According to the Interfax-Ukraine Culture project, Lviv-based sound engineer Volodymyr Punko received a Latin Grammy statuette for his work on the album Y El Canto de Todas, becoming the first Ukrainian sound engineer to win this award. The winner announced this on his Facebook page.
“It is an honor for me to say that I am the first sound engineer in Ukrainian history to receive such an award,” Volodymyr noted.
In the comments on the sound engineer’s post, friends, colleagues, and followers congratulated him on this historic victory, calling the award a well-deserved recognition of his many years of professional work and talent. Users wrote that they were proud of the Ukrainian’s achievement on the international stage, wished him new creative successes, and noted that Ukraine’s first Latin Grammy statuette in the field of sound engineering is a significant milestone for the entire Ukrainian music industry and further proof of its presence on the global cultural map.
The award was given for his participation in the creation of the album by Spanish guitarist Rafael Serrallet, recorded together with the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Lviv National Philharmonic under the direction of conductor Serhiy Khorovets. The album won in the “Best Instrumental Album” category.
According to the sound engineer, he was responsible for the entire sound production process—from recording to final mastering—working to combine orchestral precision with musical expressiveness.
The project brought together the musical traditions of Latin America, Spain, and academic symphonic performance. The album features orchestral interpretations of works by Latin American female composers, with the guitar playing a central role. The Latin Grammy Awards ceremony took place earlier in Las Vegas, though Punko himself was not present at the ceremony and received his award later.
The Latin Grammy Awards are one of the most prestigious international music awards, presented by The Latin Recording Academy for achievements in Latin American music.
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According to the Interfax-Ukraine Culture project, the 79th Cannes Film Festival has concluded in France, with the jury announcing the winners of the main competition program. The top prize—the “Palme d’Or”—went to the film Fjord by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu. This is the director’s second victory at Cannes following his triumph in 2007, reports the French publication Le Monde.
“This year has once again shown that cinema remains a way to talk about society, fears, and coexistence even in times of global tension,” Mungiu said during the awards ceremony.
The film “Fjord” marks the director’s English-language debut. The film tells the story of a Romanian family that moves to Norway and finds itself at the center of a conflict after social services intervene due to allegations of child neglect. The film explores the clash between traditional values and the modern European model of society. Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve starred in the lead roles.
The festival’s second most prestigious award—the Grand Prix—went to the film “Minotau” by Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev.
The Jury Prize went to the film The Dreamed Adventure by director Valeska Grisebach.
The jury split the award for Best Director between Paweł Pawlikowski for the film Fatherland and the creative duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrosi for the film The Black Ball.
Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto were named Best Actresses of the festival for their roles in the film All of a Sudden. The award for Best Actor was shared by Emmanuel Makia and Valentin Campagne for their work in the film Coward. The prize for Best Screenplay went to Emmanuel Marr for the film A Man of His Time.
This year’s festival took place against a backdrop of discussions about the role of cinema in times of war, political turbulence, and social change—these themes were among the key ones in the competition program.
https://interfax.com.ua/news/culture/1170680.html
The Board of Directors of the Astarta agricultural holding has decided not to recommend a dividend payout from profits for the 2025 fiscal year for consideration at the annual general meeting of shareholders, which will take place on June 16.
“The Board’s decision is based on the need to retain profits to meet the company’s current investment and operational needs,” the company said in a stock exchange announcement on Friday.
Astarta’s share price fell 5.64% on that day to PLN50.2 per share.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in seven regions of Ukraine and is the country’s largest sugar producer. The company’s portfolio includes five sugar factories, agricultural holdings with a land bank of 214,000 hectares (including 129,000 hectares in Poltava Oblast, 42,000 hectares in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, and 16,000 hectares in Vinnytsia Oblast), and dairy farms with 30,000 head of cattle. The holding also operates a soybean processing plant and a bioenergy complex in Poltava Oblast, as well as a network of six grain elevators.
Astarta’s net profit for 2025 fell 4.2-fold to $19.94 million, while consolidated revenue decreased by 23% to $472 million.
Ukraine plans to increase biomethane production to approximately 150 million cubic meters by 2026, and a production level of 500 million cubic meters is a realistic goal by 2030, according to a forecast by the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture following a meeting with the European Investment Bank
“Ukraine has significant resources for producing biomethane from agricultural waste, livestock byproducts, straw, and sugar beets, which meets European requirements for ‘green’ fuel,” Deputy Minister Taras Vysotsky is quoted as saying in a press release on the ministry’s website.
He emphasized that exports to the EU should become the main driver of market development. The Deputy Minister noted that in 2025, Ukrainian private producers exported over 11.2 million cubic meters of biomethane via Ukraine’s gas transmission system for the first time.
Among the key challenges, he cited integration into the European certification system and the creation of the necessary technical database.
Following the meeting, the parties agreed to continue coordinating their work and further developing priority areas of cooperation in the fields of land reclamation, water resource management, and the development of sustainable agricultural infrastructure, as well as the biomethane sector.
As reported, on April 23, 2026, the government approved the Biomethane Production Development Program for the period up to 2035, which calls for increasing production to 2.1 billion cubic meters over 10 years.
According to data from the “Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine” (GTSOU), as of early February 2026, the declared capacity of biomethane producers in Ukraine, based on issued technical specifications for connection to the gas transmission system, stood at 11,000 cubic meters per hour, which equaled 96 million cubic meters per year.
The European Commission may present legislative proposals as early as summer 2026 to restrict minors’ access to social media. This was announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen while speaking at a democracy summit in Copenhagen.
According to Reuters, von der Leyen said that the European Commission is stepping up measures to protect children from the “addictive design” of digital platforms, including TikTok, Meta, Facebook, Instagram, and X. She linked excessive social media use by teenagers to risks related to sleep, mental health, anxiety, cyberbullying, and other threats to young people.
However, this does not involve an immediate shutdown of social media platforms or a temporary suspension of their services for all users. Primary sources mention a possible “social media delay” for children, meaning a delay or restriction on the age at which minors can independently use social media. Euronews reports that the European Commission may present plans for a Europe-wide ban or age restriction for children as early as this summer.
The European Commission has already established a special panel of experts on children’s online safety. According to official EC documents, by the summer of 2026, the panel’s co-chairs are to present von der Leyen with recommendations on protecting children online, including possible harmonized age restrictions for access to social media and other online services.
Digital age verification will be a separate element of the future policy. In April 2026, the European Commission held the second meeting of the special panel, dedicated to current rules for protecting minors online and EU initiatives in this area. Reuters also reported that the EU has already developed an age verification app designed to help restrict children’s access to inappropriate content and services.
The new proposals could become part of a broader EU digital policy, including the Digital Services Act and the future Digital Fairness Act. The EU is currently investigating major platforms regarding the protection of minors, advertising transparency, researchers’ access to data, and the use of mechanisms designed to capture users’ attention.
Agricultural production in Ukraine increased by 1.7% in January–April 2026 compared to the same period last year, while growth for the first three months stood at 1.2%, according to the State Statistics Service (SSS).
According to the published data, the positive trend was driven exclusively by the livestock sector, as crop production data is not traditionally compiled until June.
The main driver of growth was agricultural enterprises, which increased production volumes by 10.5%. The best performance in this sector over the four-month period was demonstrated by Chernivtsi (+32.2%), Donetsk (30.8%), Zakarpattia (30.0%), and Lviv (29.4%) regions, while a decline in performance was recorded in four regions: Kherson (by 35.4%), Sumy (by 7.6%), Vinnytsia (by 3.6%), and Mykolaiv (by 3%).
In private households, the decline in production remained at the first-quarter level—15.7%. The largest declines in the private sector were observed in Donetsk (67%), Zakarpattia (48.4%), and Ternopil (35.9%) regions.
A slight increase in private households was recorded in only two regions—Kyiv (1.0%) and Odesa (0.1%).
As reported, by the end of 2025, agricultural production in Ukraine had decreased by 6.8% compared to 2024. In January 2026, growth of 3.2% was recorded, but for the period January–February, it slowed to 1.7%.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION, AGRICULTURE, livestock farming, State Statistics Service
