The Ukrainian Institute in Sweden has selected two promising young pianists to receive scholarships from the foundation of Swedish philanthropist Anders Wall.
“We are extremely grateful to Anders Wall for introducing the award for Ukrainian young musicians. As a pianist, I have always understood how important it is to lend a helping hand to young pianists at the beginning of their careers, especially Ukrainian pianists who have always “stuck” to Russian pianists, even repertoire-wise, because there were more opportunities there. Since 2017, when I began to be involved in the Horowitz Young Pianists Competition, I have given two Ukrainian pianists the opportunity to present themselves at various venues in Scandinavia. But this new prize certainly attracts much more attention and offers many more opportunities. Being noticed in the international environment, especially at the beginning of your career, is extremely important,” said Natalia Pasichnyk, director of the Ukrainian Institute in Sweden and concert pianist.
As part of its support for Ukraine, the Anders Wall’s Västerlöfsta Foundation has established an annual award of SEK 100,000 (approximately EUR 10,000) to support young Ukrainian pianists.
The first recipients of the Anders Wall’s Västerlöfsta Scholarship for Young Ukrainian Pianists are 19-year-old Roman Fedyurko from Kyiv and 21-year-old Anton Bondarenko from Zaporizhzhia.
“The purpose of the scholarships is to give promising Ukrainian talents more opportunities for further development in a very difficult time for Ukraine, but it is also a way to draw attention to and support Ukrainian culture. The war is largely about the Russian leadership denying the existence of a Ukrainian nation with its own culture,” said Charlotte Wall, chairman of the Westerlefst Church Music Foundation.
The scholarships will be awarded during a concert at Westerlevsta Church in Hebø on May 4. The concert will be a part of the program of the festival of Ukrainian culture “European Festival: Ukrainian Spring”, which will start in Sweden on April 24 and last for two weeks.
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Roman Fedyurko started studying piano at a music school in Kyiv at the age of five. In 2021, Roman won first prize at the Liszt Center’s online piano competition, the Wiener Klassiker online competition, and the Isidor Badji Piano Competition in Novi Sad, and received a scholarship for young artists from the President of Ukraine. In 2022, Roman won first prize at the Volodymyr Horowitz International Piano Competition.
Anton Bondarenko started studying music at the age of five in the Zaporizhzhia Music School. He became a laureate of several national and international piano competitions among young people, performed with the Zaporizhzhia Symphony Orchestra and the Kyiv State Symphony Orchestra. In 2017, he was awarded the title of “Artist of the Zaporizhzhia Philharmonic”. Anton is currently studying at the Academy of Music in the frontline city of Dnipro.
Since the beginning of 2024, JSC Ukrgasvydobuvannya (UGV) has launched its fourth high-performance well, with a daily flow rate of about 400 thousand cubic meters, the press service of Naftogaz of Ukraine Group reported on Wednesday.
According to the press service, thanks to the efficient work of Ukrburgaz specialists, the well was completed in just 105 days, which is 30% faster than the project schedule. During the work, a daily record was set for one team to drill 905 meters in 24 hours.
Specialists of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Natural Gases (UkrNDIGas), a part of the Naftogaz Group, correctly assessed the residual potential of the old field, successfully identified the well site and proved the high prospects of drilling in this area.
As reported, in 2023, UGV launched 86 new wells, including 24 with an initial flow rate of more than 100 thousand cubic meters. In January 2024, the company put into operation a well with a daily flow rate of 250 thousand cubic meters, and in February – two more new wells with a total daily flow rate of 550 thousand cubic meters.
In 2022, UGV produced 12.5 bcm of natural gas (commercial), which is 3% less than in 2021. In 2023, the company produced 13.224 bcm of commercial gas, which is 0.679 bcm more than in 2022.
NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine owns 100% of Ukrgasvydobuvannya shares.
In 2023, the State Service for Transport Safety (Ukrtransbezpeka) generated a record amount of revenues to the state budget – UAH 637 million, which is 3.1 times more than in 2022.
This was announced by the head of the service, Yevhen Zborovsky, at a press conference dedicated to the publication of Ukrtransbezpeka’s public report for the past year.
“These are record figures in the history of the State Service of Ukraine for Transport Safety. We can see a comparison with 2022… (in 2022, Ukrtransbezpeka generated UAH 205.1 million in budget revenues – IF-U),” the head of the service said.
He clarified that most of the amount is made up of fines and penalties. Last year, they were imposed for more than UAH 800 million.
The revenue figure is UAH 378 million from penalties imposed during raids. In particular, UAH 329 million from raid inspections involving freight transport and UAH 49 million from inspections involving transport engaged in freight transportation. In 2022, the amount of revenues amounted to UAH 111 million and UAH 10.5 million, respectively.
In addition, the budget received UAH 228 million in fines from auto-fixation of violations of dimensional and weight parameters recorded by Weight-in-Motion vehicle weighing systems.
Zborovsky noted that the UAH 637 million revenue figure is twice the amount allocated from the state budget for the maintenance of Ukrtransbezpeka, including salaries to employees.
The head of the service also noted that more violations were recorded last year, both in the freight and passenger transportation segments.
“In both situations, we see that there has been an increase in the number of violations detected. Indeed, compared to 2022, the country’s economy began to recover in 2023. The number of transportation began to grow, and at the same time, the number of violations increased,” Zborovsky said.
Ukrtransbezpeka also reported that the right to install wheel locks on vehicles and accompany them to the weight control point, which was granted last year, contributed to the increase in the efficiency of its work in 2023. Violations of weight and size parameters are recorded using WIM systems – 50 such systems have been installed in 20 regions, mostly on roads built in 2020-2021.
Changes in consolidated budget expenditures in 2021-2023 (%)
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Ukrainian manufacturer of individual reinforced concrete structures (RCS) company “Oberbeton”, which has a plant in Zhytomyr, will build a second plant for the production of large-size RCS on the territory of Mikulinetska municipality in Ternopil region, according to the municipality’s Facebook page.
According to the report, at the end of last week, the first working meeting of the investor’s representatives with the local community was held, where the production capacity and products of the future plant were presented.
In the near future it is planned to sign a memorandum and start preparatory and construction works at the site.
“For more than two years we, together with the investment office of the region, have been trying to attract both foreign and domestic investors to the community. The determining factor in the choice of our community by the investor was the availability of a land plot with developed infrastructure, capacity reserves, logistics, human resources,” – is noted in the message.
It is specified that the company-investor for a long time was looking for options for the construction of the second plant, and considered, in particular, the possibility of placement in Ternopil, Lviv, Volyn, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk regions.
“Thanks to such powerful investors, the total amount of direct investment in the region will increase by more than UAH 1 billion and more than 150 new jobs will be created. This is one of the largest investments in the Ternopil region,” the community said in a statement.
As expected, the average salary at the plant will be at least 20-22 thousand UAH.
Other parameters of the project are not given in the report, but it is noted that the products will be similar to those produced at the plant “Oberbeton-Invest” in Zhytomyr.
According to the information on the company’s website, the plant “Oberbeton-Invest”, built in 2008, is one of the largest enterprises in Ukraine, has a full range of equipment of leading European companies.
Among the implemented projects are shopping and shopping and entertainment complexes (including Novus supermarkets and Auchan hypermarket, Oasis shopping mall in Kiev, Epicenter construction hypermarkets in Kiev and Kherson), logistics and industrial facilities, residential and administrative complexes, agricultural enterprises.
Oberbeton-Invest LLC was registered in Zhytomyr in 2007 with authorized capital of UAH 433.78 mln, the owner of 100%, according to YouControl data, is Oberbeton Holdings Limited, registered in Cyprus, and the ultimate beneficiary is Yakov Filkenstein, an Israeli citizen.
The central office is located in Kiev.
According to the data of the system Klaritu, in January-September last year, Oberbeton-Invest LLC received 31.4 million UAH of net profit – 10% less than in the same period of 2022, while net income grew by 7% – to 213.5 million UAH.
At the same time, according to the company’s report on its website, in 2022 it reduced net profit by 9 times to pre-war 2021 – to 32.2 million UAH with net income falling by a third – to 259 million UAH.
By early 2023, the company employed more than 220 people.
Since the beginning of 2024, Ukraine has exported 3.7 million tons of cargo through the Danube ports, of which 2.5 million tons are grains and oil, said Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine, Minister of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development.
“Despite the record volumes of the Ukrainian Sea Corridor, the Danube ports have growth potential,” he said.
According to Kubrakov, in particular, the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company has started offering container delivery to the Danube ports of Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany and the Romanian port of Constanta, bypassing the border with Poland.
Interfax-Ukraine does not have comparative information on the volume of exports through Danube ports for the same period in 2023, but it is known that in February last year they handled 2.2 million tons of cargo, in March – 2.8 million tons, and for the whole year – 29 million tons.
The day before, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced Ukraine’s intention to expand the export capacity of the Danube cluster from 33 million tons of cargo in 2023 to 35-40 million tons.
