The Falcon 9 launch vehicle on Saturday put into orbit a batch of 21 mini-satellites to replenish the orbital constellation of the Starlink system’s global Internet coverage network, developer SpaceX said.
“On Saturday, February 8 at 2:18 p.m. ET (9:18 p.m. Kiev time), a Falcon 9 rocket launched 21 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, including 13 with direct cellular access capability,” the company said in a statement on its website.
The rocket was launched from the 40th launch complex of the U.S. Space Force base at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
As part of the launch, the first reusable stage of the launch vehicle, which was used for the 17th time, made a controlled vertical landing on the offshore drone platform A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic after separation.
Since May 2019, SpaceX has already launched more than 7,800 such satellites as part of the Starlink project. Some of them failed or went out of orbit. More than 6.9 thousand vehicles are in orbit in working condition.
SpaceX is the largest satellite operator in the world. Starlink Internet network is available to users in 75 countries, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. According to the Pentagon, the services of these satellites are also actively used by the U.S. military.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga has invited foreign ambassadors who speak Ukrainian to an informal meeting at the diplomatic residence.
“Today gathered in the diplomatic residence of foreign ambassadors who speak Ukrainian. Our sign of respect to those who treat with respect to us. I am grateful to the heads of diplomatic missions for the conversation about the popularization of our culture, as well as a just world,” he wrote in social network X.
From the country flags attached to the post, it can be understood that the heads of diplomatic missions of such countries as Azerbaijan, Canada, Croatia, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Vatican, Latvia, Montenegro, the Palestinian Territories, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Algeria, Bulgaria and Poland were invited.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview aboard Air Force One that he wants to strike a $500 million deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on access to rare earth minerals and natural gas in Ukraine in exchange for security guarantees in any potential peace settlement, The New York Post reported Saturday.
According to the publication, also present on the plane was national security adviser Mike Waltz, addressing whom Trump said: “Let’s keep these meetings going. They want to meet. People are being killed every day. Young beautiful soldiers are being killed. Young men like my sons. On both sides. All over the battlefield.”
It is noted that Vice President Vance will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference next week.
Trump said he spoke on the phone with Vladimir Putin in an attempt to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
“I’d rather not talk,” Trump said when asked how many times the two leaders had spoken. But he believes Putin “cares” about killing on the battlefield.
The shareholders of PrJSC “Production Association ‘Stalkanat’ (Odesa) intend to allocate UAH 60 million 511,837 thousand for dividends at the rate of UAH 0.58 per share from the profit for 2024, and leave the rest as retained earnings.
This issue is included in the agenda of the general meeting of shareholders scheduled for March 10 this year in remote mode.
However, no profit figures for 2024 are provided.
The shareholders plan to review the CEO’s report for 2024 and determine the main areas of activity in 2025. They will also consider the report of the Supervisory Board for the previous year, the conclusions of the audit report of the auditor, and approve measures based on the results of the report review.
It is also planned to approve the results of financial and economic activities for 2024, make a decision on the distribution of profits for the past year, and approve the annual report.
As reported, in 2023, Stalkanat reduced its net profit by 13.8% year-on-year to UAH 280.060 million from UAH 325.073 million. Retained earnings at the end of the year amounted to UAH 373.626 million.
“Stalkanat is one of the largest producers of steel ropes and reinforcing strands in Eastern Europe and a leader in the production of hardware products in Ukraine.
According to the third quarter of 2024, David Nemyrovsky holds a 50% stake, Anton Mikhalenko – 23.7%, and Maria Kondratyuk – 23.1%. Earlier, the company reported that an individual, Vitaliy Dubovich, owned 3.199998% of its shares.
The authorized capital of Stalkanat currently amounts to UAH 17.736 million, with a share price of UAH 0.17.
Over the past seven days, 4,696 newborns have been officially registered in Ukraine. As reported in the telegram channel of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, 2,108 of the newborns are boys, and 1,961 are girls.
As reported, last year in 2024, 176,679 babies were born in Ukraine, which averaged less than 3,400 per week. The birth rate in Ukraine in 2024 was 5.8% lower than in 2023, when 187.3 thousand children were born.
Analysts from Concorde Capital, ICU and state-owned Oschadbank, as well as expert Eric Naiman, interviewed byInterfax-Ukraine, said that the sharp rise in prices for Ukrainian stocks and Eurobonds on Thursday of this week was due to speculative demand amid news of a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
“There was speculative demand for Ukrainian assets – Eurobonds and stocks – in the hope of an early truce. The very fact of its signing (if and when it happens) is likely to be the peak of prices,” commented Nayman.
Oleksandr Parashchiy, head of the analytical department at Concorde Capital, said that the situation with the active growth of Ukrainian asset prices “looks like a misunderstanding”.
“Obviously, they are buying up everything Ukrainian amid speculation about an imminent peace. The funniest (or saddest) thing is that since the beginning of the year, shares of companies whose assets are entirely located in Luhansk and Donetsk regions have grown the most: “Agroton – +51%, Coal Energy – 57%,” he said.
Sergiy Shvets, Head of the Investment Department of Oschadbank, noted that in general, Ukrainian companies demonstrate good financial results, which is reflected in revenue growth. The expert believes that the upward trend in prices is natural.
“However, I don’t see any reason for a sharp rise in stocks this week. Except, perhaps, for optimistic expectations of a super quick end to the war,” Shvets concluded.
Vitaliy Sivach, a trader at ICU Group, also attributed this week’s rise in Ukrainian stocks on the Warsaw Stock Exchange to the growing likelihood of a peace agreement with Russia, which the market took as a signal.
“If a peace deal is indeed reached, it will be a powerful catalyst for all Ukrainian assets. We are already seeing a rally in sovereign bonds, as the market has been expecting this scenario for a long time – since Trump was elected president. As a result, Ukrainian assets have been growing for three months in a row,” Sivach comments.
He assesses the probability of the deal as high and believes that if it happens, Ukrainian stocks will rise under the influence of several factors: increased company revenues and revised market valuations.
“First, the discount due to military risks will disappear. Secondly, growing revenues will allow the market to pay a premium for such assets. That is why we are now witnessing active growth, and in a favorable scenario, WIG-Ukraine can easily rise to 600 points. If everything calms down on the battlefield, everything will depend on the developments after the elections, but 600 points is far from the ceiling,” Sivach said.
For his part, ICU financial analyst Mykhailo Demkiv noted the rise in prices for Ukrainian Eurobonds based on the news of possible peace talks.
“Their value has been rising over the past 3 days in the range of 4.5-8%, as investors see the end of the hot phase of the war as increasingly likely,” he emphasized.
The WIG-Ukraine index of Ukrainian stocks on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) jumped by 19.6% on Thursday and added another 1.75% on Friday to 439.27 points. The growth on Friday was driven by a rise in the price of IMC and Astarta Holding shares by 2.86% and 0.71%, respectively, as the share of these companies in the index is 43.965% and 35.393%, respectively.
Meanwhile, shares of Ferrexpo and MHP on the London Stock Exchange on Friday rose by another 9.43% and 1.49%, respectively.
At the same time, Ukrainian sovereign bonds, after rising on the previous days, corrected in price by 0.52-0.98% on Friday.
