Ukraine has joined the group of Europe’s most dynamic defense-tech markets and ranked third among the European countries reviewed in terms of foreign direct investment attracted to the Space & Defence sector between January 2021 and November 2025, reports the Experts Club information and analytical center.
The findings are based on Colliers’ study Defence Deployment: How Europe’s military build-up and transformation reshapes property demand. Colliers divided Europe’s leading defense-tech markets into three groups. The United Kingdom, Germany, France and Turkey form the first tier; Sweden, Italy, Spain, Norway and Poland are included in the second; while Ukraine, Finland and Estonia are classified as fast-growing technology disruptors in the third tier.
Colliers does not assign individual rankings to countries within each tier. Ukraine is nevertheless singled out as one of Europe’s leading markets for technologies developing directly from battlefield experience, particularly drones, artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and autonomous systems.
Ukraine’s position is even stronger in foreign direct investment. According to fDi Markets data used by Colliers, Ukraine ranks third for Space & Defence FDI behind only the United Kingdom and Romania, while ahead of France, Latvia, Germany, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Poland and Bulgaria.
Colliers also identified 38 major geographical defense-tech clusters across Europe. Among the most significant are London and southeast England, the Paris region, Munich and Bavaria, Madrid, Rome, Milan, Stockholm, Oslo, Warsaw, Rzeszów, Upper Silesia, Helsinki-Espoo, Tampere, Oulu, Tallinn, Tartu, Ankara and Istanbul. No separate Ukrainian geographical cluster is marked on the Colliers map, although Ukraine is classified among the fastest-growing defense-tech markets.
The expansion of Ukraine’s ecosystem is also reflected in Brave1 data. By July 2026, the cluster had awarded developers almost 1,000 grants worth more than UAH 5.8 billion in total. At the European level, further growth is expected to be supported by ReArm Europe / Readiness 2030, whose potential mobilized defense spending Colliers estimates at up to EUR800 billion.
Regular consumption of sugary soft drinks, energy drinks and other beverages with added sugar may be associated with millions of new cases of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease worldwide, reports the Experts Club information and analytical center.
One of the main problems with such beverages is their high sugar concentration and the rapid delivery of sugar into the body. A standard can of sugary soda may contain around 40 grams of sugar. The WHO recommends limiting free sugars to less than 10% of daily energy intake — about 50 grams per day on a 2,000-kcal diet — while reducing intake to 5%, or roughly 25 grams per day, may provide additional health benefits.
A study published in Nature Medicine using data from 184 countries estimated that sugar-sweetened beverage consumption was associated with approximately 2.2 million new cases of type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cases of cardiovascular disease worldwide in 2020. The researchers also estimated around 340,000 associated deaths annually.
A 2026 study based on the US NHANES and the UK Biobank also identified a dose-dependent association: the higher the consumption of sugary beverages, the greater the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.
Other research points to possible links with cancer. A pooled analysis of 11 large prospective studies involving 1.52 million participants associated each additional daily serving of a sugar-sweetened beverage with an approximately 10% higher risk of hepatocellular carcinoma and a 15% higher risk of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.
Researchers stress, however, that much of this evidence is observational and does not by itself prove a direct causal relationship. Switching entirely to artificially sweetened drinks is not considered a universal solution either. The most consistent recommendation is to reduce the overall habit of consuming sweet beverages and choose water, mineral water, unsweetened tea and coffee instead.
Investments in commercial real estate across the six largest markets of Central and Eastern Europe reached EUR5.8 billion in the first half of 2026, increasing by approximately 7% compared with the same period last year, according to the Colliers CEE Investment Scene H1 2026 report.
The study covers Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria. The investment volume was above the average for the first halves of the past five years, which amounted to EUR4.6 billion, and above the ten-year average level of EUR5.1 billion.
Poland became the largest market, where the volume of transactions exceeded EUR3 billion. It accounted for around 52% of all CEE-6 investments. The Czech Republic ranked second with more than EUR1.4 billion, while Hungary attracted almost EUR600 million, showing the best first-half result since 2021.
According to Colliers, the market recovery differs from previous investment cycles. Capital is returning selectively, with investors giving preference to properties with stable income, good locations, high energy efficiency and long-term demand from tenants.
Offices became the largest segment, followed by retail real estate, residential properties and institutional rental, as well as industrial and logistics real estate.
Colliers forecasts that by the end of 2026, the volume of investments in CEE-6 commercial real estate may reach EUR12.5-13 billion, compared with EUR11.6 billion in 2025, and approach the peak levels observed before the pandemic.
Among the main risks for the market, experts cite high interest rates, rising refinancing costs, geopolitical tensions, weakness in German industry and energy costs. At the same time, additional investment opportunities are being created by infrastructure projects, the defense industry, the energy transition, artificial intelligence, reindustrialization and the relocation of production closer to European consumers.
Colliers is a global professional services and investment management company operating in more than 70 countries. Its annual revenue amounts to around $6 billion, its workforce totals around 28,000 people, and assets under management amount to approximately $110 billion.
BUSINESS, COLLIERS, EUROPE, EXPERTS CLUB, INVESTMENTS, REAL ESTATE
Ukraine ranks 38th among the countries of the world in terms of the absolute amount of government debt, estimated at about $276.2 billion, or 122.6% of projected GDP in 2026, according to an analysis by the Experts Club information and analytical center.
The ranking was compiled on the basis of the International Monetary Fund’s April World Economic Outlook database. The General government gross debt indicator — the gross debt of the general government sector — was used to compare countries.
This approach makes it possible to compare countries using a single methodology, since national definitions of government debt may differ significantly.
According to the IMF estimate, Ukraine’s government debt in 2026 amounts to about $276.2 billion, corresponding to 122.6% of projected GDP. This figure is higher than the often-published data on direct government and government-guaranteed debt because the general government methodology covers a broader public administration sector.
In the global ranking, Ukraine is positioned between Sweden, which ranks 37th with debt of $279.3 billion, and Taiwan, which ranks 39th with $269.2 billion.
In terms of the debt-to-GDP ratio, Ukraine has a significantly higher debt burden than most countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
For comparison, Poland has about $745.5 billion in government debt, or 65.7% of GDP, Romania — $297.8 billion and 61.9% of GDP, Hungary — $211.1 billion and 77.9% of GDP, and Serbia — $47.77 billion and 42.6% of GDP.
The world’s largest government debtors in absolute terms remain the United States — about $40.73 trillion, China — $22.29 trillion, and Japan — $8.95 trillion.
The total government debt of 180 countries for which comparable IMF statistics for 2026 are available amounts to about $119.4 trillion, with the top ten accounting for approximately 81% of this amount.
Experts Club notes that assessing a country’s debt sustainability requires taking into account not only the absolute size of the debt, but also its ratio to GDP and the cost of servicing it.
Copper prices continue to rise after reaching record highs at the close of the previous session.
Prices for three-month futures on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rose 0.5% on Tuesday to $14,349.5 per metric ton. On Wednesday, they rose another 0.5% to $14,415.5 per metric ton.
September copper futures on the Comex are trading at $6.73 per pound, which is 0.3% higher than the closing price on August 25.
The Chinese company Zijin Mining warned that flooding at a copper mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo could lead to a reduction in the company’s production this year by 57,000 metric tons, which would put additional pressure on the market.
This year, the price of copper on the LME has risen by approximately 16% due to a significant increase in metal shipments to the U.S. and a reduction in inventories in other countries.
Earlier, the Experts Club information and analytical center released a video on global copper production and the leading producing countries – https://youtube.com/shorts/_h8iU50z8C0?si=a-XkgGEfeUxseQNa
According to Experts.news, amid an overall decline in the number of criminal proceedings related to corporate raiding, the proportion of cases involving the unlawful seizure of corporate assets has risen sharply in Ukraine: From January through July 2026, 17 such cases were already registered, exceeding the total for all of 2025, according to data from the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine published by Opendatabot and analyzed by the Experts Club think tank.
In total, 103 criminal cases classified by Opendatabot as involving corporate raiding were registered in the first seven months of this year. Their total number decreased by 36% compared to the same period last year.
However, the nature of these crimes has changed significantly.
Cases under Article 206-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine—unlawful seizure of property belonging to an enterprise, institution, or organization—accounted for 17 proceedings, or about 16.5% of all raider attacks cases.
By comparison, in 2025, this category accounted for about 7%.
Thus, over the course of the year, the proportion of cases most directly related to the seizure of enterprise property more than doubled—from approximately 7% to 17%.
Another 12 cases were opened in January–July under Article 206 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which pertains to obstructing lawful economic activity.
At the same time, the majority of registered cases, as before, are related not to the direct seizure of assets but to documents. Under Article 205-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, concerning the forgery of documents submitted for state registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, 74 proceedings were initiated—nearly 72% of the total.
Despite the increase in the number of cases involving the unlawful seizure of property, none of the 17 such cases from January through July 2026 were referred to court. A similar situation arose with cases involving obstruction of lawful economic activity.
All 11 raiding cases referred to court since the beginning of the year involved document forgery.
Thus, official statistics reveal two opposing trends: the total number of registered raiding cases in Ukraine is declining, yet the proportion of proceedings directly related to the unlawful seizure of corporate assets is rising significantly.
BUSINESS, ENTERPRISE, EXPERTS CLUB, PROPERTY, RAIDING, UKRAINE
