A series of industry events titled “METRONOM” is launching in Ukraine, bringing together developers, architects, and urban planners to discuss the future of Ukrainian cities.
According to the organizers, the theme of the season is “Strategies for Urban Environment Development: Me, You, Society.”
A series of events is planned across various cities in Ukraine as part of the season. The first event will take place on April 23 in Kyiv at the “Osvitoria” venue.
The next event is scheduled for May 20 in Lviv; the venue is currently being finalized. Additionally, the BUDArena Expo—an exhibition and forum—will take place in Lviv on May 21–22.
Subsequent events in the series will be held on June 11 in Dnipro and July 1 in Odesa. Venues for these events will be announced at a later date.
The organizers also announced an expansion of the project’s geographic scope. Specifically, “METRONOM” events are planned for Uzhhorod and Rivne in the near future; dates and venues are currently being finalized.
The “METRONOM” event series is positioned as a professional platform for dialogue between participants in the development market, the architectural community, and urbanists regarding approaches to the development of the urban environment in Ukraine.
“Open4business” is the information partner for the events.
The Oliyar Group of Companies has launched a new line of business and opened a poultry farm in the Lviv region for the production of table eggs with a design capacity of 2.3 million birds, State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection head Serhiy Tkachuk announced on his Facebook page on Friday.
“For the company, poultry farming is a new venture. The project includes 20 poultry houses, a sorting facility, a packing facility, and a storage warehouse. At full capacity, the complex will produce more than 2 million eggs per day, which is of strategic importance for Ukraine’s food security,” the agency head noted following a visit to the facility together with Gerard Bakker, General Inspector of the Dutch NVWA.
According to Tkachuk, the first phase of construction has been completed at the facility, which already houses more than 100,000 birds. For comparison, he cited the example of the Netherlands, where a farm of this scale is considered a large-scale industrial facility.
A distinctive feature of the complex is the use of a cage-free, multi-tiered aviary housing system that complies with European animal welfare standards. The facility is equipped with automated systems for manure removal and egg transport.
“It is very important that the new business is immediately geared toward European requirements. This not only ensures the proper physiological condition of the birds and the quality of the products, but also opens the way to exports, strengthening Ukraine’s position in international markets,” Tkachuk emphasized.
He added that modern automation systems make it possible to minimize the human factor and carry out effective veterinary and sanitary control.
The “Oliyar” Group of Companies was founded in 2003 in the village of Stavchany (Lviv region). It specializes in the production of vegetable oils and meal, phospholipid concentrates, and fatty acids. Production facilities include plants for processing sunflower seeds at a capacity of 1,200 tons per day, rapeseed at 1,000 tons per day, and soybeans at 880 tons per day. The complex has a refining facility with a capacity of 350 tons of oil per day and a sunflower meal processing line with a capacity of 650 tons per day. A grain elevator with a capacity of 43,000 cubic meters is used to store raw materials.
Products under the “Mayola,” “Rodinna,” “Soniashna,” and “Oliyar” brands are exported to the EU, the Middle East, Africa, the U.S., and Canada. The company also provides private label manufacturing services for retail chains.
According to Opendatabot, the company’s net profit for 2025 decreased by 56% to UAH 268.19 million, while revenue grew by 33.8% to UAH 12.50 billion. Assets increased by 41% to 13.23 billion UAH, while liabilities nearly doubled to 7.24 billion UAH.
Spanish authorities have launched an emergency administrative legalization process for migrants already in the country without regularized status. The Council of Ministers approved the relevant royal decree on April 14, and the application period began on April 16 and will run until June 30, 2026. The government estimates that the measure could potentially cover approximately 500,000 people.
According to official explanations from the Spanish authorities, foreigners who were in Spain before January 1, 2026, have lived in the country continuously for at least five months, and have no criminal record are eligible to participate. Certain applicants for international protection are also included in the scheme. The measure is framed as an emergency measure and, according to Madrid, is intended to simultaneously reduce the informal labor market and address part of the labor shortage amid an aging population.
The Spanish government explicitly links the decision to the economy. An official Moncloa memo states that regularization should facilitate the integration of migrants already in the country into the legal labor market and the social security system. Experts note that Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet is presenting this initiative as a response to demographic aging and labor shortages in a number of sectors.
The scale of migration in Spain is indeed very large at present. According to data from Spain’s National Institute of Statistics, as of January 1, 2025, the country had a population of 49.13 million, of whom 14.1% held foreign citizenship and 19.3% were born outside Spain. As of January 1, 2026, the number of residents born abroad exceeded 10 million for the first time.
Among the largest foreign groups in Spain by nationality as of January 1, 2025, Moroccans led the way with 968,999 people, followed by Colombians with 676,534 and Romanians with 609,270. The INE also notes that in 2024, the largest increases were among citizens of Colombia, Venezuela, and Morocco, while notable decreases were seen among those from Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
There are also separate official statistics regarding Ukrainians. Spain’s Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration reported that the number of Ukrainian citizens with valid residence permits in the country exceeded 338,000 in December 2025. This is one of the largest national groups among holders of valid residence permits outside the EU system.
In practical terms, this new legalization could further strengthen Spain’s role as one of the few major EU countries that are attempting not only to curb migration but also to bring people already in the country into the legal framework. For the labor market, this means a potential expansion of formal employment, and for the real estate, retail, agriculture, care, and service sectors—an influx of workers and consumers. But at the same time, the burden on immigration offices will increase; employees of these agencies have already threatened to strike due to a lack of resources to handle the new wave of applications.
Steel production in China fell by 6.3% in March compared with the same month last year, to 87.04 million tonnes, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics. In the first quarter, steel production fell by 4.6% to 247.55 million tonnes.
Steel exports in March fell by 12.6% to 9.13 million tonnes, and by 9.9% over the three-month period to 24.71 million tonnes.
Pig iron output last month fell by 3.3% to 73.28 million tonnes. In January–March, it fell by 2.9% to 210.98 million tonnes.
Steel product output in March fell by 2.3% to 130.98 million tonnes, and by 1.7% in the first quarter to 351.44 million tonnes.
As reported, by the end of 2025, steel production in China had fallen by 4.4% to 960.81 million tonnes, the lowest level in seven years.
On Friday, April 17, a partial collapse occurred on the main wall of the Khotyn Fortress, according to Khotyn Mayor Andriy Dranchuk.
“A partial collapse occurred on the main wall. And this collapse is quite significant. Everyone is safe! Most importantly, no one was injured. The team from the State Historical and Architectural Reserve “Khotyn Fortress” and State Emergency Service personnel responded promptly, restricting access for tourist groups near the site of the incident,” Dranchuk wrote on Facebook.
He added that the State Historical and Architectural Reserve “Khotyn Fortress” is documenting the incident and preparing the necessary official documents. The Chernivtsi Regional Military Administration, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine have been informed.
The Khotyn Fortress is one of Ukraine’s most famous historical and architectural landmarks, located in the city of Khotyn in the Chernivtsi region on the high bank of the Dniester River. Its construction spanned the 13th to 18th centuries, and the fortress acquired its modern appearance as a result of several phases of reconstruction during the periods of the Galicia-Volhynia Principality, the Moldavian Principality, the Ottoman Empire, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The fortress is considered one of the key fortifications in Eastern Europe and is listed among the “Seven Wonders of Ukraine.”
The structure is widely known for the Battle of Khotyn in 1621, when the combined forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ukrainian Cossacks halted the advance of the Ottoman army. The complex includes massive defensive walls and towers, an inner courtyard, a prince’s palace, and a church. Thanks to its well-preserved medieval appearance, the Khotyn Fortress is one of the most visited historical sites in Ukraine and is often used as a venue for cultural events and the filming of historical movies.
The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has published the admission procedures for vocational higher education programs in 2026. According to the ministry’s announcement, the procedures outline detailed admission requirements and regulate all stages of the admissions process.
Specifically, the conditions include: the ability to submit up to 10 applications, of which up to five may be for state-funded spots; a motivation letter is not mandatory, but some institutions may require one in their admission rules; for applicants after 9th grade, the admissions campaign period has been extended to three weeks; applications are submitted via the online portal, but in some cases—in paper form.
The ministry notes that in 2026, the number of state-funded spots will increase in fields that are critically important for the economy and the country’s recovery: electrical engineering and power generation, automation and robotics, aviation and aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, construction, and agriculture.
Separately, expanded opportunities are provided for applicants from temporarily occupied territories and combat zones: remote submission of documents; taking entrance exams online; admission via a simplified procedure through the “Crimea-Ukraine” and “Donbas-Ukraine” educational centers.
