The blowing up of the Kakhovskaya HPP (Dnipropetrovsk Region) has not directly affected the situation in the country’s energy system and there is no threat to power supply stability, the Ministry of Energy and NEC Ukrenergo said on Tuesday. As of June 6, there was enough electricity generated to cover consumers’ needs.
“Experts of the Ministry of Energy and Ukrhydroenergo are studying the potential impact of the disaster on the volume of hydro generation. The actual level of electricity generated so far corresponds to the planned one,” the ministry noted, in particular.
It also confirmed the information about the absence of a direct threat to the Zaporizhzhya NPP,
“The situation at ZNPP. Despite the gradual decrease in the water level, there is no direct threat to the occupied plant. Energoatom experts are constantly monitoring the situation,” the ministry stated.
At the same time there is a risk of flooding of power facilities in the Kherson region, in particular, the Kherson CHPP, because of the dam detonation. Because of the underflooding in Kherson almost 12 thousand consumers in the area of Ostrov are already de-energized, there may be problems with water supply. Preventive anti-crisis measures are being prepared.
In turn, Ukrenergo reminded that from the first days of aggression, the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant was occupied and mined by the Russians. Technological connection with it has been lost, the output of power to the controlled territory of Ukraine from the plant was not made.
“Tonight the aggressor country committed another act of terrorism at the civilian infrastructure facility, which is a tragedy for our fellow citizens and a large-scale environmental catastrophe. “Ukrenergo will further report on the impact of the consequences of the disaster on the state of the energy system,” the NEC said.
In addition, according to the ministry and Ukrenergo, overnight Russian shelling damaged regional power grids in Kherson, Kharkiv, Sumy and Donetsk regions. In the Kiev region, there is damage to oblenergo networks due to the falling debris of a hostile target shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.
“Due to previous shelling, some consumers in Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Kherson and Chernihiv regions also remain without power. Repair crews are working where the security situation allows it,” the Ministry of Energy added.
In addition, according to Ukrenergo, in the morning and partially in the afternoon of June 6, electricity is exported to Poland. During the daytime, there are imports from Slovakia. There are no imports or exports in the evening.
According to the Ministry of Energy, commercial imports of electricity on June 5 amounted to 1,031 MWh, while exports to Poland amounted to 1,800 MWh.
Primary registrations of used cars imported from abroad in May 2023 increased slightly (by 0.3%) up to almost 15.4 thousand units, which was the largest number of registrations per month since the beginning of the year, informed the association “Ukrautoprom” in Telegram channel.
“There is no point in comparing with last year’s May, because last year used cars were massively imported to Ukraine under ‘zero’ customs clearance,” the association said in a statement.
The largest share in this segment of the car market still belongs to gasoline cars – 45%, followed by diesel cars – 36%, electric cars – 12% (in April – 11%), vehicles with HBO – 5% and hybrids – 2% (3% in April).
The average age of used cars, which switched to Ukrainian plates in May, is 11 years (as in April), and the oldest car was Honda Prelude of 1992 production year.
According to the Association, in May the leader of registrations has changed – it was Volkswagen Golf (1333), pushing back Renault Megane (1230) to the second position.
Next come Skoda Octavia (840), Volkswagen Passat (694), Ford Focus (403), Nissan Leaf (388), Nissan Qashqai (360), VW Touran (326), AUDI A4 (297), Skoda Fabia (294).
As reported with reference to “Ukravtoprom”, new cars in Ukraine were registered 5.1 thousand in April, i.e. three times less.
“Ukravtoprom” reports that a total of 69.9 thousand used cars, imported from abroad, got the first registration in Ukraine in January-May, which is 3.2 times more than sales of new cars during the same period.
The Ukrainians in 2022 registered 388.5 thousand imported used cars foreign cars, which is nearly a quarter less than a year earlier, but more than 10 times more than the market of new cars.
The portal “Diya” launched the possibility to connect to the program “eRestoration” general contractors and retailers of building materials, the Ministry of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure informed.
“Starting from today, the business that sells construction materials and provides housing repair services can join the program of state aid “eRestoration”,” the ministry said on Facebook on Monday.
Thus, general contractors of residential and commercial construction (vendor code – 1520), stores of building materials and lumber (5211) and stores of glass, paint, wallpaper (5231) can become participants in the program.
According to the Department of Digital Transformation, more than 15,900 applications for assistance have been entered into the eRecovery system so far.
As it was reported, on May 10 there was launched the program of the state aid “eRestoration”, which provides assistance for current repairs of housing damaged as a result of war. The money can be used to purchase building materials, pay for construction work, as well as for the services of contractors who have the appropriate codes for work, and their vendors have applied for participation in the program through the portal “Dia”.
The charges include operating unregistered exchanges, broker-dealers and clearing agencies, misrepresentations regarding the control and supervision of trading on the Binance.US platform, and the unregistered offer and sale of securities – U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Today, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Binance Holdings Ltd. (“Binance”), which operates the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform Binance.com, BAM Trading Services Inc. (“BAM Trading”), which together with Binance operates the cryptocurrency trading platform Binance.US, and their founder Changpeng Zhao with a number of securities law violations.
Among other things, the Commission alleges that while Zhao and Binance publicly stated that U.S. customers were prohibited from trading on Binance.com, Zhao and Binance were in fact undermining their own controls to secretly allow large U.S. customers to continue trading on the Binance.com platform. In addition, the Commission alleges, Zhao and Binance publicly claimed that Binance.US was established as a separate, independent trading platform for U.S. investors, Zhao and Binance secretly controlled the operations of the Binance.US platform behind the scenes.
The SEC also alleges that Zhao and Binance exercised control over the platform’s customer assets, allowing them to pool customer assets or redirect them at their discretion, including to Sigma Chain, a company owned and controlled by Zhao. The Commission’s complaint also alleges that BAM Trading and BAM Management US Holdings, Inc. (“BAM Management”) misled investors about non-existent controls over trading on the Binance.US platform, while Sigma Chain engaged in manipulative trading that artificially inflated trading volume on the platform. In addition, the complaint alleges that the defendants concealed the fact that they were commingling billions of dollars of investor assets and sending them to a third party, Merit Peak Limited, which is also owned by Zhao.
The complaint also alleges violations of important registration-related provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws:
Binance and BAM’s trading with existing unregistered national securities exchanges, broker-dealers and clearing agencies;
The unregistered offer and sale of Binance’s own crypto assets, including the so-called BNB exchange token, the so-called stablecoin, Binance USD (BUSD), certain cryptocurrency credit products, and the staking-as-a-service program;
Zhao as a person controlling the activities of unregistered national securities exchanges, broker-dealers and clearing agencies Binance and BAM Trading.
“With the thirteen charges, we allege that Zhao and Binance engaged in an extensive network of deception, conflicts of interest, insufficient disclosure, and willful evasion of the law,” said Gary Gensler, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “Zhao and Binance are alleged to have misled investors about risk controls and misrepresented trading volumes by actively concealing who operated the platform, the manipulative trading of its affiliated market maker, and even where and with whom investor funds and crypto assets were held. They attempted to circumvent U.S. securities laws by claiming bogus controls that they ignored behind the scenes in order to keep high value U.S. clients on their platforms. The public should be wary of investing any of their hard-earned assets in or on these illegal platforms.”
“Zhao and Binance allegedly misled investors about risk controls and misrepresented trading volumes by actively concealing who operated the platform, the manipulative trading of its affiliated market maker, and even where and with whom investor funds and crypto assets were held. They attempted to circumvent U.S. securities laws by claiming bogus controls that they ignored behind the scenes in order to keep high value U.S. clients on their platforms. The public should be wary of investing any of their hard-earned assets in or on these illegal platforms.”
“We allege that Zhao and Binance not only knew the rules of the game, but knowingly chose to violate them, putting their customers and investors at risk – all to maximize their own profits,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement. “By engaging in numerous unregistered offerings and failing to register and simultaneously combining the functions of exchanges, brokers, dealers, and clearing agencies, the Binance platforms under Zhao’s control created undue risks and conflicts of interest for investors. These risks and conflicts are only exacerbated by the lack of transparency of Binance’s platforms, reliance on related party transactions, and lies about controls to prevent manipulative trading. Despite their longstanding efforts not to be ‘held accountable,’ today’s complaint begins the process of holding them accountable.”
UNREGISTERED EXCHANGE, BROKER AND CLEARING AGENCY
The Commission’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that since at least July 2017, Binance.com and Binance.US, under Zhao’s control, have operated as exchanges, brokers, dealers, and clearing agencies and have earned at least $11.6 billion, in part, from transaction fees from U.S. customers. The Commission’s complaint alleges that: (1) with respect to Binance.com, Binance should have registered as an exchange, broker-dealer and clearing agency; (2) with respect to Binance.US, Binance and BAM Trading should have registered as an exchange and as clearing agencies; and (3) BAM Trading should have registered as a broker-dealer. The Commission also alleges that Zhao is liable, as a person in control of Binance and BAM Trading, for the relevant registration violations.
UNREGISTERED OFFER AND SALE OF CRYPTO ASSETS
The Commission accused Binance of unregistered offers and sales of BNB, BUSD, and cryptocurrency products known as “Simple Earn” and “BNB Vault”. In addition, the Commission accused BAM Trading of unregistered offer and sale of the Binance.US “staking as a service” program. The complaint also states that Binance secretly controls the assets invested by US customers in the BAM program.
FAILURE TO RESTRICT U.S. INVESTORS’ ACCESS TO BINANCE.COM
The SEC’s complaint alleges that Zhao and Binance created BAM Management and BAM Trading in September 2019 as part of a complex scheme to circumvent U.S. federal securities laws by claiming that BAM Trading independently operated the Binance.US platform and that U.S. customers could not use the Binance.com platform. The complaint alleges that, in fact, Zhao and Binance maintained significant ownership and control of the U.S. company and that behind the scenes, Zhao instructed Binance to allow and conceal the continued access to Binance.com by many U.S. customers with significant funds. In one instance, Binance’s head of compliance wrote to a colleague that “we are operating as a fictitious unlicensed securities exchange in the US, bro.”
MISLEADING INVESTORS
According to the Commission’s complaint, BAM Trading and BAM Management misled Binance.US customers and investors about the existence and adequacy of market oversight and controls to detect and prevent manipulation of cryptocurrency trading volumes on the Binance.US platform. The complaint also alleges that the strategic and targeted trading for the purpose of money laundering, which was largely carried out by Sigma Chain, the main undisclosed “market maker” trading firm of the Binance.US platform, also owned by Zhao, demonstrates the falsity of BAM Trading’s claims of market oversight and control.
The SEC’s investigation into the Binance.US violations was led by Kathleen Hitchins, Ann Rosenfield, and Colby Steele, with assistance from Ainsley Kerr, John Marino, and Donald Battle, and supervised by Paul Kim.
The Binance.com investigation was led by Michael Baker, Donna K. Norman and Martin Zerwitz, with assistance from Sachin Verma and Alexander Lefferts and supervised by Deborah A. Tarasiewicz. Both cases were supervised by Jorge G. Tenreyro and David Hirsch of the SEC’s Division of Cryptoassets and Cyberspace. The litigation is being led by Matthew Scarlato, Jennifer Farer and J. Emmett Murphy, with assistance from Hope Hall Augustini and supervised by David Nasse, Olivia Chow and Mr. Tenreyro.
Source: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-101
Author: Ivaneta Mykyta
Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB) considers the continuation of the restrictive measures on import of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower from Ukraine to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria discriminatory and groundless and insists on the cancellation of this decision.
“Such prolongation will neither solve the problems of local markets nor improve the situation of local farmers,” said a statement published on the UCAB website on Monday.
The business association believes that the resolution prepared by the EU on the prohibition of the import of agricultural products from Ukraine to five neighboring EU countries, according to which the restrictions will be in force until September 15 this year, will have a negative impact on the economic recovery of Ukrainian farmers during the war.
Such decisions should be taken only after detailed studies and consultations with all EU member states because according to the latest data, some neighboring EU member states, such as Poland, were able to increase their export potential and domestic processing by importing cheaper Ukrainian agricultural products and improve their positions in livestock and finished products, the UCAB reminded.
The business association noted the negative influence of such a decision on the situation with sabotage of the “grain agreement” by Russia. “According to preliminary forecasts, the current steps to prohibit the import of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU may deepen the blackmailing of the Russians regarding the operation of the grain corridor,” the UCAB said.
Experts of business-association emphasized that Ukraine will have less export potential in 2023 season: export of grains and oilseeds from Ukraine is forecasted to decrease by one third to 46 million tons per year.
Existing trade restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural products in five countries of the EU should be abolished. At the same time, it is worth conducting an open constructive dialogue between representatives of the Ukrainian and European agro-communities in order to find compromises, which will help both the EU and Ukraine to become stronger, summed up in UCAB.
Ukrainian cat and dog food manufacturer Kormotech is investing EUR14 million to expand its production in Ukraine and Lithuania during 2022-2023, the company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
Reportedly, some of the projects are already being implemented and some are planned to be implemented by the end of 2023. Investments in the Lithuanian plant in 2022-2023 will total EUR 5.4 million, and in Ukrainian plants for wet and dry feed by the end of this year will be about EUR 8.5 million.
The wet fodder production capacity at the Kedainiai Kormotech plant in Lithuania is expected to increase by 25%, and at the Ukrainian plant by 65%. At the Lithuanian plant, the company has integrated new technology for the production of wet feed in the premium and super-premium segments.
In Ukraine, the company is expanding the capacity of its wet feed factory, modernizing 50% of its existing equipment and automating manual processes, the company said. In addition, it plans to modernize its dry feed plant in 2023.
According to the press release, Kormotech continues to improve the efficiency of existing production and business processes.
According to the press release, last year it began working on a “zero losses” program to reduce all irreversible losses at the plant to zero or to recycle them. A complete energy audit of the production in the areas of heat recovery, thermal insulation and the system of monitoring of energy consumers in the processes was carried out. Kormotech began implementing the SAP ERP system in the cloud, which will help focus on innovation, reduce operating costs and improve process efficiency.
Kormotech’s 2022 results show a 12 percent increase in turnover to $124 million from $110 million in 2021. The goal in 2023 is to reach a turnover figure of $150 million and increase the export/Ukraine ratio to 30%/70% from 24%/76% previously through synchronous growth of markets, the report said.
LLC “Kormotech” is the leading Ukrainian manufacturer of food for cats and dogs, occupies the 51st position in the world ranking of petfood producers and the seventh in the ranking of the most dynamic petfood brands. Kormotech sells its own brands and partner brands in 40 countries.
The company has two dry and wet food plants in the Lviv region and a plant in Lithuania. The company produces products for cats and dogs under its own brands Optimeal, CLUB 4 PAWS (TM “Meow!” and “Woof!”) and in private label direction. The assortment has more than 650 items.
The ultimate beneficiaries of Kormotech are Elena and Rostislav Vovk.
