As part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front military initiative, Metinvest is working on exporting bunkers for the border between Poland and Russia, the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Alexander Mironenko said in an interview with Pryamyy TV channel.
“We are mainly working with our Western partners on shelters. This is very relevant right now: we are showing them our solutions for the construction of various structures. For example, a hospital that fully complies with NATO Role2 standards. It has been inspected by numerous delegations: military medics, engineers, and foreign specialists, and everyone agreed that the solutions are quite effective,” said Myronenko.
According to him, the company has presented its engineering solutions based on “hideouts” at many military-themed exhibitions and meetings, and they are very popular.
“We are currently working on entering the international market with these solutions, for example, for the construction of the border between Poland and Russia, using our experience and proposals for underground structures. The NATO army does not have such experience, so they are very interested in this. And we exchange information and experience with them,” said the COO.
He added that the shelters have undergone a major transformation. Initially, they were simply “barrels” buried in the ground. “Now we provide a full service — it is essentially an underground house with its own lighting, generator, stove, and all amenities: just plug the generator into the outlet, and the room is ready for use,” the COO clarified.
“The unique product we are proud of is, of course, the protective structures for the Patriot and SAMP/T air defense systems. And now we are developing protection for the Hawk air defense system control module, which operates in Ukraine. In my opinion, this is a unique experience, because we are talking about state-of-the-art technology designed to protect the sky from the enemy, but certain shortcomings have been revealed in real combat conditions. Together with the military, we corrected them – we made the control modules, radar installations, and other systems safer so that personnel could feel confident even in dangerous situations and conduct air defense of our cities and towns,” explained the top manager.
He added that the company plans to continue supporting the military in all areas, both through the purchase of equipment and through the provision of its own products.
“In production, we will focus on protecting equipment: we will improve existing solutions and develop new ones for different types of equipment. The second area is the development of ”shelters” and solutions based on them. An underground training center has already been built on the basis of such shelters, and we are now completing the construction of another large underground center for pilot training. This is a large niche in which we plan to continue working and developing,” Myronenko concluded.
A Ukrainian citizen illegally crossed the border with Romania in a light aircraft and was detained in Suceava County after a call to the 112 emergency service, according to the Romanian Border Police. The official statement was published on the website of the Sighetu Marmației Territorial Inspectorate of the Border Police.
According to the Romanian side, the incident occurred on March 8 at around 10:30 a.m. near the village of Frătăuții Vechi in Suceava County. After receiving the signal, police and border guards arrived at the scene and identified the man by his Ukrainian biometric passport. Romanian authorities also found the aircraft in the garden behind one of the houses in the village.
According to the Border Police report, the man requested temporary protection in Romania due to the war in Ukraine. At the same time, Ukrainian border authorities were notified of the incident through the Porubne contact point.
Criminal proceedings have been opened against the Ukrainian citizen under two articles: for illegally crossing the state border and for operating an aircraft without the necessary certification documents.
According to the UNHCR and the Romanian government, there were 201,860 refugees from Ukraine in the country at the end of December 2025.
The European Union may provide Ukraine with a grant to modernize the Shepit-Izvoarele Sucevei border crossing point on the border with Romania as part of the Interreg VI-A NEXT Romania-Ukraine 2021-2027 program, according to the press service of the Recovery Agency. According to the report, the program’s governing body has approved the selection of the BOND – Border Operations and National Development project. The project has been recommended for funding and may receive a grant of up to €690,900, which is 90% of the total project budget.
The Recovery Agency noted that BOND is the next stage of comprehensive work on opening the Shepit-Izvoarele Sucevei border crossing point, provided for by an intergovernmental agreement between Ukraine and Romania. Earlier, as part of the Romania-Ukraine 2014-2020 program, mirror infrastructure projects were implemented on both sides of the border – bridges and access roads were built, and flood protection measures were carried out on a 2 km section on the Ukrainian side and a 3 km section on the Romanian side.
As specified, the BOND project provides for the technical equipment of the checkpoint on both sides of the border, in particular the purchase and installation of specialized equipment for the safe and efficient operation of the checkpoint, as well as the development of a joint cross-border strategy for the development of border areas.
The Interreg NEXT “Romania-Ukraine” program for the period 2021-2027 is aimed at supporting cross-border cooperation and covers the border counties of Romania and the Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, and Odesa regions of Ukraine.
BORDER, CHECKPOINT, EUROPEAN UNION, GRANT, MODERNIZATION, ROMANIA
The clearance of vehicles and goods at the Ukraine–Moldova border is temporarily not being carried out due to a failure of the central databases of the customs authorities of the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine’s State Customs Service has reported.
“Please take this information into account when planning to cross the border! The resumption of clearance operations will be announced additionally,” the message posted on the Telegram channel on Saturday said.
As reported, according to First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Energy of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, on January 31 at 10:42 a technological incident occurred, involving the simultaneous disconnection of the 400 kV line between the power systems of Romania and Moldova and the 750 kV line between the western and central parts of Ukraine.
Passenger traffic across Ukraine’s border in the second week after the New Year, from January 10 to 16, fell by 19.2% to 483,000, according to data from the State Border Service.
According to the data, the number of border crossings for departure decreased to 235,000 from 295,000 a week earlier, while for entry – to 248,000 from 303,000.
The number of vehicles and trucks carrying humanitarian cargo that passed through checkpoints this week remained at the previous level – 109,000 and 394, respectively.
According to the State Border Service, as of 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, there were queues at only two checkpoints along the entire western border: Ustyluh on the border with Poland (15 cars) and Mamalyga on the border with Moldova (30 cars).
The total number of border crossings this week is lower than last year. At that time, 245,000 people left Ukraine and 270,000 entered the country in a similar 7-day period. The flow of cars was also higher last year – 120,000, which may be due to weather conditions.
Last year, a 13.3% drop in passenger traffic was recorded this week, and another 12% drop the following week.
As reported, from May 10, 2022, the outflow of refugees from Ukraine, which began with the start of the war, was replaced by an influx that lasted until September 23, 2022, and amounted to 409,000 people. However, since the end of September, possibly influenced by news of mobilization in Russia and “pseudo-referendums” in the occupied territories, followed by massive shelling of energy infrastructure, the number of those leaving exceeded the number of those entering. In total, from the end of September 2022 to the first anniversary of the full-scale war, it reached 223,000 people.
In the second year of the full-scale war, the number of border crossings to leave Ukraine, according to the State Border Service, exceeded the number of crossings to enter by 25,000, in the third year by 187,000, and since the beginning of the fourth year by 182,000.
In its July inflation report, the National Bank of Ukraine worsened its migration forecast: while in April it expected a net inflow of 0.2 million people to Ukraine in 2026, it now forecasts a net outflow of 0.2 million, which corresponds to the estimate of the net outflow for this year. “Net return will only begin in 2027 (about 0.1 million people, compared to 0.5 million people in the previous forecast),” the NBU added and confirmed this forecast at the end of October. In absolute terms, the National Bank estimates the number of migrants currently remaining abroad at about 5.8 million.
According to updated UNHCR data, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of January 16, 2026, was estimated at 5.349 million (5.311 million as of December 11), and 5.898 million (5.860 million) worldwide.
In Ukraine itself, according to the latest UN data for July this year, there are 3.340 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), compared to 3.757 million in April.
In 2025, Ukrainians purchased 274,300 used passenger cars imported from abroad, which is 24% more than in 2024, according to Ukravtoprom’s Telegram channel.
‘Over 77% of all passenger cars that joined the domestic car fleet last year were used cars imported from abroad,’ the report states.
The average age of imported used cars was 8.4 years (nine years in 2024).
Petrol cars accounted for the largest share in this segment of the car market – 43%, compared to 47% in 2024. Next are electric cars – 31% (18%); diesel cars – 18% (25%); hybrids – 5% (5%) and cars with LPG systems – 3% (5%).
The Volkswagen Golf tops the list of the ten most popular models with 12,812 units, followed by two TESLA electric car models – Model Y (10,683 units) and Model 3 – 9,348 units.
The list of the most popular models also includes the Renault Megane – 8,379 units; Skoda Octavia – 7,754 units; Nissan Leaf – 7,559 units; VW Tiguan – 7,439 units; AUDI Q5 – 6,933 units; Nissan Rogue – 6,310 units; and KIA Niro – 5,799 units.
As reported, in 2024, more than 222,100 used passenger cars imported from abroad were added to the Ukrainian car fleet, which is 4% more than in 2023 and exceeded 75% of the passenger car market.
As in the previous year, the most popular model was the Volkswagen Golf, with 12,164 registrations. The top three also included the Renault Megane with 9,608 registrations and the Skoda Octavia with 8,083 registrations.
The TESLA Model 3 ranked 9th last year with 4,639 used imported cars registered, while the Model Y did not make it into the top ten.
As reported, the increase in demand for used cars from abroad (as well as new ones) is primarily due to the introduction of VAT on their import from 1 January 2026.
At the same time, market experts emphasise that a significant portion of these cars were purchased ‘in advance’.
