Findings of a public opinion poll conducted by the Oleksandr Yaremenko Ukrainian Institute for Social Research, the Social Monitoring Center, and the Institute of Economics and Forecasting of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences show that the majority of Ukrainians trust President Volodymyr Zelensky and the country’s armed forces.
According to the poll results, which were presented at Interfax-Ukraine’s office on Thursday, almost 58% of Ukrainians generally trust Zelensky, 35.1% are more likely to trust the president, and 23% of citizens trust him completely. Former President Petro Poroshenko had the trust of 15% of respondents (11.3% and 3.7%, respectively).
The Ukrainian Armed Forces enjoy the trust of more than 64% of respondents, the National Police 30.7%, law enforcement agencies 30.6%, the SBU Security Service of Ukraine 29.9%, the Prosecutor General’s Office 18.4%, and the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) 15.3%.
Some 22.9% of Ukrainians have confidence in the National Bank of Ukraine, 14.8% in the Cabinet, 13.3% in political parties, and 10.3% in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.
The poll was conducted in 24 Ukrainian regions and the city of Kyiv on May 10-18 and involved 2,100 people. The margin of error is between 1.31% and 2.18%.
National Energy Company Ukrenergo plans to attract another EUR 24.5 million from Kreditanstalt Fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW, Germany) to implement a project to increase effectiveness of electricity transmission, which is the third phase of reconstruction and automation of the company’s substations.
According to a company’s press release, the relevant intentions were recorded in the protocol on the results of the intergovernmental negotiations held on May 20 in Kyiv with the participation of the company.
“This will significantly improve the reliability of power transmission and ensure the technical compliance of equipment and network operation with the standards and requirements of ENTSO-E [the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity],” the press service reported, citing Ukrenergo Deputy Director for investment Volodymyr Kudritsky as saying.
In general, KfW announced its readiness to provide more than EUR 80 million for the implementation of reforms in a number of sectors of the Ukrainian economy.
During the meeting, Ukrenergo spoke about the implementation of a roadmap for the integration of the Ukrainian power grid with ENTSO-E. In this direction, the company cooperates with the German transmission system operator 50 Hertz, which is now a key partner of Ukrenergo in the process of integrating networks.
A project foreseeing the possible provision of EUR 100 million to Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP, Ukraine) agricultural company by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) requires review, EBRD Senior Advisor on External Affairs Anton Usov has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“Some media reports that the EBRD allegedly rejected this project are not true. It was not even submitted to the board of directors for consideration,” he said on Thursday.
Usov said that the new date for its consideration by the bank’s directors will be announced additionally.
As reported, in January 2019, the EBRD said that in March 2019 its directors could consider the issue of providing EUR 100 million to MHP to acquire Slovenia’s Perutnina Ptuj.
In November 2018 MHP signed an agreement to acquire a 90.68% stake in Slovenia’s Perutnina Ptuj, a vertically integrated company in Southeastern Europe.
DCH Infrastructure and Real Estate (DCH I&RE), part of businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky’s DCH Group, is negotiating with Sweden’s retailer H&M on the opening of stores in regional shopping and entertainment centers Karavan in Kharkiv and Dnipro.
DCH I&RE CEO Daniil Vladov said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine that it is inexpedient to attract H&M store to the Karavan mall in Kyiv, as the mall will be gradually reformatted into an outlet center.
“The H&M brand does not enter the outlet format. At the moment, they do not need this format, and they do not have it as such. We are negotiating with them, and I think they will enter our regional projects in Kharkiv and Dnipro,” Vladov said, commenting on a possibility of attracting H&M to the pool of the new outlet center as a result of changing the concept of the Karavan shopping and entertainment center in Kyiv.
DCH Infrastructure and Real Estate plans on June 1, 2019 to partially close the Karavan shopping and entertainment center in Kyiv located at 12, Luhova Street for a phased reformatting of the facility into an outlet center.
DCH Infrastructure & Real Estate is the management company of the Karavan retail and entertainment centers network in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro. It functions as the development division of the DCH Group of Yaroslavsky, whose range of investment interests includes construction and development, finance, industry, mining, engineering, metallurgy, transport, and other spheres.
The World Bank has affirmed the forecast for growth of Ukraine’s GDP at 2.7% in 2019, World Bank Country Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine Satu Kahkonen has said.
In 2018, GDP growth was 3.3%, in 2019, the growth would slow down, she said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
Ukraine since the beginning of the 2018/2019 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of May 22, 2019 had exported 45.4 million tonnes of grain and leguminous plants, which is 26% more than on the same date of the previous MY.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, farmers exported 26.4 million tonnes of corn, 14.8 million tonnes of wheat, and 3.5 million tonnes of barley.
On the specified date, some 262,000 tonnes of flour had been also exported.
As reported, with reference to the ministry, Ukraine exported 39.4 million tonnes of grain in the 2017/2018 MY.
According to the ministry, grain exports in the 2018/2019 MY are projected to be 49 million tonnes.
