The construction of the Chernivtsi-Suchava (Romania) European railway will begin in 2026, and a feasibility study is being prepared, Deputy Finance Minister Oleksandr Kava said.
“Under an optimistic scenario, construction of the European railway to the city of Chernivtsi (from Suceava, Romania – IF-U) may already begin next year… A feasibility study is currently being prepared for the project. Chernivtsi has the opportunity to become the second regional center after Uzhhorod to get access to the European gauge directly in the city,” Kava said at the conference ‘Logistics as a Driver of Economic Growth’ organized by the We Build Ukraine think tank.
According to him, the construction of the Chop-Uzhhorod European railway is currently underway, funded 50% by Connecting Europe Facilities (CEF) and 50% by the state budget.
The launch of this Euro-gauge is planned for the summer of 2025, Kava said.
“This (Chop-Uzhhorod European railway – IF-U) will not only allow to launch direct passenger trains from Uzhhorod to Budapest, Bratislava, Prague, Vienna, Dresden, but will also enable shippers operating in Uzhhorod to send goods via the European railway to partners in Europe and also receive goods, containers and materials from European countries directly to Uzhhorod,” the deputy minister said.
Earlier it was reported that Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) made temporary changes to the schedule of a number of passenger trains heading to Uzhhorod until the end of July due to large-scale work on laying a European standard track between Chop and Uzhhorod.
At a meeting with European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tsitsikostas, Vice Prime Minister for Reconstruction of Ukraine and Minister of Community and Territorial Development Oleksiy Kuleba said that direct European gauge rail service to Uzhhorod would be launched in the second half of 2025.
The board of directors of Astarta, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, has approved a decision to start construction of an oilseeds processing plant, including soybeans and rapeseed, in Khmelnytsky region, in which it will invest $76 million, the company’s press service reports on Facebook.
According to the report, the planned capacity will be 400 thousand tons per year. It is scheduled to be commissioned in 2026.
“Astarta continues to strengthen its position in the processing sector by investing in new production facilities. The growing demand for soybean products in the EU opens up new opportunities, and we are ready to realize them using our experience and expertise.
The new oilseed processing plant will allow us to expand the range of ingredients for the feed base,” said Vyacheslav Chuk, Astarta’s Chief Commercial and Strategic Marketing Officer.
The agroholding noted that the project envisages the efficient use of the existing infrastructure of the agro-industrial holding and will contribute to the development of the agro-industrial ecosystem in the Western region.
“The Astarta team is already actively working on its implementation. Just today we have finalized the agreement with the manufacturer of the extraction equipment and technology. We are waiting for the decision of the Narkevytska territorial community to allocate land for the project. According to our experts, this project meets the requirements of the law “On State Support for Investment Projects with Significant Investments in Ukraine”, so we intend to apply for participation in the program to speed up its implementation,” Chuk added.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In 2023, the agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR618.93 million.
“In January-September 2024, Astarta increased its net profit by 35.1% to EUR75.60 million, EBITDA by 12.8% to $131.56 million, with revenue up 12.6% to EUR441.46 million.
Integration of European standards, in particular the provisions of EU Regulation 305/2011 on the quality of construction products and new environmental standards, is one of the important criteria for attracting investments in the reconstruction of Ukraine, the growth of the local construction market and increasing the competitiveness of domestic producers of construction materials, believes the executive director of the association “Ukrcement” Lyudmyla Krypka.
“European integration is one of the criteria for investing in Ukraine. The key factors that will contribute to the growth of construction in Ukraine and the development of the construction sector are government programs for infrastructure rehabilitation, intensification of construction works, localization of production, introduction of modern technologies and focus on environmental standards. It is those Ukrainian producers who will focus on these areas that will be able to consolidate competitive positions, stimulate the development of the industry and provide the market with quality building materials,” she said at the press conference ‘State Partnership and Investments in Rehabilitation of Territories’ at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Friday.
According to her, cement industry enterprises were among the first to implement the provisions of the 305th regulation in their activities and are now working on the implementation of environmental standards, which are also included in the new EU directive.
Kripka noted that the implementation of Euro standards not only increases the competitiveness of Ukrainian producers in international markets, but also opens the way to development and innovation.
One of the important tasks for the cement industry is to reduce CO2 emissions.
“The industry is working to reduce emissions. Enterprises introduce the best available technologies and management methods, take part in monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions. Ukraine can become an example of simple methods to reduce CO2 emissions by using biomass in clinker firing,” the expert said.
Cement industry companies themselves invest in their own production, Kripka noted. Companies also invest in the construction of additional technological lines, clinker storage silos, terminals, kiln modernization and transition to alternative fuels. Further capacity expansion of cement plants will start during the active recovery phase, when cement consumption will increase to 10-10.5 million tons. Over the past two years, this figure is about 6.3 million tons, she explained.
The Ukrcement Association was established in January 2004 by reorganizing the Ukrainian Concern of Cement Industry Enterprises and Organizations Ukrcement. The association comprises five groups of companies, including nine cement enterprises.
CONSTRUCTION, European standards, INTEGRATION, investments in Ukraine
The Cabinet of Ministers has allocated UAH 148.21 million for the construction of new border crossing points in 2025, according to the government’s Procedure for the Use of Funds Provided for in the State Budget for the Development of the Road Network and Maintenance.
In particular, UAH 21.8 million is earmarked for the construction of a border crossing point for the Dyida-Berehradaroc road connection and a service area in front of the checkpoint. UAH 4.5 million is allocated for the construction of an entry-exit control point for the opening of the Velyka Palad-Nagyhodosh road border crossing point with the placement of a complex of facilities intended for public services and connection to engineering networks. UAH 81.8 million is allocated for the construction of the Velyka Palad-Nagyhodos automobile border crossing point.
UAH 20 million has been allocated for the construction of an international checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Romanian state border between Bila Tserkva (Ukraine) and Sighetu Marmatiei (Romania) with access roads to the road border bridge. Also, UAH 20 million was allocated for the construction of service areas in front of the Uzhhorod checkpoint.
Earlier it was reported that according to the Operational Plan of the Strategy for the Development of Border Infrastructure with the EU and the Republic of Moldova until 2030, Ukraine plans to build 16 international automobile checkpoints on the border with the EU. In particular, 7 of them were planned to be built in Zakarpattia region.
In particular, UAH 1.5 million out of the required UAH 1.08 billion has already been allocated for the construction of the Dyida automobile checkpoint in 2024. In 2026, it is planned to allocate UAH 355 million, in 2027 – UAH 400 million, in 2028 – UAH 333.05 million at the expense of the state budget and international technical assistance, in particular the CEF, the text of the operational plan says.
In 2024, UAH 1.45 million was allocated for the construction of the Velyka Palad automobile checkpoint in Zakarpattia region out of the UAH 386.01 million required for the construction of the checkpoint and its service area. In 2025, it was planned to allocate UAH 382.56 million from the state budget and international technical assistance.
The construction of the Bila Tserkva checkpoint was launched in 2024, with UAH 19.5 million allocated out of the required UAH 1.51 billion for the construction of the checkpoint, access roads, and a road border bridge. In 2025, UAH 174.08 million is expected to be allocated, in 2026 – UAH 963.42 million, and in 2028 – UAH 362.5 million from the state budget and international technical assistance.
As reported earlier, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the procedure for using funds for the development and maintenance of roads at the expense of UAH 12.6 billion provided for in the budget program “Development of the Network and Maintenance of Public Roads”.
Prices for construction and installation works in Ukraine increased by 7.9% in 2024 compared to 2023, the State Statistics Service (Ukrstat) reported.
According to the statistics agency, prices increased in all segments of construction last year: in residential construction, the growth was 8.6%, in non-residential construction – 7.9%, and in engineering – 7.7%. At the same time, in December 2024, compared to December 2023, prices increased by 7.4%, 6.9% and 7%, respectively.
The State Statistics Service also noted that in December 2024 compared to November 2024, prices for construction and installation works increased by 0.4%.
As reported, in 2023, prices for construction and installation works increased by 15.8% compared to 2022.
The State Statistics Service pointed out that the figures are given without taking into account the temporarily occupied territories and part of the territories where hostilities are (were) conducted.
Cabinet furniture manufacturer Accord Import (Khmelnytsky) will expand its production capacity by almost three times by building a new plant in Khmelnytsky, where it plans to create 140 jobs, according to Dmytro Kysylevsky, deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development.
“Construction of a new cabinet furniture plant has started in Khmelnytsky. The project’s investor is Accord Import. After the launch of the new plant, its production capacity will increase from 420 thousand square meters to 1.2 million square meters of cabinet furniture per month. This will allow the company to enter the top 5 manufacturers of cabinet furniture in Europe,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
According to the MP, the amount of investment in the new project is $14 million. The launch of the first production lines is scheduled for July 2025, and the new plant should reach full capacity in September.
Kysylevsky noted that a 1.1 MW solar power plant has been built and an additional 2.8 MW is under construction to meet the electricity needs, and a gas piston plant has been purchased.
“At present, the existing Accord Import facility is 100% utilized. About 70% of the company’s cabinet furniture orders come from the international retail chain JYSK, which in 2025 increased the volume of cabinet furniture orders from Ukraine by a third,” Kysylevsky wrote.
According to the company’s Facebook page, Raiffeisen Bank has extended the term of the credit line under this contract, which was granted at the end of 2023, and the term of the ECA insurance contract for Accord Import.
“Thus, Raif and ECA have supported furniture exports for 2025 to Denmark, the Netherlands, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Sweden, Germany and Spain,” the company wrote.
According to Kysylevsky, in general, Accord Import exports 96% of its products to the EU countries, and the launch of the new plant will expand the geography of exports to the Middle East, South Asia, and South America.
The MP also clarified that the owners of Accord Import, the Grabar family, started out as furniture importers, while now it is Ukraine’s largest exporter of cabinetry.
He also added that to replace the imports of cellular cardboard used by the company for furniture packaging, another company is currently under construction in Khmelnytskyi region to produce this product
. “And the supplier of wooden boards for Accord Import is Kronospan, which recently launched a production line in Rivne region,” Kysylevskyi added.
According to the Clarirty Project, Accord Import LLC was registered in Khmelnytskyi in August 2015. The company’s authorized capital is UAH 42.105 million, and the owners are Mykola, Ruslan, and Vadym Hrabar in equal shares.
In January-September 2024, the company increased its net profit by 23% compared to the same period in 2023 to UAH 120.6 million, with net revenue growing by 27% to UAH 1 billion 271 million.
