The coronavirus epidemic has had a serious impact on the global economy and the travel business in particular. According to forecasts, Ukrainian tourists will have an opportunity to travel safely as soon as the quarantine comes to an end and flight connection is resumed.
The world’s largest tour operator ANEX Tour says that it is already preparing summer tour packages.
“We are ready to ensure high-quality services, safety and the best prices. Today active preparations for the 2021 summer season are underway. Sales of tours to Maldives, Mexico, and Vietnam have started. For the 2020-2021 winter season we together with our airline company Azur Air Ukraine are planning to launch new direct flights to a lot of very popular destinations which have never been offered in Ukraine. Also, we are planning additional flights for October due to a very high demand for the destinations we used to offer before. Thus, we have much more chances to extend the number of destinations for Ukrainian travelers,” Director General of ANEX Tour Ukraine Ilker Adiguzel said.
Structure of import of services in 2019 (graphically)
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has praised the adoption in Ukraine of laws on the sale of land and deregulation of the banking sector and assured that Ukraine can count on solidarity from Germany and the EU during the negative impact of the pandemic on the economies of the countries.
“I congratulate you that you have managed to agree with the IMF, that there is a law on the sale of land, that Ukraine is deregulating the banking sector, that is, it continues to follow the path of reform. This is a strong signal, not only political for all international partners, and it’s a sign for the European economy that Ukraine continues to put into effect important reforms, continues to reform the judiciary and implements the recommendations of the Venice Commission,” said Maas at a press conference after talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Berlin on Tuesday.
The German Foreign Minister noted that there are great economic challenges in connection with the pandemic, but Ukraine can count on solidarity from Germany and the EU. “For me, this has become clear from conversations with European colleagues. I want to emphasize this that the macroeconomic assistance from the EU and also the assistance from our side that we provided to Ukraine emphasize it. In this way we can reduce the negative effect from a pandemic in the economic and medical sector,” added the minister.
In turn, Kuleba thanked Maas for his positive assessment of Ukrainian reforms.
“I want to confirm that Ukraine is determined to continue to change, to introduce the best European standards, to carry out those transformations that will allow us to build a strong economically successful democratic Ukraine, which is part of a European family,” the Ukrainian FM emphasized.
In 2019, the family of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky sold the UAH 246,144 worth corporate rights to all 12 Ukrainian enterprises to the family of first assistant to the head of state Serhiy Shefir.
“In the spring of 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky got rid of the shares in Green Family Ltd, as well as all four brand names registered in the Russian Federation. He also got rid of corporate rights to Vilhar Holdings Limited and Aldorante Limited foreign companies,” the president’s press service said on Saturday, May 30.
Zelensky continues to be the owner of a large number of trademarks. Thus, in 2019, two Sluha Narodu trademarks (the Servant of the People) were registered in his name.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) evaluated several trademarks in 2019. According to its report, the cost of Vechirniy Kvartal (Evening Quarter) brand name was UAH 45.81 million. The cost of Rozsmishy Komika (Make Comedian Laugh) brand name was UAH 14.65 million.
“Based on the assessment, Volodymyr Zelensky received royalties from the use of the brand names in the amount of UAH 5.048 million, so his income increased compared to the previous year,” the president’s press service said.
Some UAH 567,875 was spent to pay for consulting services of PwC.
According to the declaration of the presidential candidate of Ukraine submitted by Zelensky in January 2019, at that time he owned 99.99% of the corporate rights to Studio Kvartal-95 LLC (another 0.01% was owned by Olena Zelenska), some 18% to Studio Kvartal-95 LLC, some 100% of the corporate rights to Kinokvartal LLC, some 18.75% to Kvartal-Concert LLC, some 12.5% to Kvartal TV LLC, some 16.7% to producer center Liha Smihu LLC, and some 22.5% to Animation Studio-95 LLC.
He also owned 12.5% of Invest-Anima LLC, some 13% of Gaudi Studio LLC, and some 15% of Fish House LLC (restaurant business).
Olena Zelenska owned another 25% of Zelari Fish LLC (processing and preserving, trade in fish, crustaceans and mollusks).
Zelensky was the ultimate beneficial owner of Kinokvartal LLC, Studio Kvartal-95 LLC, Aldorante Limited (Cyprus), Vilhar Holdings Limited (Cyprus), Film Heritage Inc. (Belize), San Tommaso S.R.L. (Italy), and Megiritano Ventures Ltd (British Virgin Islands).
Olena Zelenska was the ultimate beneficiary of Studio Kvartal-95 LLC, Zelari Fish LLC, Aldorante Limited (Cyprus), Film Heritage Inc. (Belize), and San Tommaso S.R.L. (Italy).
Since 2012 Zelensky had been a shareholder of Megiritano Ventures Ltd (British Virgin Islands) and, together with his wife, they were shareholders of Aldorante Limited (Cyprus), since 2008, he had been a shareholder of Vilhar Holdings Limited (Cyprus).
Later he also filled the declaration with information that since May 28, 2012 he had been a shareholder of Green Family Ltd (Nicosia, Cyprus), which at that time owned the Russian company Green Films. There was information on January 24, 2019 that Zelensky withdrew from Green Family Ltd.
The RDS group of road construction companies annually congratulates children from needy families on World Children’s Day.
This year more than 50 multi-child families and children with disabilities registered at the Prymorsky territorial social services center in Odesa received gifts on World Children’s Day, the co-founder of the group, Yevhen Konovalov, said.
He noted that the company could not organize its annual concert for children due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Therefore it decided to present its young care recipients with sweets and tickets to the dolphin show valid until the end of the quarantine.
RDS Group is one of the top three road construction companies of Ukraine. It includes Kyivshliakhbud and Rostdorstroy. Its core business is construction, modernization and maintenance of roads and bridges, construction of airfield complexes.
As of April 2020, the company operates in eight regions of Ukraine and has ten production facilities.
Today the group carries out the repairs of the N-21 highway in Luhansk region within the Big Construction program. A part of the road connecting Severodonetsk and Stanytsia Luhanska is the only entry point to the temporarily occupied territory of Donbas. The company is also building concrete road N-31 Dnipro-Reshetylivka in Poltava region and overhauls the N-14 Kropyvnytsky-Mykolaiv highway.
The RDS group of road construction companies is also implementing a project financed by the World Bank for repairs of the M-03 Kyiv-Kharkiv-Dovzhansky highway.
The ultimate beneficial owners of RDS are Ukrainian citizens Yuriy Shumakher and Yevhen Konovalov.
The volume of construction work in Ukraine in April 2020 decreased by 16.1% compared to April 2019, while in March 2020 it decreased by 12.8% compared to March 2019. The State Statistics Service said that the volume of construction work amounted to UAH 36.2 billion from the beginning of 2020. In general, this indicator decreased by 8.7% in January-April 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.
According to the service, the indicator decreased by 4.1% in April compared to March (according to seasonally adjusted data, it decreased by 2.8%), while in March this figure fell by 1.8% compared to February.
The State Statistics Service said that in April 2020 from April 2019, the volume of work decreased in all sectors of construction. Thus, according to unadjusted data, the decrease in volumes of residential construction amounted to 28.9%, in nonresidential construction was12.1%, in building the engineering structures amounted to 12.6%.
The share of new construction of the total volume of finished construction works amounted to 45.3%, repairs to 27.1%, reconstruction and technical re-equipment to 27.6%.
In January-April 2020, compared with the same period in 2019, an increase in the volume of construction work was recorded in Chernihiv (by 38.3%, to UAH 499.6 million), Rivne (by 7.9%, to UAH 521 million), Lviv (by 5.1%, to UAH 2.63 billion), Kyiv (by 4.8%, to UAH 2.23 billion), Ternopil (by 3.5%, to UAH 519.5 million) and Mykolaiv (by 0.3%, to UAH 766.1 million) regions. In the remaining 18 regions and Kyiv city, a decrease in the volume of construction work was recorded, in particular, in Kirovohrad by 44.9%, to UAH 298.6 million, Vinnytsia by 33.3%, to UAH 1.28 billion, and Zhytomyr by 20.6%, to UAH 399.5 million. In Kyiv city, the volume of construction work done during this period decreased by 8.7% and amounted to UAH 8.91 billion.
The data are given excluding the occupied territory of Crimea and the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
