The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has granted Epicenter K LLC a permit to acquire control over Dyvotsentr LLC (both in Kyiv), the beneficiary of which is MP Oleg Seminsky (Servant of the People faction). The Ministry issued the relevant merger clearance on October 3.
According to Opendatabot, the beneficiaries of the DivoCenter LLC registered in July 2024 are Oleh Seminsky and Tetiana Bushai. Seminsky is also a beneficiary of Delois LLC, which was the customer for the construction of the KyivMall shopping and entertainment center at the intersection of Hryhorenko and Kolektorna streets in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv.
KyivMall was scheduled to be commissioned in 2014, but construction was stopped in 2013. The area of the facility would have been 80.4 thousand square meters.
Epicentrk Group is an omnichannel ecosystem that unites Epicentrk and Nova Liniya retail chains, epicentrk.ua online store, Epicentrk-Agro agricultural holding, Epicenter Ceramic Corporation ceramic tile production plants, Osmoloda woodworking plant, and logistics facilities.
Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Epicenter chain included more than 80 shopping centers in all regions of the country. The war destroyed seven shopping centers in Mariupol, Nikopol, Bucha, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Kherson (two). Three more facilities (in Melitopol, Kramatorsk and Kharkiv) are out of operation due to the occupation of Ukrainian territories, shelling or proximity to the war zone.
The group’s retail network includes 71 stores under the Epicenter and Nova Liniya brands.
Despite the significant losses, the retailer continues to invest in the economy: in 2022-2023, it invested over UAH 14.2 billion in various projects. In general, the Epicenter Group’s investment plan until 2030 envisages the development of projects in retail, manufacturing, agriculture, logistics, e-commerce, and energy for a total of about UAH 100 billion.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the members of Epicenter K LLC are Oleksandr Gerega (51.3%), Halyna Gerega (47.97%), and Tetiana Surzhyk (0.73%).
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is launching the Universal Design School (UD School), an innovative and much-needed initiative that will contribute to Ukraine’s inclusive recovery, focusing on accessibility-oriented reconstruction.
In addition to practical work on projects, the UD School offers an educational program that includes workshops, lectures, and case studies conducted by experts in the field of accessibility and inclusion. Each group of participants will be accompanied by a mentor who will help them develop practical solutions in accordance with international universal design standards, focusing on improving key sectors such as healthcare, education, public services, and culture.
As part of the school’s program, participants – architects, designers, urban planners and engineers – will work in interdisciplinary teams to solve real-world problems to make public spaces, buildings and services accessible to all, including people with disabilities.
As part of the training, 70 participants from all over Ukraine out of more than 300 applicants were selected to work on real projects in 13 Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Rivne, Slavutych, Lviv, and Poltava. The selected projects cover a wide range of public spaces – healthcare facilities, schools, cultural heritage sites, and government institutions – that will be designed to be accessible to all, including people with disabilities.
The UD School is an important response to the needs of Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction, where thousands of people, including those with war-related disabilities, now live in spaces that require inclusive and sustainable recovery. The goal of the school is to provide participants with the practical skills and theoretical knowledge necessary to integrate universal design principles into reconstruction processes, ensuring that new and reconstructed structures are barrier-free.
Christoforos Politis, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Ukraine , emphasized the school’s crucial role in Ukraine’s recovery: “The launch of the School of Universal Design could not have come at a more important time,” said Christoforos Politis. ”As Ukraine embarks on the difficult path of rebuilding war-torn cities and communities, we have a unique opportunity to ensure that inclusivity is at the center of these efforts. Universal design is not just technical guidelines, it is a philosophy that puts people’s needs first in planning and development. Whether it is a hospital, school or cultural facility, our goal is to create spaces where everyone can live and thrive with dignity.”
Tetyana Lomakina, Advisor to the Presidential Commissioner for Accessibility, emphasized the significant impact of universal design in today’s environment: “Every space has one goal – to provide an opportunity to live, work, study, relax, buy products – basic activities that are available to everyone without exception. Universal design takes into account the diversity of people and their basic needs, offering solutions that make the space not only inclusive but also fair,” said Tetiana Lomakina. ”We must understand that universal design, like barrier-free accessibility, is not a whim or an additional function, but a requirement for the developer. It’s about social responsibility in communities, a strategic approach to the development of Ukraine, and the consistent transformation of spaces and society.”
The UD School will last until December 2024, ending with the presentation of the final projects. These projects are expected to leave a significant mark on Ukraine’s recovery process by offering real, affordable solutions that will improve the quality of life for all citizens, regardless of their physical abilities.
During this initiative, a presentation was made by Artem Honcharenko, who represented the veteran space of the Institute for Reintegration, Rehabilitation and Professional Development of Veterans “Architecture of Resilience” at the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture. In his presentation, he shared his experience of working with veterans, their integration into inclusive projects, and the importance of architectural solutions that can be developed by participants and implemented in veteran space, which are aimed at ensuring accessibility and adaptation of urban space for all citizens, including veterans.
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The Universal Design School is organized as part of the UNDP Mine Action in Ukraine project with financial support from the Government of Sweden.
The Norwegian Defense Ministry has established the post of military attaché in Kiev, which will facilitate cooperation between Norwegian and Ukrainian professional communities and industry in the field of defense innovation and industrial development, Defense Minister Bjorn Arild Gram has said.
As Forsvarets forum writes, the minister believes that Norwegian companies need to invest in Ukraine.
“Significant investment and private sector involvement are needed to meet Ukraine’s enormous needs. Norwegian companies want to share knowledge, experience and solutions both in the short and long term. This is what the Ukrainian side is asking for as well,” Gram noted.
He also emphasized that in the long term it might become relevant for Norwegian companies to set up production in Ukraine.
“DTEK Energy commissioned 16 new longwalls in January-September 2024, the company’s press service said on Friday.
According to the press service, the company’s miners plan to commission nine more longwalls by the end of the year.
“This allows us to meet the fuel needs of thermal power plants at the peak of electricity consumption, accumulate the necessary coal reserves for the autumn-winter period and maintain the reliability of the Ukrainian power system,” the statement said.
In total, since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, DTEK Energy has invested almost UAH 18 billion of its own funds in Ukrainian coal mining.
The investments were directed to the construction and repair of capital mine workings, completion of coal longwalls, equipping mines with tunneling equipment, underground mine transport and projects to maintain production facilities.
As reported, in 2023, DTEK Energy commissioned 26 new longwalls.
In 2023, the energy holding’s investments in Ukrainian coal mining amounted to about UAH 7 billion, which is almost twice as much as in 2022.
“DTEK Energy ensures a closed cycle of electricity production from coal. In particular, the company has established a full production cycle in coal mining: coal mining and enrichment, machine building and maintenance of mine equipment.
Number of unemployed in Ukraine and job opportunities, 2023-2024
Open4Business.com.ua
Agrotrade has completed threshing sunflower and soybeans in the fields of Poltava, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy regions, which covered 12.4 thou hectares and 8.1 thou hectares, respectively, the company’s press service reports.
According to the report, despite the abnormal heat during the 2024 season, the yield of sunflower and soybeans is quite high.
“We got high sunflower yields for these conditions in Chernihiv and Sumy regions. In Kharkiv region, it was much more difficult to work because there was no precipitation at all. In addition, this is a ‘conditionally safe’ area, so we were limited in our ability to conduct some agricultural operations. The yields depended on the cultivation technology: on the fields where we sowed with a long rotation and an optimal predecessor, they were high, and, conversely, with a short rotation and a poor predecessor, the yields were lower. At the same time, soybeans were affected by drought in all enterprises,” said Oleksandr Ovsyanyk, Director of Agrotrade’s Agricultural Department.
According to him, due to the hot summer, the grain arrives at the elevators completely dry and does not need to be processed. As a result, agricultural producers have significantly reduced drying costs, which improves the economic component of their work.
The agricultural holding has no plans to change its cultivation technology to take into account the drought. However, they intend to consider investing in moisture-saving technologies. Agrotrade Group is a vertically integrated holding company with a full agro-industrial cycle (production, processing, storage and trade of agricultural products). It cultivates over 70 thousand hectares of land in Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv regions.
Its main crops are sunflower, corn, winter wheat, soybeans and rapeseed. It has its own network of elevators with a simultaneous storage capacity of 570 thousand tons. The group also produces hybrid seeds of corn and sunflower, barley, and winter wheat. In 2014, a seed plant with a capacity of 20 thousand tons of seeds per year was built on the basis of Kolos seed farm (Kharkiv region). In 2018, Agrotrade launched its own brand Agroseeds on the market.
Vsevolod Kozhemiako is the founder and CEO of Agrotrade.
