It can give 1.2 billion kWh of electricity and 3.5 million Gcal of thermal energy per year if properly utilized. We can also generate one billion cubic meters of biogas from this waste,” he explained.
At the same time, Hrinenko noted that the development of this sector needs to be streamlined at the legislative level, for which the group has developed a bill on energy waste disposal, the adoption of which will be sought in the Verkhovna Rada after the presentation to the mayors of the cities.
“Firstly, we want to achieve the same protected cost item for utilities for paying for heat generated from waste as they have for paying for gas. Secondly, we do not ask for any inflated tariffs. We want to sell electricity at the day ahead market price, but give the basic rules,” he defined the main points of the bill.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine intends to resolve the issue of launching the U.S. payment system PayPal in Ukraine.
“We have been communicating with PayPal for a year now. A meeting with our team was held in Davos. We are holding Zoom meetings. There are certain questions. Ukraine, in principle, was not present on the PayPal expansion business map. I don’t want to make spoilers, but we are working on it. We ask the CEO of PayPal questions even in social networks in comments,” Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said in the format of an Internet reception desk live on YouTube on Tuesday.
He said that PayPal shall enter Ukraine, and the Ministry of Digital Industry plans to definitely resolve this issue.
Chinese buyers of shares in Motor Sich (Zaporizhia) violated their obligation to invest $250 million in 2018 and obtain permission from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU), but it is impractical to completely nationalize the enterprise and it is worth leaving 35% to the Chinese and the controlling stake to the state, President of Motor Sich Viacheslav Bohuslayev has said.
“They deceived us… There are no Chinese investors and there is no investment program. There are promises: in the agreement for the acquisition of shares in 2018, they [should have paid] $250 million – not a kopiika [was seen],” journalist Igor Solovey posted a video on his Facebook with a speech of Bohuslayev at a meeting of the national security, defense and intelligence parliamentary committee on March 4.
Bohuslayev said that in such a situation he and the trade union support the decision of the country’s president to impose sanctions against the Chinese shareholders of Motor Sich.
“I hold daily teleconferences with Chinese customers. I explain to them: if I, Bohuslayev, violate Chinese laws on the territory of China, what would you do to me? So your dear Wang Jing [was sanctioned by Ukraine] should not violate Ukrainian laws on the territory of Ukraine,” the president of the company said.
He confirmed that in 2016, Chinese partners provided a $100 million loan at a critical juncture, which must be repaid in 2026, and the company is preparing to do so.
At the same time, Bohuslayev, who before the deal with the Chinese was one of the largest shareholders of Motor Sich, after the committee meeting spoke out against the proposal to completely nationalize the enterprise, as this would entail significant budgetary expenditures.
“We need to negotiate with the Chinese: allow them to have 35%, the rest needs to be sold to the state, in a civilized manner. The ambassador must be explained (that) our state does not allow a foreign citizen to manage our enterprise,” he said, while insisting that a controlling stake belonged to the government.
“You can’t just break off relations with Chinese friends… For no reason in particular, (so that) we don’t give a damn about China, it is better not to behave like that,” Bohuslayev said.
