Against the backdrop of escalating tensions in Kashmir in May 2025, India and Pakistan once again found themselves on the brink of military conflict. After a terrorist attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people, India accused Pakistani militants of being responsible, which led to a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries. Pakistan, in turn, rejected the accusations and conducted missile tests, demonstrating its readiness to take appropriate measures.
Let’s take a look at the military capabilities of these two countries.
India’s military capabilities
Troop strength: 1.45 million active military personnel, 1.15 million reservists, and over 2.5 million paramilitary personnel.
Ground forces: 3,740 main battle tanks (T-90 Bhishma, Arjun), 9,743 artillery units, including modern Pinaka and Dhanush systems.
Air force: approximately 2,229 aircraft, including 600 fighter jets (Rafale, Su-30MKI), 899 helicopters, and 831 support aircraft.
Navy: 75,500 personnel, 150 ships, including the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya and Arihant-class ballistic missile submarines.
Nuclear arsenal: approximately 170–200 warheads, a “no first strike” policy, delivery systems — Agni (I–V), Prithvi, BrahMos missiles, as well as sea and air platforms.
Technological achievements: development of hypersonic missiles (BM-04), laser air defense systems (IDD&IS Mk2A), integration of theater commands, and the Integrated Battle Groups concept for rapid mobilization.
Pakistan’s military potential
Number: approximately 700,000 active military personnel: 560,000 in the army, 70,000 in the air force, and 30,000 in the navy.
Army: 2,537 main battle tanks (T-80, Al-Khalid), 4,619 artillery pieces.
Air Force: approximately 1,387 aircraft, including JF-17 Thunder and F-16 fighter jets, as well as Chinese drones.
Navy: 30,000 personnel, 9 frigates, 5 submarines, including new Chinese S20s.
Nuclear arsenal: approximately 170–190 warheads, a “first strike” doctrine with an emphasis on tactical nuclear weapons, including Nasr (Hatf-9) missiles with a range of up to 70 km.
Technological achievements: joint programs with China for the production of fighter jets, modernization of air defense, development of missile technologies.
The situation remains tense:
Pakistan has conducted two missile tests, including the launch of a Fatah missile with a range of 120 km.
India has stepped up security measures and conducted exercises in several states.
Both countries have closed their airspace and suspended trade.
International actors are calling for de-escalation.
Experts warn that even a limited conflict could escalate into a nuclear confrontation, given the doctrines of the parties and historical experience.
The National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) has registered the issue of three-year Series A bonds by Liberty Finance Financial Company LLC (Kyiv), a major player in the cash currency exchange market and part of KYT Group, under whose brand its exchange offices operate. As noted in the regulator’s decision, the issuer plans to place the bonds privately. According to the NSSMC, the bonds are issued in denominations of UAH 1,000 and mature between May 1 and June 1, 2028.
No other information on the terms of the issue is available at this time.
As reported by the National Bank in April this year, FC Liberty Finance has refused to provide such licensed services as factoring, financial leasing, and the provision of guarantees, and has the right to engage in the provision of funds and bank metals on credit, as well as in the trade of currency valuables in cash on the basis of the relevant license to conduct currency transactions.
KYT Group announced on Monday that it had opened its first branch in Bila Tserkva at the end of April, bringing its network to 96 currency exchange points in 30 cities across Ukraine.
“We, the KYT Group, have grown over 16 years of active work from a local currency exchange provider to a national multi-service FinTech company with a tech platform based on cutting-edge digital services,” the website says. According to the info there, the company has 800 employees.
According to its website, the owner and director of FC Liberty Finance is Anton Tkachenko, a resident of Kharkiv. KYT Group also includes the pawnshop KYT Group Plus LLC KYT Group and Company, owned by Lyudmila Tkachenko and directed by Ivan Tkachenko.
According to YouControl, Liberty Finance’s authorized capital is 25 million hryvnia, and its equity at the beginning of this year was 188.65 million hryvnia. The company ended last year with a net profit of 45.46 million hryvnia, compared to 153.92 million hryvnia a year earlier. The item “other income” in cash flows from operating activities in 2024 increased to UAH 29 billion from UAH 21.6 billion in 2023.
Unlike most other EU countries, Spain’s economy is showing steady growth in 2025, despite external challenges and internal structural constraints.
Key macroeconomic indicators for 2025
GDP growth: According to the European Commission’s forecast, GDP is expected to increase by 2.3%.
Inflation: Inflation is expected to decline to 2.2%.
Unemployment rate: Unemployment is forecast to decline to 11.0%.
Budget deficit: The deficit is expected to fall to 2.6% of GDP.
Public debt: Debt is expected to fall to 101.3% of GDP.
Spain’s economic growth in 2025 is supported by the following factors:
Domestic demand: Increased consumer spending and investment are contributing to economic growth.
Tourism: The tourism sector continues to recover, contributing positively to GDP.
Investment: Improved financing conditions and the implementation of projects under the Recovery and Sustainability Plan are stimulating investment activity.
Risks and challenges
Despite the positive trends, certain risks remain:
Geopolitical instability: Trade tensions, particularly with the US, could have a negative impact on exports.
Political fragmentation: Domestic political instability could slow down the adoption of necessary economic reforms.
Structural problems: High unemployment, especially among young people, and low labor productivity remain pressing issues.
Forecast for the end of 2025
The Spanish economy is expected to continue growing, albeit at a more moderate pace. Key forecasts for the end of the year:
GDP growth: Around 2.3%.
Inflation: Decline to 2.0%.
Unemployment: Decline to 10.7%.
Thus, despite the existing challenges, the Spanish economy is demonstrating its ability to grow sustainably and adapt to changing conditions.
The new HER1 digital hub bridges the connectivity and infrastructure gap in Southern Europe by interconnecting international, regional, and local subsea cables to better serve the EMEA region.
· Digital Realty’s new HER1 facility leverages Schneider Electric’s modular data center solutions to deliver the project in a remote location in 12 months, adhering to strict reliability and energy efficiency standards.
Schneider Electric, a leader in digital transformation in energy management and automation, has partnered with Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the world’s largest provider of cloud and neutral data center solutions, colocation and interconnection, to launch a new HER1 data center in Heraklion, Crete.
In early April 2025, HER1 became the first carrier-neutral facility on the island, playing an important role in bridging the digital divide in Southern Europe. It provides interconnection for international, regional, and local submarine cables, enabling cloud providers, telecom companies, and content delivery networks (CDNs) to serve the surrounding regions more efficiently.
HER1 works in tandem with rapidly growing markets, including Athens, Barcelona, Marseille, Rome, and Tel Aviv, and is a key part of Digital Realty’s Mediterranean data center platform. This is a significant step toward making Greece a strategic connectivity hub for Southern and Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Following the successful implementation of a modular data center at its Marseille 2 (MRS2) facility, Digital Realty once again leveraged Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure™ modular data center portfolio of Tier III-ready solutions. This enabled HER1 to overcome a number of challenges, including accelerated facility launch (less than 12 months), increased energy efficiency requirements, and the need to manufacture, test, and deliver equipment off-site due to its remote location in Crete.
To this end, Schneider Electric provided a specialized solution comprising two fully integrated, modular power units with medium-voltage (MV) equipment, transformers, low-voltage (LV) equipment, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, and air cooling. Two large-scale all-in-one data halls with power, cooling, and IT were also installed, equipped with the EcoStruxure monitoring system for building and energy management (EPMS).
In addition, Schneider Electric provided a full range of design, construction, and consulting services for the data center, including all mechanical, electrical (M&E), and software equipment, manufacturing, assembly, commissioning, and security systems. This enabled Digital Realty’s HER1 facility to meet tight implementation deadlines while reducing the risk of on-site installation failures.
“Digital Realty’s significant investment in the new data center in Heraklion underscores our commitment to making the Mediterranean a global connectivity hub that connects continents and drives digital transformation,” said Fabrice Coccio, senior vice president of Digital Realty in France. “Through our strategic partnership with Schneider Electric, we are accelerating the launch of this important project to respond quickly to the growth of digital traffic in the region, while improving network reliability and diversity for businesses and communities.”
New gateway for Southern Europe
According to Telegeography, international capacity in Southern Europe has grown at a compound annual rate of over 30% since 2016, representing a sixfold increase in transmission capacity in the region.
Thanks to its geographical location and ongoing investments in submarine networks such as 2Africa, Andromeda, East to Med Corridor (EMC), Medusa, and Thetis, many organizations are choosing Crete as a strategic location for submarine cable termination and data center hosting. This transforms the region into a global interconnection hub connecting several continents.
HER1, Digital Realty’s first carrier-neutral data center in Crete, is located near the landing points of several of these submarine cable systems and will provide a highly reliable infrastructure for cloud services, submarine network operators, and communities requiring connectivity.
“Schneider Electric has been working with Digital Realty for many years to meet the highest standards of data center construction worldwide, and our joint HER1 project demonstrates the tremendous potential of modular solutions for delivering complex projects on a tight schedule with minimal risk,” said Pablo Ruiz Escribano, Senior Vice President, Secure Power and Data Center Business, Schneider Electric in Europe. “The successful implementation of HER1 is an important milestone in the development of data centers in Southern Europe. With the creation of this new global connectivity hub in Crete, Digital Realty will connect customers across continents for years to come.”
For more information on Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Modular Data Center solutions, visit the official website.
About Schneider Electric
Schneider’s purpose is to make an impact by empowering everyone to make the most of our energy and resources, enabling progress and sustainability for all. We call this Life Is On.
Our mission is to be a trusted partner in sustainability and efficiency.
We are a global industry technology leader, bringing global expertise in electrification, automation, and digitalization to smart industries, reliable infrastructure, high-performance data centers, intelligent buildings, and intuitive homes. Drawing on our deep industry expertise, we provide integrated, end-to-end IoT solutions with artificial intelligence-enabled connected products, automation, software, and services, creating digital twins to deliver profitable growth for our customers.
Our company’s main resource is our 150,000 employees and over one million partners working in more than 100 countries around the world to ensure proximity to our customers and stakeholders. We support diversity and inclusion in everything we do, guided by our meaningful purpose of a sustainable future for all.
Follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Blog
About Digital Realty
Digital Realty connects companies and data by offering a full range of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions. The company’s PlatformDIGITAL®, a global data center platform, provides customers with a secure environment for data exchange and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) methodology to drive innovation and effectively address the challenges associated with data concentration (Data Gravity). Digital Realty provides its customers with access to the data communities that matter most to them through a global network of more than 300 facilities in 50+ cities and 25+ countries across six continents. For more information about Digital Realty, visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X.
Sweden is among the countries toward which Ukrainians demonstrate consistent sympathy and almost complete absence of criticism. These conclusions were drawn based on the results of a sociological survey conducted by Active Group in cooperation with the Experts Club information and analytical center in April 2025.
According to the survey results, 70.3% of respondents have a positive attitude toward Sweden (35.3% — mostly positive, 35% — completely positive). Only 1.9% gave a negative assessment (1.5% — mostly negative, 0.4% — completely negative). Another 25.4% of Ukrainians took a neutral position, and 2.4% abstained from answering.
“The high level of positive attitudes toward Sweden can be explained by its consistent policy of supporting democracy, human rights, and assistance to Ukraine, in particular humanitarian and security assistance,” said Oleksandr Pozniy, co-founder of Active Group.
The results indicate that Sweden, like other Northern European countries, is shaping an image in Ukraine as a reliable partner with clear principles.
The presentation of the study is available at the link.
ACTIVE GROUP, DIPLOMACY, EXPERTS CLUB, Pozniy, SOCIOLOGY, URAKIN
OTP BANK JSC will be the financial partner of this year’s most high-profile automotive event, KYIV CAR FEST, which will bring together representatives of various subcultures at its venues. The event will take place on the weekend of May 10 and 11, from 12:00 to 20:00, at the Retroville shopping and entertainment center.
This year’s festival was created in collaboration with renowned automotive graphics and design master Oleksandr Lituta, who has been developing unique projects for special cars and the world’s best race car drivers for over 15 years. Therefore, KYIV CAR FEST vol.5 is dedicated to automotive design, and artistic masterpieces of various styles and genres will be created live at the event. Artists from all over Ukraine will gather to showcase their best works to festival participants and visitors.
OTP BANK will be represented at both outdoor and indoor locations. The outdoor location is expected to be the most eventful: guests will have a unique opportunity to apply for a loan for a used car from among those on sale at the festival. It will also be possible to apply for a loan to order a used car from the US or other countries, from the Bank’s partners, or on the Ponova by OTP Bank marketplace.
In addition, there will be special raffles where attendees can win a discount on their used car loan during the festival.
A special chatbot, which can be accessed by scanning a QR code, will help guests understand how much they can expect to borrow when applying for a loan. In just one minute and in complete confidentiality, car enthusiasts will find out their loan amount. The Bank’s specialists will also be on hand to answer questions about financing used cars.
To maximize the excitement, OTP BANK will give guests the opportunity to sit behind the wheel of a cool electric car, and free instant photos will preserve memories of a bright weekend for a long time.
A chance to win UAH 1 million: all loans for used cars worth UAH 30,000 or more, taken out during or after the festival, up to and including May 31, will be entered into the “Liam na Tachku” promotion. The Bank’s customers will have an incredible opportunity to win a million hryvnias to buy the car of their dreams – right during the live broadcast on June 10.
We look forward to seeing you at KYIV CAR FEST, it’s going to be epic!
KYIV CAR FEST ticket giveaway: OTP BANK regularly holds promotions and unique offers to give customers new opportunities and exciting experiences. A ticket giveaway for the festival has started on our Instagram page – go there and find out all the terms and conditions! Don’t miss your chance to have an unforgettable experience with OTP BANK.
