The Croatian government at a meeting on Monday donated EUR1 million to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to help farmers and food producers from Ukraine resume operations in regions most affected by explosive remnants of war.
According to the WFP website on Monday, the agreement was signed by Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman and Matthew Hollingworth, acting UN Humanitarian Aid Coordinator in Ukraine, in the presence of Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Sviridenko.
“The project aims to survey productive agricultural land for mines and other explosives, clear them where necessary and release them safely to restore food production and support the livelihoods of rural communities. The project will also support farmers in rehabilitating soils and restoring their agricultural production once the land has been declared safe,” the report said.
Work is already underway in Kharkiv Oblast and is planned for Mykolaiv and Kherson Oblasts. The project has been developed and is being implemented in close cooperation with the Ukrainian government as well as local authorities.
“The Government of Ukraine has identified demining as one of the five key priorities for the rapid recovery of the country as it relates to the safety of people, restoring fully functioning agricultural enterprises and establishing food supply chains… We are actively working with our international partners to launch the humanitarian demining market in Ukraine, procure specialized equipment, train deminers, certify private demining operators, establish a local
According to her, the funds raised under a joint memorandum with Croatia and UN partners “will be used to survey and clean up contaminated land, which potentially amounts to 174,000 square kilometers in Ukraine.”
“During our meeting, we emphasized the critical importance of demining for the resumption of economic and social activities in Ukraine. Realizing the urgent need to address mines and explosive remnants of war, we reiterate our commitment to work hand in hand to bring about positive change in the affected regions,” said Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordoni Hirlićem-Radman.
Hollingworth, for his part, noted Croatia’s experience in conducting successful large-scale demining operations, which “makes it a recognized leader in humanitarian demining and an invaluable partner in helping to free up land for Ukrainian farmers who desperately want to resume work and feed their families and communities.”
Croatia will host the International Donor Conference on Humanitarian Demining in Ukraine on October 11 and 12 in Zagreb. The conference will provide a platform to mobilize additional international support and resources for demining initiatives in Ukraine.
The net profit of First Ukrainian International Bank (FUIB, Kyiv) for January-June this year amounted to UAH 3 billion 676.54 million, which is 16.8 times higher than in the same period of 2022, according to the bank’s report in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC).
According to the report, FUIB’s net interest income for January-June 2023 increased 4.3 times to UAH 5 billion 743.88 million.
Net fee and commission income for six months of the current year increased by 31.5% to UAH 1 billion 93.01 million, the report says.
It is stated that in January-June this year FUIB disbanded UAH 341.80 million of reserves, while in the same period last year it increased them by UAH 4 billion 267.11 million.
The bank’s total profit for the first half of 2023 reached UAH 4 billion 19.74 million against UAH 78.61 million in the first half of last year.
According to the report, in January-June this year, the bank’s assets grew by UAH 13 billion 736.74 million, reaching UAH 125 billion 710.96 million.
Such growth is explained by a significant increase in investments in securities – from UAH 12 billion 586.77 million to UAH 45 billion 547.69 million, while cash and funds with the NBU, on the contrary, decreased by 1.7 times – to UAH 27 billion 151.01 million.
At the same time, loans and advances to customers increased from UAH 43.77 billion to UAH 44.78 billion, while debts of other banks increased by UAH 0.64 billion to UAH 41.27 billion.
FUIB’s customer funds increased from UAH 90 billion 38 million to UAH 104 billion 77 million in the first half of 2023, while the bank’s capital increased from UAH 11 billion 76 million to UAH 15 billion 71 million, including retained earnings from UAH 3 billion 82 million to UAH 7 billion 502 million.
FUIB was founded in 1991, according to its website, it serves about 1.5 million customers and is owned by Rinat Akhmetov. According to the NBU data as of June 1, FUIB was among the top ten largest banks in the country, ranking 8th among 65 operating Ukrainian banks in terms of assets (UAH 131.96 billion). As of the end of June, the bank’s network included 5 regional branches and 221 outlets, compared to 213 outlets at the beginning of the year.
CSD LAB Medical Laboratory has introduced pharmacogenetic laboratory diagnostics services.
As the laboratory told Interfax-Ukraine, CSD LAB offers two tests that will allow individualizing the treatment of many diseases. In particular, the laboratory conducts a PCR test that determines sensitivity to warfarin. The test helps to prevent and reduce the risk of bleeding as a result of warfarin therapy by up to 50%.
Warfarin therapy is used for the treatment and prevention of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, for the secondary prevention of myocardial infarction and prevention of thromboembolic complications (stroke or systemic embolism) after myocardial infarction in patients with heart failure or prosthetic heart valves, prevention of dynamic cerebrovascular disease and stroke, and prevention of postoperative thrombosis.
In addition, CSD Lab has implemented a pharmacogenetic test that allows to determine variations in the CYP2C19 gene. This gene is a clinically important enzyme involved in the biotransformation of a number of antidepressants, anticoagulants, and antimycotic drugs. The test helps to identify and adjust antiplatelet therapy for a number of diseases.
“The main goal of pharmacogenetics is to use the patient’s individual genetic information to inform and prescribe the most effective type and dose of drugs. Targeted diagnostics and treatment of a patient can be determined according to the results of the study of his or her genetic profile, which makes pharmacotherapy for patients as effective, safe and affordable as possible,” CSD LAB emphasized.
At the same time, the laboratory emphasizes that pharmacotherapy based on the principles of personalized medicine is a relatively new area in medicine in general. The essence of personalized medicine is the individualization of drug therapy. Pharmacogenetics seeks to identify genes and their variants that determine the adequacy of pharmacotherapy and reduce the risk of side effects.
“The new approach is to test patients for possible reactions to the use of new drugs and to formulate a treatment based on the test results,” the laboratory emphasized.
CSD LAB plans to hold a course of lectures on pharmacogenetics for doctors in the fall.
CSD LAB is one of the leading laboratories in Ukraine that provides more than 1500 tests: from a complete blood count to the determination of genetic disorders in a tumor using NGS. It has been one of the largest pathology laboratories in Eastern Europe for 13 years.
The research company Active Group has launched and published the First All-Ukrainian Ranking of Art Higher Education Institutions for the academic year 2022-2023. The aim of the project was to group art education institutions into a separate ranking and develop indicators for them that would take into account the specifics of art education institutions.
A total of 13 higher education institutions subordinated to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy were included in the ranking:
Transcarpathian Academy of Arts
Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design named after Mykhailo Boichuk
Kyiv National University of Theater, Cinema and Television named after I. K. Karpenko-Kary
Luhansk State Academy of Culture and Arts
Lviv National Academy of Arts
Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy
National Academy of Management Personnel of Culture and Arts
National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture
Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine
Odesa National Music Academy named after A.V. Nezhdanova
Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts
Kharkiv State Academy of Culture
Kharkiv National University of Arts named after I.P. Kotlyarevsky
The institutions were analyzed according to 18 parameters grouped into four blocks: Academic Capacity, Number of Students, Reputation and Information Activity, Financial Performance and Openness. The weight of each of the indicators was taken into account using coefficients obtained on the basis of expert opinions of representatives of the field of art education and students.
The authors of the ranking used multi-criteria approaches to evaluating the activities of universities based on the processing of data that can be obtained from open sources and whose validity can be verified.
To evaluate the indicators, they used information from open sources: websites of higher education institutions, the website of the Unified State Electronic Database on Education, monitoring of media publications, as well as responses to requests for access to public information sent by researchers to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
As a result, the First All-Ukrainian Ranking of Art Higher Education Institutions for the academic year 2022-2023 is as follows:
Educational institution Place in the ranking Result
Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine 1 3.09
Kharkiv State Academy of Culture 2 2.37
National Academy of Management Personnel of Culture and Arts 3 2.03
I.P. Kotlyarevsky Kharkiv National University of Arts 4 1.71
Lviv National Academy of Arts 5 1.61
National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture 6 1.58
Odesa National Music Academy named after A. Nezhdanova 7 1.56
Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts 8 1.54
I.K. Karpenko-Kary Kyiv National University of Theater, Cinema and Television 9 1.48
Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy 10 1.17
Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design named after M. Boychuk 11 0.93
Luhansk State Academy of Culture and Arts 12 0.77
Transcarpathian Academy of Arts 13 0.46
The Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine won the ranking by a significant margin. The second place went to the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture, and the third to the National Academy of Culture and Arts Management.
According to Oleksandr Poznyi, coordinator of the project to create a ranking of art universities, director of the research company Active Group, the main goal of the ranking was to evaluate artistic educational institutions, as existing rankings did not fully take into account the peculiarities of art institutions. We also invite everyone to join our project and work together to improve the criteria for evaluating art institutions.
In the future, the researchers plan to conduct a similar assessment annually to track the dynamics of the development of Ukrainian art education institutions.
Evaluation methodology:
At the first stage of the assessment, the researchers collected factual information on the specified parameters from open official sources. Depending on the parameter, these were the official resources of educational entities, official requests to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ukrainian State Center for International Education, as well as the QS rating.
The second stage involved normalizing various indicators to a scale from 0 to 1.5 so that different indicators could be compared.
This was followed by the third stage, in which each of the indicators was assigned a weight by experts in consultation with industry representatives and students in terms of the importance of the indicator for a potential applicant. The resulting coefficients are summarized in the table.
Parameter Coefficient
Academic capacity block
Number of faculties 1.5
Number of departments 1
Number of specialties 1.5
Number of educational programs 1.5
Number of accredited educational programs 1.5
Availability of scientists of specialized academic councils 1.1
Availability of professional collections of scientific publications 0.8
Number of students
Number of students of the first (bachelor’s) level – actual 1.5
Number of students of the first (bachelor’s) level – in accordance with the licensed volumes 1
Number of students of the second (master’s) level – actual 1.5
Number of students of the second (master’s) level – according to the licensed volumes 1
Number of students of the third (educational-scientific/educational-creative) level – actual 1.5
Number of students of the third (educational-scientific/educational-creative) level – according to the licensed volumes 1
Number of foreign students 0.8
Reputation and information activity
Information activity (number of references in the media) 1
Place or presence of the HEI in the international ranking QS WorldUniversityRankings 0.5
Financial indicators
Estimates for 2022 (general fund) 0.8
Estimates for 2022 (special fund) 0.8
To enlarge the table, click on the table or follow the link.
Further, in the course of the ranking, the relevant parameters were calculated for each university, normalized to the scale score and equalized by using weighting factors to the requests of experts and applicants. Normalized and multiplied by the appropriate coefficient, the indicators for each of the educational institutions were added together and the final result was obtained.
The rental rate of grain and flour wagons of conditional type 972, owned by JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia”, from August 1 will increase by 100 UAH compared to July and will amount to 400 UAH/day (excluding VAT), according to the company’s website.
According to the report, the daily fee for the use of Ukrzaliznytsia’s mineral wagons for the transportation of grain cargoes next month will decrease from UAH 1,500 in July to UAH 1,300, and in the case of the use of cement wagons for these purposes will increase from UAH 500/day to UAH 600/day.
The rate of payment for the use of tank cars for transportation of food products in August will decrease from 1700 to 1500 UAH/day.
The gondola car rental rate will increase to 1400 UAH/day next month (1300 UAH/day in July).
Philip Morris International (PMI) tobacco concern in the second quarter of 2023 increased shipments of cigarettes and tobacco sticks in the Ukrainian market by 50.3% compared to the same period last year, while in the first quarter there was a decline of 26.7%, according to the quarterly report of PMI.
According to it, the market in Ukraine as a whole grew by 13.4% in the second quarter of this year, thus the company managed to increase its share in the Ukrainian market after a slump last year.
More detailed information on sales in Ukraine is not available in the document, but it is indicated that PMI in July began preparatory work on a new facility in Lviv region in western Ukraine, which will be invested $30 million and production is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2024.
It is specified that the Kharkiv plant, which was shut down at the end of February 2022, remains in the same condition due to existing threats, while products are supplied to the Ukrainian market from production centers outside Ukraine, as well as through contract manufacturing.
In the first half of the year PMI additionally did not adjust the value of its long-term assets in Ukraine, unlike last year.
It is stated that as of June 30, 2023, total assets of PMI’s Ukrainian operations were approximately $497 million, compared to $485 million a quarter earlier. These assets included receivables, inventories, and fixed assets of $75 million ($69 million), $305 million ($324 million), and $29 million ($30 million), respectively.
In addition, Lviv Regional Military Administration reported a July 27 meeting between its chief, Maksym Kozitsky, and PMI’s vice president for Northeast Europe, Michal Mierzejewski, where future production was discussed.
“The company has received a license to produce tobacco products in Lvivshchyna for five years with the possibility of extending it in the future. I hope that the plant, having created jobs, will provide the residents of our region with work,” – said the head of Lviv OVA.
In turn, Mierzejewski confirmed plans to launch production in the first quarter of 2024 and create more than 250 jobs at the new factory.
“First of all, we will employ employees of our Kharkiv factory, but we will also hire local specialists, which will create new jobs for residents of the region who have experience or would like to get it to work in this field,” – said the vice-president of PMI.
As reported, Philip Morris International in 2022 reduced shipments in the Ukrainian market by 30.1% – to 11.07 billion cigarettes and tobacco sticks. In particular, sales of cigarettes decreased by 38.1% to 6.6 billion, tobacco sticks for tobacco heating systems – by 13.5% to 4.47 billion.
