26 laboratories of the well-known medical chain Eskulab have suspended their work due to an internal conflict between the company’s co-owners. According to Serhiy Dyadyushko, one of the brand’s co-owners, his colleagues Denys Melnyk and Stanislav Luhovskyi, along with software administrator Igor Malinovsky, are committing illegal actions to gain full control over the company.
“Melnyk and Luhovskyi have repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with the official cash accounting. Their actions are aimed at gaining control over Eskulab in order to gain full access to its financial flows, to further direct them into their own hands, outside the official accounting and without paying taxes,” says Sergiy Dyadyushko.
He also claims that other co-owners offered to spend a significant portion of the cash outside the cash register and distribute it without paying taxes.
“They offered to spend the lion’s share of the funds received outside the cash accounting and distribute them without paying taxes among the company’s members. I categorically disagreed with such proposals and repeatedly informed them of my rejection of illegal actions. In this regard, Melnyk and Luhovskyi launched a raider attack to exclude me from the company’s shareholders by depriving me of my share,” said Diadiushko.
According to Dyadyushko, the raider attack included the systematic convening of general meetings of participants in violation of the established procedure, which led to the artificial creation of preconditions for his exclusion from the company. Melnyk and Luhovskyi also involved employees of the Lviv Directorate of Ukrposhta to ensure that he did not receive notices of the meeting.
“I have appealed to law enforcement agencies and am preparing documents to go to court. Despite constant psychological pressure and threats, I was forced to agree to resign as director and sign a new version of the charter to prevent my exclusion from the company,” he said.
This situation led to a temporary paralyzation of 26 laboratories of the Eskulab network in Kyiv, which negatively affected the provision of medical services to the population.
“As of today, having gained control over Eskulab, as a result of consistent raider actions, Melnyk and Luhovskyi, as well as Malinowski, who administers the software (computer program) of the company on the basis of which the latter conducts its business activities, have blocked me as a participant and medical director of Eskulab access to the said program and jointly withdraw cash from the company without paying taxes monthly in the amount of about UAH 20,000,000 Such actions of these persons lead to the actual non-receipt of biological products by the state budget. Because of this, 26 biomaterial collection points in Kyiv are actually unable to carry out their activities,” emphasizes the co-owner of the company.
Sergiy Dyadyushko considers these actions to be nothing more than a raider attack aimed at depriving him of his share in Eskulab.
“They demanded that I either resign as a director or they would exclude me from the company’s shareholders. The case has now been referred to law enforcement agencies. We are also preparing documents to go to court to restore my legal rights,” Dyadyushko said.
Established in 2009, Eskulab is a leading medical laboratory in western Ukraine that provides a wide range of laboratory services to the public with four laboratories and more than 150 biological sampling points.
In 2023, Eskulab paid UAH 33.8 million in taxes, including UAH 14.97 million in unified social tax, UAH 1.33 million in military duty, and UAH 14.034 million in personal income tax. It is one of the ten largest taxpayers in Lviv region.
The co-founders of PE “PSML ‘Eskulab’ are Dyadyushko, who owns 43% of the company, Luhovskyi (43%) and Melnyk (14%). The co-founders of Eskulab Center LLC are Dyadyushko, Luhovskyi and Melnyk, who each own 20% of the company, and Ruslana Soltani, who owns 40%.
China intends to increase grain imports from Ukraine and will support the smooth operation of logistics channels, assured Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Wang Yi at a meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
“In recent years, China has been Ukraine’s largest trading partner and largest exporter of agricultural products. The volume of bilateral trade has shown rapid growth in the first half of this year, demonstrating the space and potential for cooperation between the two countries,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s press service quoted him as saying.
The Chinese minister emphasized that both sides should fully realize the role of the cooperation mechanism and strengthen practical cooperation in various fields.
“China will continue to expand grain imports from Ukraine and jointly maintain uninterrupted logistics channels and international food security,” Wang Yi assured.
“Ukraine hopes to jointly implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, strengthen political mutual trust, intensify cooperation in various fields such as economy, trade and agriculture, and strengthen exchanges between local sister cities,” the Ukrainian Foreign Minister said.
Kuleba assured that Ukraine highly appreciates China’s positive and constructive role in ensuring peace and maintaining international order. Ukraine also attaches great importance to China’s opinion on the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.
Ukraine is willing and ready to engage in dialogue and negotiations with Russia. Of course, the negotiations should be reasonable and substantive, aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace,” the Ukrainian minister summarized.
Components of state budget expenditures in 2021-2024, UAH billion
Source: Open4Business.com.ua
Exports of goods from Ukraine in June 2024 decreased by 7% compared to a year earlier and amounted to $2.77 billion, the lowest figure since the beginning of this year, the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) reported on Tuesday.
According to the IER’s monitoring of foreign trade, exports of agricultural products decreased by 2% to $1.60 billion, but exports of its components developed differently: corn exports increased by 12% (21% in physical terms), while exports of wheat and oil decreased by 32% and 5%, respectively.
In June, exports of metallurgy products fell by over 9% y-o-y to $355 m. The IER believes that this likely reflected higher energy costs and a change in the structure of exports: exports of pig iron and certain types of rolled products decreased, while exports of semi-finished and other products increased.
In addition, exports of mineral products, primarily iron ore, increased by 33%, but were lower than in January-April 2024.
The IER emphasized that due to the resumption of exports from Odesa ports, the volume of iron ore exports in tons increased by 87% in June, although it was lower than in previous months due to a shortage of electricity.
Exports of mineral products grew by only 33%.
As for imports, they remained almost unchanged in June compared to May, but increased by 12% to $5.63 billion by the same period in 2023.
In terms of sectors, imports of machinery and equipment increased by almost 20% year-on-year in June 2024 (especially imports of drones, batteries, and generators), while imports of cars decreased slightly in dollar terms due to lower import prices.
Imports of energy products increased by 16% yoy due to higher imports of coke and coal, likely to meet the needs of the metallurgy sector, which increased steel production.
At the same time, imports of chemicals and food products decreased.
It is noted that the greatest impact was the growth of imports of “other goods” (primarily purchased for the needs of the Armed Forces) – under this category, goods worth $752 million were imported to Ukraine ($400 million in the previous months of the year).
As explained by the IER, the shortage of electricity led to an increase in its imports – from $6 million in June 2023 to $78 million in June 2024, as well as batteries – from $18 million a year earlier to $68 million in June 2024.
In Ukraine, soybeans continue to fall in price, in the first three weeks of July, market operators announced the purchase prices for them in the range of 16 500-18 800 UAH/t CPT, which is 500-900 UAH/t lower than at the end of June, APK-Inform news agency reported.
“The decline in prices was mainly due to the decrease in demand for soybeans from processors due to the reduction of soybean processing caused by the low attractiveness of prices for soybean meal/cake, the transition of plants to rapeseed processing, and the energy crisis, which significantly hit the processors. This was especially evident in the central regions, where stricter restrictions on electricity supply were introduced,” the analysts explained.
According to their information, given the current situation, the volume of soybean purchases in the country decreased significantly, which resulted in the reduction of the number of finished product offers.
In addition, the downward price trend in soybean exports also continued in the period under review, although the pace of shipments increased significantly in July. Demand prices decreased by 20-30 USD/t and were quoted from 400 USD/t with delivery to the port. At the same time, the demand prices for soybeans of the new harvest were 20-30 USD/t lower than the current price level for the legume in 2023, which was largely due to the expectation of the record harvest of soybeans in Ukraine in 2024, APK-Inform stated.
The OKKO filling station chain has ordered 100 new tank cars from TAS Poltavagon, and received the first 20 units in July, the company’s press service reports.
According to it, the group will receive the entire batch in early 2025.
The new rolling stock will significantly increase OKKO’s logistics maneuverability, allowing it to import petroleum products to Ukraine faster and more profitably, as well as provide transportation services to other market participants.
“Until now, we have had 45 of our own tanks in operation. Some of them are in use, some were intended for bitumen transportation, but are now being repurposed for diesel fuel. In addition, the company leases more than 400 tank cars. By adding another 100 new units, the company will become a powerful private operator of tank cars for the transportation of petroleum products in Ukraine. “Only Ukrzaliznytsia has a larger fleet,” said Denis Gromov, Director of Logistics at OKKO.
The company clarified that the tank car manufacturer was selected at a tender among three Ukrainian companies. They considered engaging foreign companies, but their products would require additional certification in Ukraine, which could take longer.
It took six months from the moment we signed the contract with TAS Poltavagon to the production of the first batch. These are tank cars for oil products of the 15-1755 model with a carrying capacity of 68 tons and a service life of 32 years.
“This is not the first experience of cooperation with OKKO for TAS Poltavagon. Previously, our company has already supplied fuel storage tanks to the group’s filling stations. The current contract gives us the opportunity to join our partner in strengthening Ukraine’s fuel security, restore the status of a tank farm and prove our leadership in this market,” said Yuriy Pysarevsky, CEO of the plant.
OKKO also reminded that in 2022-23 the group significantly updated its own fleet of vehicles for fuel transportation. “The company continues to develop the transportation and logistics business further – investments in rail tank cars will be several times larger. The advance payment under the current contract alone amounted to UAH 100 million,” the press release said.
Earlier, in June 2024, OKKO Vice President Yuriy Kuchabsky noted that after the latest hostile attacks on the group’s tank farms, “it was decided to switch to working ‘on wheels’, that is, without accumulating fuel at the tank farms.” The group is also considering leasing terminals in Ukraine’s neighboring countries.
OKKO Group unites more than 10 diversified businesses in manufacturing, trade, construction, insurance, maintenance and other services. The flagship company of the group is Galnaftogaz, which operates one of the largest filling stations in Ukraine under the OKKO brand, with about 400 filling stations.
The group’s founder and ultimate beneficiary is Vitaliy Antonov.
