Ukrspecexport, part of the Ukroboronprom State Concern, and the Turkish company Baykar Defense are developing a next generation unmanned aerial vehicle Akinci.
“The new generation strike UAV Akinci is being developed in accordance with the requirements of armed conflicts of the 21st century and is intended primarily for both Turkish and Ukrainian armed forces. One of its main advantages is the ability to deliver high-precision strikes with the same weapons that are used on conventional airplanes. We are talking about heavy-duty ammunition weighing hundreds of kilograms,” Ukroboronprom’s press service said.
According to the state concern, this has become possible thanks to the use of Ukrainian engines, which provide greater carrying capacity, speed and flight altitude, economy and ease of operation.
Akinci refers to the new “heavy” class of drones. It is equipped with two Ukrainian-made engines that provide flight at an altitude of more than 12 km. The drone has a wingspan of 20 meters, is capable of lifting more than 1,000 kg of weapons into the air and being in flight for a day.
The drone is equipped with the most advanced surveillance systems from thermal imagers and powerful cameras to radars with an active phased antenna array and numerous sensors.
“All this allows us to reveal even well-camouflaged targets at a considerable distance, to transmit coordinates for destruction, or to independently launch high-precision strikes,” Ukroboronprom said.
Akinci’s weapons range includes guided missiles and various conventional and high-precision bombs. Such armament allows the drone to destroy enemy manpower and equipment, as well as to strike at important enemy targets – fortifications, command and communications centers, bridges, warehouses, etc.
As reported, in 2019 the state-owned company Ukrspecexport and the Turkish Baykar Defence, which is one of the leading manufacturers of drones, created a joint venture that specializes in high-precision weapons and aerospace technologies. The main task of the joint venture is to combine the capacities of the defense complexes of the two countries for the mass production of new models of modern weapons for their own armies. This will allow moving away from classic arms sales and purchase contracts to a fundamentally new level of cooperation. The cooperation will exploit synergies of defense technologies and a combination of advanced developments in Turkey and Ukraine.
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of August 22
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 22/08/19
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Retail trade turnover in Ukraine (legal entities and individual entrepreneurs) in January-July 2019 in comparable prices increased by 10.1% compared with January-July 2018, the State Statistics Service has said.
According to its data, in nominal terms the volume of retail trade for the seven months of this year amounted to UAH 594.314 billion.
In July 2019 compared with the previous month, retail trade turnover rose by 4.8%, in annual terms (July 2019 to July 2018) by 9%.
The largest growth in retail trade turnover in January-July 2019 compared to the same period in 2018 was recorded in Vinnytsia (18%), Ternopil (17%), Cherkasy (16.2%), Odesa (15%), Kyiv (by 14.5%), Khmelnytsky (by 13.4%), Dnipropetrovsk (by 12.5%), Donetsk (by 11.6%), Luhansk (by 11.3%) regions and in Kyiv (by 14%).
According to the statistics agency, the leaders in absolute terms of the volume of retail trade turnover for the seven months of 2019 were Kyiv city (UAH 115.506 billion), Dnipropetrovsk (UAH 47.1 billion), Odesa (UAH 45.353 billion), Kharkiv (UAH 44.846 billion), Kyiv (UAH 44.199 billion), and Lviv (UAH 36.425 billion) regions. In Donetsk region over this period, retail trade turnover rose by 10.3% (up to UAH 19.122 billion), in Luhansk region by 11.3% (up to UAH 5.425 billion).
Reserves of natural gas in Ukraine’s underground gas storage facilities (UGS) as of August 21 had reached 17.4 billion cubic meters (bcm), which is the highest figure on this date since 2012.
According to the press service of Ukrtransgaz, the high pace of the current year has already led to the fulfillment of planned volumes for injection at four underground storage facilities (Solokhovske, Krasnopartyzanske, Proletarske, Krasnopopivske).
Currently, gas injection continues at Bilche-Volytsko-Uherske, Uherske, Dashavske, Bohorodchanske, Oparske and Kehychivske underground gas storage facilities, where the average daily pumping is about 75 million cubic meters.
According to Ukrtransgaz, at the same time, more than 270 companies today use the services of the company to store gas in underground gas storage facilities both in a common mode and in a customs warehouse mode. Compared to last year, the number of such companies rose by 40%.
GAS, STOCKS, UGS, UKRTRANSGAZ
Ukraine in January-July 2019 decreased electricity exports by 2.3% (by 83.6 million kWh) compared to the same period in 2018, to 3.543 billion kWh, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry has told Interfax-Ukraine.
Electricity supplies from the Burshtyn TPP Energy Island in the direction of Hungary, Slovakia and Romania increased by 3.8% (by 86.9 million kWh), to 2.382 billion kWh.
Electricity supplies to Poland decreased by 9.2% (by 76.3 million kWh), to 755.6 million kWh.
Electricity supplies to Moldova amounted to 404.8 million kWh, which is 18.9% (94.1 million kWh) less than in January-July 2018.
For the seventh months of 2018 and 2019, Ukrainian electricity was not exported to Belarus and Russia.
In addition, for the aforementioned period Ukraine imported 15.9 million kWh of electricity from the Russian Federation and 0.7 million kWh from Belarus.
