Presidential candidate of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky offers to lift immunity from the country’s president, parliamentarians and judges by one law.
“Let it sound in a populist way, but no one offered or read in the programs of other candidates the following: stripping immunity from the president, deputies and judges. It is advisable that all this should be consolidated in one law,” he said in the “Interview with the presidential candidate” program on ICTV.
Zelensky pointed out that the Verkhovna Rada can lift immunity from the president, but block its withdrawal from deputies.
Responding to the comment that the immunity of deputies and the president is written into the Constitution of Ukraine, and the immunity of judges is a “slightly different” issue, Zelensky responded: “Our legal experts and lawyers are already preparing this bill. We’ll see.”
The Agroliga group of companies (Kharkiv region) saw EUR 5.75 million in net profit in 2018, which is 38.2% more than in 2017.
According to a report of the holding company of the group – Agroliga Group Plc – on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), revenue slightly fell, to EUR 21.65 million.
Gross profit last year rose by 1.7%, to EUR 6.06 million and operating profit – by 44.9%, to EUR 5.98 million.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew 1.6-fold, to EUR 7.01 million. Net debt increased 2.1-fold, to EUR 11.01 million.
Assets expanded 1.7-fold, reaching EUR 42.19 million as of December 31, 2019.
Agroliga has been operating on the Ukrainian agricultural market since 1992. Its enterprises are engaged in growing grain crops, processing sunflower seeds, and dairy farming.
The group cultivates about 10,000 hectares of land.
The majority shareholders of the group are Oleksandr Berdnyk with a share of 41.66%, and Iryna Poplavska with 41.66%.
The European light launch vehicle (LV) Vega with a Ukrainian engine has successfully placed in orbit Italy’s Earth remote sensing satellite PRISMA.
According to the press release of the Pivdenne (Yuzhnoye) Design Bureau, the satellite aboard Vega LV lifted off the European spaceport of Kourou (French Guiana) at 0350 on March 22, 2019. This was the fourteenth launch under the Vega program and the first in 2019.
PRISMA spacecraft with 879 kg weight is a small satellite of the Italian Space Agency (ASI). PRISMA is equipped with an innovative electro-optical instrumentation. The instrument is able to work in numerous, narrow and contiguous bands arranged from the visible to the near infrared (VNIR, Visible and Near InfraRed) and up to the infrared shortwave (SWIR, Short Wave InfraRed). The mission will help in monitoring agricultural activities, water resources and studying main environmental processes. PRISMA began a five-year operational mission.
The Vega was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) in cooperation with the Italian Space Agency (ASI). It is intended for launching into a solar-synchronous orbit with a height of 1,200 km satellites weighing up to 1,200 kg or into a polar orbit with a height of 700 km satellites weighing up to 1,500 kg.
The propulsion engine for the 4th stage of the PH RD-868P was developed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and manufactured the Yuzhmash PO (both from Dnipro, Ukraine). According to the developer, the new liquid engine is based on the intercontinental ballistic missile carrier (ICBM) RS-20.
A successful test run of the Vega rocket was carried out in February 2012. Since May 2013, ESA has begun commercial operation of the new launch vehicle. Some 30 satellites have been launched into orbit for customers.
In July 2017, Ukrainian participants in the Vega program cooperation extended the contract signed in 2012 with a European contractor – Italian Avio SpA – for the supply of production engines for the Vega rocket until 2020.
The government of Ukraine and the ESA signed an agreement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space in 2008.
The structure of the ESA includes 17 European countries.
Ukraine is currently preparing the creation of an information hub for the implementation of the cooperation agreement with the EU signed in May 2018 in the European space monitoring program Copernicus.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with resolution No. 133 dated March 6, 2019 approved the consolidated financial plan of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia, taking into account the indexation of cargo transportation tariffs by 14.2% from April 1, 2019, the automated indexation of regulated tariffs for transportation of cargo and related services from May 1 by 2.5%, from August by 5% and from November 1 by 7.5%.
According to an explanatory note to the financial plan posted on the website of Ukrzaliznytsia, it also provides for quarterly indexation of prices for unregulated goods (labor and services) by the industrial price index, which will enable the company to hedge currency risks in its loan portfolio. Also, the unification of tariff classes is taken into account in the calculation of income from freight traffic in 2019.
A total of 331 million tonnes of cargo is planned to be transported in 2019, which is 4.8% less than planned for 2018. As a result, revenues from the transportation of goods are projected at UAH 83.991 billion, which is UAH 12 billion (or 16.7%) more than in the 2018 plan.
In 2019, Ukrzaliznytsia plans to transport 201 million passengers, which corresponds to the planned figures for 2018. Revenues from passenger transportation are planned at UAH 10.14 billion, which is UAH 1.64 billion (or 19.3%) more than the plan for 2018.
An increase in tariffs for these services from April 1, by an average of 13-21%, depending on the category of train and the type of car, will contributed to the growth of income from passenger transportation will ensure.
Expenses on the implementation of transportation services, which make up 82.5% of the expenditure part of the financial plan, are planned in the amount of UAH 84.68 billion, which is UAH 9.49 billion (or 12.6%) more than the plan for 2018. Their increase is expected thanks to the growth in traffic volumes, higher prices for material resources, and an increase in labor costs.
In addition, the financial plan takes into account the increase in land tax expenses in connection with the abolition of 0.25% privilege for the use of land parcels.
Also, the draft financial plan for 2019 envisages borrowings in the amount of UAH 49.4 billion, and the payment of loans in the amount of UAH 44.4 billion. As of January 1, 2019, the balance of financial obligations is expected to be UAH 37.3 billion (with the exchange rate of UAH 27.70/$1), at the end of the year the balance is planned to be UAH 43.9 billion (with the exchange rate of UAH 29.40/$1).
“The increase in the loan portfolio of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia at the end of 2019 is influenced by the exchange rate difference between the U.S. dollar and hryvnia at the beginning and the end of 2019: a rise by UAH 1.70,” Ukrzaliznytsia said in the document.
In addition, income from writing off property of Ukrzaliznytsia is planned in the amount of UAH 2.62 billion.
The company’s net profit in 2019 is projected at UAH 4.52 billion, which is UAH 3.81 billion (six times) more than the plan for 2018.
“The growth of the company’s profitability is thanks, first of all, to the introduction of the procedure for writing off property, the indexation of tariffs for transportation and cost optimization,” the company said in the explanatory note to the document.
In addition, according to the financial plan, Ukrzaliznytsia in 2019 intends to increase earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by 25.4%, to UAH 25.048 billion, EBITDA margin by 1.8 percentage points compared with the plan for 2018.
The draft plan for 2019 provides for capital investments in the amount of UAH 18.02 billion. In particular, it is planned to purchase and manufacture the rolling stock for a total amount of UAH 5.08 billion – 2,153 railcar cars (including 2,150 gondola cars at the expense of the EBRD), and also to purchase 15 main-line diesel freight locomotives from General Electric for UAH 1.57 billion in financial leasing.
Ukraine as of March 21, 2019 sowed early spring grain and leguminous crops on 723,500 ha out of 2.3 million ha planned.
According to a posting on the website of the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry, early crops are being sowed in 19 regions of Ukraine.
The ministry said that spring barley is sowed on 517,000 ha (33% of the target), wheat – on 44,000 ha (25%), peas – on 140,000 ha (40%) and millet – on 23,000 ha (12%).
Input of fertilizers for winter crops continues: it is completed on 6.6 million ha (88% of the target).
As reported, referring to the ministry, the gross grain harvest in Ukraine in 2018 amounted to about 70.1 million tonnes compared to 62 million tonnes in 2017.
