According to Serbian Economist, the Ukrainian documentary “Night Shift,” directed by Megumi Lim, has been selected for the competition program of the 39th Herceg Novi Film Festival, which will take place in Montenegro from August 22 to 28, 2026.
The festival’s documentary section will feature 26 films by filmmakers from various countries. Of these, 24 films will compete for the “Golden Mimosa” award, while two others will be screened out of competition. Screenings of the documentary program will take place from August 23 to 27 in the courtyard of writer Ivo Andrić’s house.
Ukraine will be represented by the film *Night Shift*, shot in 2025. Its director is Megumi Lim, a documentary filmmaker and journalist based in Kyiv who previously worked with international media outlets in Japan and China.
The 29-minute film tells the story of people who continue to work in Kharkiv during the nighttime curfew. The film’s protagonists are employees of public services and businesses who keep the city functioning amid regular Russian attacks. The filmmakers show how the war has changed Kharkiv’s nightlife and how residents maintain their usual rhythm despite the threats.
“Night Shift” marks Megumi Lim’s debut short documentary. In 2025, the film won the Audience Choice Award at the Kyiv International Short Film Festival and was also screened at several international film festivals.
The festival program in Herceg Novi also features documentaries from the United States, Norway, Greenland, Chad, Palestine, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Iran, the United Kingdom, Azerbaijan, Finland, France, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, Colombia, Serbia, Georgia, Sweden, and Montenegro.
Vladimir Perović, the documentary program’s selector, noted that this year’s program focuses on the war in Ukraine, the situations in Palestine and Bosnia, climate change, the legacy of colonialism, historical memory, the status of women, and the challenges of coming of age.
The festival will take place under the slogan “All the Colors of Cinema” at several venues in Herceg Novi. In addition to the documentary section, the program includes regional feature-length films, European cinema, student films, television series, and events for film industry professionals.
In the “Medium- and Long-Term Market” section of the UEB, trading continued for July and August 2026 resources. In total, nine companies placed bids to buy or sell natural gas: Ukrnafta, GPK Naftogaz Trading, the Ukrainian Gas Transmission System Operator, LTK Electrum, and others. In total, 4,350 thousand cubic meters of natural gas—for July and August 2026—were sold in the section via the GTS and UGS facilities.
In the UEB’s short-term natural gas market, participants submitted bids on the intraday market and the “day-ahead” market. A total of 56 trades were concluded, with a combined volume of 1,551 thousand cubic meters.
This week, European gas contracts rose in price again. The M+1 TTF rose in every session: from 48.8 euros/MWh at the close of the previous Friday to about 57 euros/MWh on the morning of July 17 (+15%). The main drivers were the resumption of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran and new risks to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The status of the strait and differences in interpretation remain highly contentious. The market is once again assessing not only the actual availability of Qatari LNG, but also freight rates, insurance, and shipowners’ willingness to call at ports in the region.
Natural gas imports from Europe stood at 1.6 million cubic meters per day.
As of July 1, 2026, the number of pensioners in Ukraine stood at 9,976,600, a decrease of 190,500 since the beginning of the year, according to Opendatabot, citing data from the Pension Fund of Ukraine.
In the second quarter alone, the number of pension recipients decreased by 74,400 people. The total decline for the first half of the year has already exceeded the figure for all of 2025.
The average monthly pension payment as of early July was 7,272.68 UAH. At the same time, the actual amount of payments varies significantly depending on the region, length of insurance coverage, earnings, and type of pension.
The Pension Fund’s data does not cover the temporarily occupied territories, where Ukrainian authorities are unable to maintain a complete registry of benefit recipients.
Ukraine, pensioner, pension, demographics: The number of pensioners in Ukraine has fallen below 10 million
As of July 1, 2026, the number of pensioners in Ukraine stood at 9,976,600, a decrease of 190,500 since the beginning of the year, according to Opendatabot, citing data from the Pension Fund of Ukraine.
In the second quarter alone, the number of pension recipients decreased by 74,400 people. The total decline for the first half of the year has already exceeded the figure for all of 2025.
The average monthly pension payment as of early July was 7,272.68 UAH. At the same time, the actual amount of payments varies significantly depending on the region, length of service, earnings, and type of pension.
The Pension Fund’s data does not cover temporarily occupied territories, where Ukrainian authorities are unable to maintain a complete record of benefit recipients.
According to data from the Pension Fund of Ukraine as of July 1, 2026, approximately 2.4 million Ukrainian pensioners—or 24% of the total number—receive between 3,001 and 4,000 UAH per month.
The average payment within this group is 3,581.58 UAH. Another 335,800 people, or 3.4% of pensioners, receive no more than 3,000 UAH, while 1.72 million people receive between 4,000 and 5,000 UAH.
At the same time, approximately 3.21 million people—or nearly one-third of all pensioners—receive a pension of more than 7,000 UAH. Payments exceeding 20,000 UAH are made to 436,200 people, including 29,500 pensioners who receive more than 30,000 UAH per month.
The average pension nationwide is 7,272.68 UAH; however, it exceeds the amount received by most recipients due to significantly higher pensions for certain categories.
The population in Ukraine’s government-controlled territories currently stands at 29 million people, according to Ella Libanova, director of the Mykhailo Ptukha Institute of Demography and Quality of Life Research at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
In an episode of the Open Reality special project, she reported that this joint estimate by the State Statistics Service (SSS) and the Institute of Demography—made without a census—is based on data from mobile operators and government registries. “As of today, this is the joint estimate by the SSS and our Institute—29 million. I always say that it’s plus or minus about 300,000,” Libanova noted.
Since no population census has been conducted in Ukraine since 2001, the researchers used data from three mobile operators as a basis, supplementing it with other sources.
“We used this database as our foundation and supplemented it with various available sources of information for verification and refinement: the labor market; data from the Pension Fund, aggregated with data from tax authorities, which includes not only pensioners; data from the Migration Service and the Ministry of Justice from the demographic registry; we also used the ‘school registry’ and EHealth,” the expert explained.
Libanova acknowledged that this method is not ideal, but there is currently no alternative to it.
She also noted that, according to Eurostat, approximately 4.3 million Ukrainians currently reside in European Union countries.
At the same time, according to Libanova, there is no reliable data on the number of Ukrainians who have left for Russia since the start of the full-scale war. She also noted that a policy of demographic replacement is being carried out in the territories temporarily occupied by Russia: the Ukrainian population is being displaced and replaced by people from other regions of Russia, which, in her opinion, is a continuation of the practice of population assimilation.
Sandra Oudkirk, who has more than 30 years of experience in the diplomatic service, has become the new U.S. chargé d’affaires in Ukraine.
This was reported on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.
Sandra Oudkirk is a career diplomat and a member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service who has represented the interests of the United States in various countries around the world for more than 30 years, holding positions with a steadily expanding range of authority and responsibility.
Since 2024, she has worked at the U.S. Department of Defense, where she initially served as deputy director of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies and later became the civilian deputy and foreign policy adviser to the United States European Command. From 2021 to 2024, Sandra Oudkirk headed the American Institute in Taiwan.
While working in Washington, Oudkirk held positions in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, the Bureau of Energy Resources, and the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. She dealt with issues of strategic competition among major powers, energy security, countering threat financing, and imposing economic sanctions. She previously also worked as a senior watch officer at the U.S. Department of State Operations Center.
Abroad, she served in Taipei, Dublin, Ankara, Kingston, Istanbul, and Beijing.
Sandra Oudkirk was born and raised in Tampa, Florida. She graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She is married to diplomat Scott Oudkirk and has three adult children. She speaks Chinese (Mandarin) and Turkish.
As reported, Julie Davis had served as U.S. chargé d’affaires in Ukraine since May 2025.
Davis’s predecessor, former U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink, left the ambassadorial post in April 2025. She later openly stated that she had decided to resign because of the foreign policy of President Donald Trump’s administration.
