BAE Systems, one of the world’s largest suppliers of technological solutions in the field of defense and a manufacturer of weapons, has opened an office in Kyiv. This was announced by BAE Systems Ukraine CEO Christian Seear at the conference “Global Outlook: A Winning Vision on Wednesday.
He added that the company has set up a joint venture with a local partner, plans to repair military equipment, and later establish its own production base.
“We recently established a legal entity in Ukraine, BAE Systems Ukraine LLC, which is an operating trading company in Ukraine. We have an office in Kyiv. I’m proud to say that we are one of the first companies to do this,” said Christian Sayre.
According to him, BAE Systems is focused on moving its repair capabilities to Ukraine.
“We have a phased process in which we will do repairs on Ukrainian soil, and in the future we will move to local production. We have teamed up with a local partner to achieve this goal,” said the CEO of BAE Systems Ukraine.
He also noted that the company is “committed to creating an industrial base” in Ukraine.
BAE Systems is a global British company with subsidiaries in the United States and Sweden. The weapons supplied by the company are being used to destroy the enemy in Ukraine, including the CV90 infantry fighting vehicle, 155-mm FH77 BW L52 “Archer” multi-purpose self-propelled artillery system, M109 self-propelled howitzer, M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, 55-mm Excalibur long-range precision guided rocket and BONUS precision-guided munitions.
“I’m sure many of our friends in this room have seen the enemy destroyed by these weapons,” said Christian Seear.
Earlier it was reported that the British military company Babcock opened an office in Kyiv.
The State Enterprise “Horse Breeding of Ukraine” will expand the sale of horses in Ukraine and abroad, as well as focus on popularization of Ukrainian horse breeding, the State Property Fund (SPF) said on Facebook.
“It is important that the SE team clearly understands: to develop, it is necessary to use new modern approaches to the technology of keeping and breeding breeding horses and building an effective business model. That is why the enterprise is being actively renewed”, – emphasized Vitaliy Koval, Chairman of FGI.
According to the Fund, currently the SE “Horse Breeding of Ukraine” includes 10 stud farms, three breeding horse breeding centers and a hippodrome. The total number of horses is 1717. Due to the armed aggression of Russia four stud farms with 561 horses are under occupation. Breeding work is carried out with five breeds – Ukrainian riding horse, thoroughbred riding horse, Novoaleksandrovsk truck, Oryol trotter and prize trotter.
“GP’s breeders are in demand both in Ukraine and abroad. We popularize and promote the Ukrainian riding breed on the sport market. In the private sector, the Novo-Olekvandrovskaya paddlewheel breed is in demand. All assets in horse breeding (riding, trotting, vesovoznoe) we must not only preserve, but also make competitive on world markets and auctions,” – said the head of the production department of SE “Horse Breeding of Ukraine” Lesya Tkachenko, quoted in the message.
As reported, the Government of Ukraine in December 2010 reorganized not subject to privatization horse-breeding state enterprises in SE “Horse Breeding of Ukraine”. Before the beginning of the war in its permanent use was 54.1 thousand hectares of agricultural land, of which – 43.5 thousand hectares of arable land.
The SE “Horse breeding of Ukraine” included “Dnepropetrovsk stud farm #65”, “Zaporozhye stud farm #86”, “Alexandria stud farm #174”, “Onufrievsk stud farm #175”, “Limarovsk stud farm #61”, “Derkulsk stud farm #63”, “Novoalexandrovsk Horse Breeding Farm No. 64”, “Dibrovsk Horse Breeding Farm No. 62”, “Lozova Horse Breeding Farm No. 124”, “Odessa State Agricultural Hippodrome” and Kyiv Regional Enterprise for Breeding in Animal Husbandry”.
In addition, the new enterprise included “Streltsy Horse Breeding Farm No. 60”, “Pivdenkonecenter”, “Western State Regional Research and Production Breeding and Technology Center for horse breeding, state breeding stud farm “Olympic”, Lviv Hippodrome, Migoshchansky State Hippodrome, “Yaholnitsky Horse Breeding Farm”.
Ukrainian corn is sold cheaper than American and Argentine corn by $20/ton on world markets, which is an abnormal distortion and leads to the restraint of sales by Ukrainian farmers, according to the analytical cooperative “Start”, created within the framework of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council (AAC).
“Ukraine actively trades corn, significant volumes have already been contracted in January-February. Market operators fear that the supply of corn from Argentina will increase on the world market and the conditions for the sale of Ukrainian grain will deteriorate,” analysts said, adding that prices on CIF terms have fallen sharply, as the supply of Ukrainian corn is high and the demand for it is low.
According to the experts, Ukrainian corn is traded conditionally at $200-210/ton on the European markets, while corn originating from the USA is traded at $220/ton.
“The gap of $20/ton is abnormally large. Ukrainian corn is too cheap on the world markets compared to its American and Argentine counterparts, and there are no objective reasons for such an imbalance,” the UAC believes.
At the same time, the CPT market is not yet active in terms of trade, many farmers are holding back corn and do not want to sell it at low prices. In Odesa ports, CPT prices are in the range of $147-155/ton, and in small ports on the Danube – $150-155/ton.
Large market players have paused in corn trading, while small and medium-sized traders are active on the market. As prices on CPT terms are so low that they make corn trading unprofitable for the average farmer, many farmers are ready to postpone corn sales until summer or even postpone them to the next season. And although Ukraine has significant corn stocks – about 17 million tons – the amount available for sale is an open question, the UAC summarized.
Scania Ukraine has delivered six 30-ton dump trucks to construction company Express Tekhbud, the distribution company reported on Facebook.
“It is not so often that construction equipment is ordered now, so yesterday’s delivery of 6 Scania dump trucks to Express Techbud was a significant event for us,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to Scania Ukraine, cooperation with Express Techbud began in 2021, when the first 10 units of equipment were purchased.
“Currently, the client’s fleet includes 16 Scania P380B8x4HZ Euro5 dump trucks with a Scania P380B8x4HZ body (body heating, Hardox steel) with a technical carrying capacity of 30 tons,” the statement said.
The value of the contract was not disclosed.
Scania Ukraine, a distribution company with foreign investments, has been operating in the Ukrainian market since 1998 and in 2023 became the leader in Ukraine in the segment of trucks with a gross vehicle weight of more than 3.5 tons with sales of 710 vehicles (twice as many as in 2022).
According to opendatabot, in 2022, the company’s revenue amounted to UAH 1.65 billion (14.5% less than a year earlier), while net profit increased by 10.6% to UAH 91.38 million.
Express Techbud LLC is an industrial and transport company established in 2016 that specializes in road construction, transport logistics, building dismantling, drilling and blasting, and the extraction and production of granite crushed stone.
According to its website, the company owns three granite quarries in Ukraine. Its fleet of vehicles includes more than 300 dump trucks and 80 units of special equipment.
In 2022, according to opendatabot, its revenue amounted to UAH 338.28 million and its loss was UAH 3.3 million.
More than UAH 97 million transferred to the account of the Ministry of Economy to finance humanitarian demining activities within the United24 platform will be used to purchase demining equipment, the press service of the Ministry of Economy reports.
“These funds will be distributed between the State Emergency Service and the State Special Transport Service for the following purposes,” the statement said.
In particular, to help the SSTS purchase a heavy-duty remote mechanized demining machine (analogous to MV-10).
Also for the purchase of 400 protective fences and 400 protective aprons for humanitarian deminers for the SES.
To purchase two truck tractors for the SES to transport remote mechanized demining vehicles.
For the purchase of three armored pyrotechnic vehicles of light type for the transportation of explosive devices for the SES.
It is reported that Deputy Minister of Economy Ihor Bezkaravaynyi also addressed the applicants with a proposal to continue to emphasize the purchase of domestically produced equipment.
The number of declarations mentioning cryptocurrencies is growing from year to year. More than 1,400 such declarations were filed in 2022. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether are the most popular among Ukrainian officials. For example, in 2022, one of the Ukrainian MPs declared 121 bitcoins worth over UAH 195 million.
Ukrainian officials filed 1428 declarations with cryptocurrency assets in 2022. This is almost twice as many as in 2021: back then, crypto appeared in 788 declarations.
In the 2021 declarations, the most popular cryptocurrencies among Ukrainian officials were Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), and others. In 2022, the top positions did not change radically: Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) were still in demand, and Tether (USDT) joined the top three.
Which Ukrainian officials declared the most cryptocurrency?
First of all, it is worth noting that the declarants submit their assets both in hryvnia equivalent and simply by indicating the number of cryptocurrency units in their possession.
Bitcoins / Bitcoin (BTC)
In 2021, the largest amount of bitcoin was declared by Anna Pozdnyakova, Director of the Odesa City Heat Supply Utility, which amounted to UAH 53 million. A year later, Deputy Head of the Dnipro Regional State Administration Sergiy Karpenko took over the top spot. He owns bitcoins equivalent to UAH 41 million.
The largest amount of bitcoins in 2022 – 121 BTC – was declared by Mykyta Kuzkevych, a deputy of the Odesa Regional Council. In hryvnia equivalent, at the time of publication, this is more than UAH 195 million.
Ethereum (ETH)
Serhii Karpenko, the official from Dnipropetrovs’k region who declared the largest amount of bitcoins, has also been the record holder for the amount of ethereum for two years in a row. In his declarations for 2021 and 2022, the official noted that he had the same amount of equivalent for this cryptocurrency – UAH 14.6 million.
Crypto dollars / Tether (USDT)
Vitaliy Brovko, Deputy Head of the Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, declared the most crypto dollars or stablecoins in 2021 – 774,500 units. The same official holds the record for the largest amount in equivalent – UAH 20 million.
The official also held the top spot among the declarants for 2022. The number of crypto dollars in his possession did not change, but their value increased to more than UAH 29 million.
At the same time, the largest amount of crypto dollars/stablecoins was declared by Maksym Kyselyov, Director of the State Enforcement Service Department of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, who earned UAH 25 million.
The biggest losses in crypto
It is also worth noting that there are several officials who have declared their crypto assets but have indicated that they have lost access to them.
380.95 bitcoins, a record amount among Ukrainian officials, were declared and lost by Roman Saramaga, Deputy Head of the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine, in 2021. In hryvnia terms, at the time of publication, this is about UAH 615 million.
The largest amount of ethereum – 1,800 units or more than UAH 160 million – belongs to Ihor Osipov, a deputy of the Podil District Council of Odesa Oblast. In 2021 and 2022, the official stated in his declarations that he had lost access to cryptocurrency.
“Having analyzed a large number of declarations, first of all, it is worth noting their poor quality. It seems that officials spend 5 minutes on declarations on the last day of submission. Despite the fact that there is already a special section where it is necessary to indicate assets in crypto, almost all crypto holdings are filled in differently, with errors and in different parts of the declarations.
Overall, the statistics show that ownership of such an opaque asset as cryptocurrency is not something risky or suspicious for officials. After all, the number of such officials has almost doubled over the past two years,” comments Oleksiy Ivankin, founder of Opendatabot.
Context.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the mandatory verification of officials’ declarations has been temporarily canceled. Despite this, the obligation of officials to report on their property status and changes in it has not been canceled.
Last fall, the verification of declarations was resumed. Therefore, Ukrainian officials had to catch up with the previous period (2021 and 2022) by the end of January 2024.
The deadline for submitting declarations for 2023 remains the same – April 2024.
As a reminder, you can check your MP’s declaration using the Opendatabot. To do this, add the OpenDataBot to your favorite messenger and enter the name of the official.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/crypto-officials-2022
Bitcoins, CRYPTOCURRENCY, cryptocurrency assets, CryptoDollars, Ethereum
