Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, said that “the door to dialogue in Ukraine is open, and all parties should strive to reach a comprehensive and lasting peace agreement and eliminate the root causes of the conflict,” and called on Europe to be more active in peace efforts, according to a correspondent for Interfax-Ukraine.
“The doors to dialogue have finally opened on the ‘Ukrainian crisis’ (Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine – IF-U). All interested parties should seize the opportunity to achieve a comprehensive, durable, and binding peace agreement, eliminate the root causes of the conflict, and ensure lasting peace and stability in Europe,” he said.
According to the Chinese foreign minister, Europe should not stand by and watch.
“Since the conflict broke out here in Europe, Europe has every right to participate in the negotiations at the appropriate time. Europe should not be on the menu, but at the negotiating table,” he said.
“Now we see that Europe has found the courage to negotiate with Russia. This is good, and we support it,” Wang Yi emphasized.
At the same time, in his opinion, dialogue should not be conducted for the sake of dialogue itself, and Europe should offer new ideas and new plans to resolve this issue.
” And in this process, we need to promote the creation of a more balanced, effective, and sustainable security architecture for Europe. Consequently, by doing so, we are addressing the root causes of the crisis and can prevent its recurrence. And to achieve sustainable and lasting peace, China, for its part, will fully support the peace process,” the foreign minister concluded.
He also clarified that China is not a party directly involved in the conflict, has no right to make a final decision, and is only facilitating peace talks.
Regarding relations between China and the EU, Wang Yi expressed his conviction that they should be partners, not systemic rivals or strategic competitors.
“But there are differences and disagreements between our two sides, for example, our social systems, our values, and our development models, but that is because we have different histories and cultures, and based on that, our peoples have different choices regarding the path of development. But that does not mean that we should become rivals or competitors,” the minister said.
He declared that it is more important for China and the EU to practice multilateralism, defend the authority of the UN, say “no” to unilateral practices, uphold free trade, and oppose bloc confrontation.
At the end of January 2026, a working group under the Finnish Ministry of Defense proposed changing the mechanism for expropriating (compulsory purchase) real estate for national security purposes and transferring the authority to issue permits for such expropriation exclusively to the Ministry of Defense. The government press release notes that the current procedure has been difficult to apply, as permits are formally the responsibility of different agencies.
The working group’s proposals include expanding the possibilities for rapid response in urgent cases, including earlier introduction of a ban on actions with the property, temporary takeover of real estate, as well as unification of the approach to compensation for expropriation and planning of financing for such procedures in the budget.
The context for such steps remains the Finnish authorities’ concerns about the risks of “hostile influence” through real estate transactions. Previously, the government and the Ministry of Defense had consistently tightened the rules for buyers from countries outside the EU and the EEA, and also promoted restrictions that were in fact primarily aimed at Russian citizens. In April 2025, the Finnish parliament approved a law restricting the purchase of real estate by citizens of countries waging “aggressive war,” which was publicly interpreted as a ban on Russians who are not permanent residents.
Defense Minister Antti Hykkänen previously stated that Finland had made “too naive decisions” on real estate control in the 2000s and was now “systematically correcting the identified problems.”
Thus, at the moment, we are not talking about a declared campaign of “mass seizure” of property from citizens of all countries outside the EU, but about strengthening the state’s legal instruments to intervene in cases where specific real estate objects are considered a potential threat to national security, as well as continuing the policy of restricting new transactions for certain categories of foreign buyers.
Imports of transformers, inductors, and chokes to Ukraine in January 2026 decreased by almost 23% compared to the same month in 2025, to $98.6 million, according to statistics from the State Customs Service.
According to the published data, this is also 17.7% less than in December 2025.
China remains the largest supplier of these products to Ukraine. Last month, $86.5 million worth of these products were imported from China (87.7% of total imports of these goods), while a year earlier, $116.1 million worth of transformers and chokes were imported from this country (90.8%).
In addition, transformers were imported from Japan ($5.3 million) and Turkey ($1.2 million), while in 2025, imports from Turkey amounted to $4.5 million, and the United States ($1.75 million) rounded out the top three.
According to the State Customs Service, in January 2026, Ukraine exported transformers, inductors, and chokes worth $3.3 million (in January 2025 – $2.05 million), mainly to Poland, Germany, and Hungary.
As reported with reference to the State Customs Service, imports of transformers, inductors, and chokes to Ukraine in 2025 increased by 88% compared to 2024, to $1.12 billion, with imports from China increasing 2.3 times, to $957.3 million.
Since the beginning of last year, transformer imports have significantly exceeded those of the previous year. In particular, in January, imports increased sixfold, but the growth rate gradually slowed down.
At the same time, Ukraine reduced imports of lead and lead products by 5.2 times to $112,000 in January 2026 (in December — $478,000).
Exports of lead and lead products fell by 63.8% to $1,053 thousand (in December — $466 thousand).
At the same time, in 2025, the country increased imports of lead and lead products by 3.3 times — to $7.801 million.
Exports of lead and lead products decreased by 17.8% to $9.377 million.
At the same time, in 2024, the country increased imports of lead and lead products by 2.4 times to $2.391 million.
Exports of lead and lead products decreased by 22.9% to $11.401 million.
In 2023, compared to the previous year, less lead and lead products were imported into Ukraine — $989 thousand (-65.2%).
Exports of lead and lead products increased by 23.5% to $14.778 million.
Lead is currently mainly used in the production of lead-acid batteries for the automotive industry. In addition, lead is used in the manufacture of bullets and certain alloys.
The volume of passenger car imports to Ukraine, including cargo-passenger vans and racing cars (UKT ZED code 8703), amounted to almost $274 million in January 2026, which is 18% less than in January 2025 (almost $334 million).
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service of Ukraine, passenger car imports fell 2.4 times compared to December 2025.
The top three suppliers of passenger cars to Ukraine in January were Japan, the US, and Germany, while in the previous year, these were the same countries, but the largest exporter was Germany, followed by the US and Japan. In particular, in January 2026, car deliveries from Japan increased by 38% to $57.6 million, and their share in the structure of car imports grew to 21% from 12.5%.
Cars worth $54.5 million (12.8% less) were imported from the US to Ukraine, and $45 million (39.6% less) from Germany.
Imports of passenger cars from other countries in January amounted to $116.8 million, compared to $155.1 million in January last year.
At the same time, Ukraine exported almost no such vehicles last month, while in January 2025, deliveries totaling $1.09 million were made to the UAE (90.5%), Germany, and Moldova.
According to the State Customs Service, passenger cars accounted for 4.1% of the total structure of imports to Ukraine in January this year, compared to 6.02% in January 2025.
As reported, in 2025, passenger cars worth almost $6.15 billion were imported into Ukraine, which is 40.2% more than in 2024. The top three exporters were the United States, Germany, and China. Cars worth $10.1 million were exported (2.7 times less).
The significant increase in passenger car imports to Ukraine in the last months of 2025 was due to information about the cancellation of VAT exemptions on the import of electric cars from January 1, 2026.
The Ukrcement Association advocates for the wider use of cement concrete technologies in road construction in Ukraine and calls on communities to prepare standard solutions and a package of regulatory documents for the rapid restoration of damaged sections, the association announced following the results of the scientific and practical seminar “Cement-concrete roads: technologies, standards, prospects,” which took place on February 11 in Kyiv.
In her report, Lyudmila Krypka, executive director of the Ukrcement association, emphasized the cement industry’s ability to fully supply the domestic market with cement. She also highlighted the transition to European standards in products and regulation, in particular GOST EN 197-1 and the requirements for declarations and the responsibility of participants in the construction product supply chain.
According to Ukrcement, in the context of infrastructure restoration, concrete technologies can be a practical tool for communities both for the construction of individual sections and for road repairs, and the immediate task is to develop standard designs, materials, and technologies that allow restoration work to be carried out in many cases without the involvement of large road companies.
“The most difficult times are times of change. It is important to use these changes for the benefit of the country’s development,” Krypka emphasized, stressing the importance of implementing best practices using domestic building materials that create added value for the economy.
As noted by the association, the development of cement-concrete roads is of strategic importance and could become one of the drivers of the country’s recovery and the formation of a sustainable European-level infrastructure.
