The US Mercury Bank has amended its policy, according to which it refuses to service accounts of legal entities whose founders are located in Ukraine, according to a message released by Mercury on social networks.
“While Ukraine is not subject to comprehensive sanctions, several regions of Ukraine have been sanctioned. We have previously utilized a regional model to support as many customers in Ukraine as possible; however, maintaining this policy while meeting our strict compliance standards has become increasingly challenging. We will continue to review this policy and hope to be able to modify it in the future,” the bank said in a statement to a client inquiry.
In Mercury clarified that the initial message that the bank refuses to serve and companies with founders with Ukrainian passport residing in the U.S., was erroneous.
On July 22, Petcube CEO Yaroslav Azhnyuk reported about the receipt of such a letter refusing to open accounts for applicants with passports of such countries as Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, regardless of their physical location. According to him, Ukrainian customers will have full access to their accounts until August 6, and already on August 13 their accounts will be closed.
However, in comments to the post, users published a screenshot of Mercury’s response on Linkedin, where the bank points out an error in its own statement, and says that these restrictions do not apply to Ukrainians living in the United States.
“We have always allowed (and continue to allow) customers with Ukrainian passports based in the US to use Mercury – we simply cannot support companies with founders based in Ukraine today. We apologize for the confusion caused by this error”, – stated in the message.
In turn, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, reacted to the situation by asking to forward to her Mercury Bank’s letters to Ukrainian clients with permission to explain the situation.
“Corum Druzhkovka Machine-Building Plant (Corum DrMZ), a part of Corum Group (DTEK Energy), has received a new order to supply underground wheeled vehicles for DTEK Energy’s mines, the plant reported on Facebook.
The order, the value of which was not disclosed, will include one passenger mine car, six freight cars, nine transport trolleys and 30 unified wheelsets.
“The equipment will be manufactured for Ternovskoye and Dniprovskoye mines. Delivery is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024,” the statement said.
It is specified that the new order includes a number of improvements to increase transportation efficiency.
The plant also previously posted on Facebook that it had received an order to manufacture reloading and receiving devices for Zakhidno-Donbasskaya mine of Ternovskoye Mine, which the plant had not previously produced.
The equipment weighing more than 20 tons and designed to transport raw and enriched coal inside the complex’s building will replace the old one during the overhaul. The first five units will be shipped in August. The delivery is scheduled to be completed in October.
“Corum DrMZ, relocated to Dnipro in 2022, according to Opendatabot, earned UAH 500 million in net profit in 2023, compared to a loss of UAH 453 million a year earlier, with net income growing 2.7 times to UAH 1 billion 530 million.
In June 2024, the plant manufactured 44 units of products and 78.6 thousand components and spare parts, including 40 freight trolleys, 20 unified wheel sets, two suspension devices and two reloaders. A KPD tunneling machine and 102 consoles were also repaired.
According to the plant, in the second half of 2024, it will produce wheeled vehicles, lifting equipment, loaders, a hoisting machine, fans, non-core products, and repair tunneling machines.
“We will also manufacture new metal structures for buildings. The investments will be used to repair machines, but we also plan to purchase new equipment,” the plant’s director Tatyana Kalugina was quoted as saying in the report.
Corum Group is a leading manufacturer of mining equipment in Ukraine. It is a part of DTEK Energy, an operating company responsible for coal mining and coal-fired power generation within Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK energy holding.
Representatives of the leadership of left-wing parties from the New National Front, which won the French parliamentary elections, have agreed to nominate Lucie Castets for the post of prime minister, La Voix Du Nord reported on Tuesday.
“We propose Lucie Castetz as prime minister to lead a government capable of responding to the social and environmental urgencies that our fellow citizens have expressed during the last election,” wrote Fabien Roussel, leader of the French Communist Party, which is part of the New Popular Front.
French media note that Castetz currently holds the position of head of the financial department of the Paris City Hall. It is noted that she actively opposed the recent pension reform in the country, which raised the retirement age.
On June 9, President Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the National Assembly and called early legislative elections due to the defeat of the President’s social-liberal party, the Renaissance, in the European Parliament elections, which lost to the National Rally. In the early parliamentary elections on July 7, the pro-presidential coalition “Razom” lost to the left-wing bloc of parties “New People’s Front”. No political force gained an absolute parliamentary majority.
Earlier, the Experts Club think tank and Maksym Urakin presented a video analysis of the most important elections in the world in 2024, more details are available here – https://youtu.be/73DB0GbJy4M?si=eGb95W02MgF6KzXU
On July 23, the Ukrainian State Postal Communications Enterprise (USPCE) Ukrposhta (Kiev) announced its intention to conclude a contract with IC Guardian (Kiev) for the services of compulsory insurance of civil liability of owners of motor vehicles (OSAGO).
As reported in the system of electronic public procurement “Prozorro”, at the expected cost of the purchase of services1,151 million UAH price proposal of IC “Guardian” amounted to 363.3 thousand UAH,
The tender was also attended by “European Insurance Alliance” – UAH 369,01 thousand, “Inter-Policy” – UAH 524,9 thousand, “Euroins Ukraine” – UAH 1,036 million.
IC “Guardian” has been working in the insurance market since 2007. It is a member of the Presidium of the League of Insurance Organizations of Ukraine. Since January 2020 it has received the status of a full member of the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTSBU), has the right to sell “Green Card” policies.
A power unit at a Ukrainian nuclear power plant has been connected to the power grid after scheduled repairs were completed ahead of schedule, the Ministry of Energy has announced.
“This will significantly affect the stability of the power system and reduce the electricity shortage caused by massive Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy sector,” the ministry said in a Telegram message on Wednesday.
According to the report, in the western and partially southern regions, power supply restrictions have been canceled until 18:00, in all other regions, restrictions are in effect from 0:00 to 24:00.
As reported with reference to DTEK and regional power distribution companies, the schedules of hourly blackouts until 16:00 have been canceled in Kyiv, Kyiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovs’k, Sumy, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, Rivne, Poltava, Zaporizhzhya, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Khmelnytsky regions.
Ukraine will begin its participation in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, before the official opening of the Games, with a football match against Iraq on July 24. The 2024 Olympic Games in Paris will open on Friday, July 26, and the competitions will last until August 11.
At the same time, on July 24, the Ukrainian Olympic team will make its debut at the Olympic football tournament. In particular, the first round group stage match between Ukraine and Iraq will start at 20:00 Kyiv time.
All matches of the national team will be broadcast on the platforms of Suspilne Sport, local TV channels of Suspilne and Radio Promin.
In addition, on July 24, a fan zone for the Olympic Games will open in Urban Park at VDNKh, where the competitions will also be broadcast.
As reported, the Summer Olympics in Paris will take place from July 26 to August 11. Ukrainian athletes have received 124 licenses to participate in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
The Ukrainian national team of 140 athletes will be represented in 26 out of 32 disciplines: badminton, boxing, freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, breaking, weightlifting, cycling (mountain bike and road), rowing slalom, rowing, canoeing, artistic gymnastics rhythmic gymnastics, judo, track and field, artistic swimming, swimming, rock climbing, diving, archery, benchrest shooting, shooting, modern pentathlon, tennis, table tennis, fencing and football.
At the last Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics (which took place in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic), Ukraine took 44th place in the medal standings and became the 16th country in the ranking by the total number of medals won (1 gold, 6 silver and 12 bronze). At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Ukrainian athletes won 11 Olympic medals (2 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze).
