Allegro, Poland’s largest marketplace, plans to introduce delivery from the platform’s Polish sellers to Ukraine starting this June, and to create a separate platform, Allegro.ua, for Ukrainian companies in the future, according to a report by the Polish publication Wiadomosci Handlowe, citing sources.
“We are seeing a clear growth trend in cross-border e-commerce and increasing interest from foreign customers, including those from Ukraine. To support our partners even more effectively in their regional expansion, we are now implementing the first phase of a new delivery method—Allegro International Ukraine,” the article states.
It is noted that in the first phase of launching delivery to Ukraine, several hundred sellers from Poland will join the program.
“As part of the next phase, Allegro will open up to a wider range of Polish sellers who want to reach customers living in Ukraine,” the publication explains.
According to Wiadomosci Handlowe, Allegro’s integration with Ukrainian sellers could take place as early as 2027.
“This would be a turning point and, at the same time, proof that Allegro intends to seriously compete with marketplaces operating in Ukraine, such as Rozetka,” Wiadomosci Handlowe noted.
Overall, the marketplace is currently in the preparatory phase for launching this new initiative, specifically by recruiting partners and providing them with technical and operational support.
It is also specified that Nova Post will handle the delivery of packages from Polish sellers to Ukrainian customers.
Allegro is the largest marketplace in Poland, which also operates in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, and Slovenia.
In 2021, the company announced the acquisition of the Czech e-commerce group Mall Group and the logistics company WE|DO. The deal was finalized in April 2022, allowing the marketplace to enter the markets of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, and Slovenia.
The United Kingdom and France blocked a proposal for NATO member states to allocate 0.25% of their GDP to military aid for Ukraine, according to The Telegraph.
Earlier this week, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte acknowledged that his plan would not be implemented because it had not received sufficient support.
“I don’t think this proposal will be put to a vote,” he told reporters, without naming the opponents.
According to The Telegraph, the idea was blocked by the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, and Canada.
Rutte had hoped to secure approval for this proposal at the upcoming annual NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
This week, ministers began discussing what, in the opinion of the alliance’s civilian chief, should become a concrete manifestation of support for the war-torn country.
“An alliance insider reported that at least seven member states, which spend more than 0.25% of their GDP on military aid to Ukraine, have expressed their support. However, any proposals adopted by NATO require unanimous support from all member capitals,” the report states.
According to publicly available data compiled by the Kiel Institute, the Netherlands, Poland, as well as the Nordic and Baltic countries, provide aid at a level of 0.25% of GDP or higher. The size of the UK’s military contribution—the third largest after the US and Germany—is also uncontroversial, despite the fact that it does not reach the 0.25% of GDP mark.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to allocate at least £3 billion per year—approximately 0.1% of GDP—in the near future.
Most of the criticism is directed at countries such as France, Spain, Italy, and Canada, which have repeatedly been accused of not doing their part. These countries—three of which are Europe’s third, fourth, and fifth-largest economies—lag behind many of their smaller allies in terms of aid levels.
Rutte argues that aid to Ukraine “is not distributed evenly within NATO,” and that many countries “are not spending enough to support Ukraine.”
The NATO chief, who served as the Dutch prime minister for 14 years, has long argued that Europe must take on greater responsibility for supporting Ukraine, in response to Donald Trump’s complaints about the continent “freeloading.”
A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office stated: “The UK continues to work with NATO allies on all proposals to ensure the best possible support for Ukraine from the alliance.”
Representatives from France, Italy, Spain, and Canada did not respond to The Telegraph’s requests for comment.
According to the Interfax-Ukraine Culture project, Lviv-based sound engineer Volodymyr Punko received a Latin Grammy statuette for his work on the album Y El Canto de Todas, becoming the first Ukrainian sound engineer to win this award. The winner announced this on his Facebook page.
“It is an honor for me to say that I am the first sound engineer in Ukrainian history to receive such an award,” Volodymyr noted.
In the comments on the sound engineer’s post, friends, colleagues, and followers congratulated him on this historic victory, calling the award a well-deserved recognition of his many years of professional work and talent. Users wrote that they were proud of the Ukrainian’s achievement on the international stage, wished him new creative successes, and noted that Ukraine’s first Latin Grammy statuette in the field of sound engineering is a significant milestone for the entire Ukrainian music industry and further proof of its presence on the global cultural map.
The award was given for his participation in the creation of the album by Spanish guitarist Rafael Serrallet, recorded together with the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Lviv National Philharmonic under the direction of conductor Serhiy Khorovets. The album won in the “Best Instrumental Album” category.
According to the sound engineer, he was responsible for the entire sound production process—from recording to final mastering—working to combine orchestral precision with musical expressiveness.
The project brought together the musical traditions of Latin America, Spain, and academic symphonic performance. The album features orchestral interpretations of works by Latin American female composers, with the guitar playing a central role. The Latin Grammy Awards ceremony took place earlier in Las Vegas, though Punko himself was not present at the ceremony and received his award later.
The Latin Grammy Awards are one of the most prestigious international music awards, presented by The Latin Recording Academy for achievements in Latin American music.
https://interfax.com.ua/news/culture/1170688.html?utm_source=telegram
According to Interfax-Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga has instructed Ukrainian missions to international organizations to demand an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council and a joint meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation and the OSCE Permanent Council in connection with Russia’s missile strike on Kyiv.
“I have instructed all our missions to international organizations to make full use of multilateral instruments in response to yesterday’s barbaric Russian missile strike on Kyiv. The UN, OSCE, Council of Europe, and UNESCO must provide an adequate and decisive response to the aggressor, who is attempting to compensate for the lack of military progress on the battlefield with terror against the civilian population,” he wrote on social media.
Sibiga stated that Ukraine is demanding an immediate and urgent convening of a UN Security Council meeting and a joint session of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation and the OSCE Permanent Council.
“Putin is trying to intimidate Ukraine by attacking the civilian population and destroying residential buildings, museums, schools, and critical infrastructure. He is also trying to intimidate the world by launching missiles from a reconnaissance missile system against peaceful cities,” the minister emphasized.
According to him, all of this requires decisive and coordinated action by the international community.
“We call on our partners to take decisive multilateral action aimed at deterring Russia and compelling it to accept a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace,” the foreign minister stressed.
Hungary is reinstating a ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, which had earlier temporarily ceased to be in force due to the expiration of emergency decrees. The new decision is intended to maintain restrictions on Ukrainian goods in the domestic Hungarian market, while the transit of products through the country’s territory, as before, may remain permitted.
According to Hungarian media, the previous ban on the import of more than 20 categories of Ukrainian agricultural products ceased to be in force on May 14 after the expiration of the legal regime on the basis of which it had been introduced. The list of restrictions included grain, oilseeds, flour, poultry meat, eggs and a number of other goods.
After that, Budapest announced its intention to restore the ban, explaining the decision by the need to protect Hungarian farmers and the domestic market. Earlier, Hungarian Minister of Agriculture István Nagy repeatedly stated that the country would not open its market to Ukrainian agricultural products even after the renewal of the trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine.
Hungary’s position remains part of a broader conflict around Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU. After the start of the full-scale war, the European Union abolished duties and quotas for Ukrainian goods in order to support the Ukrainian economy and compensate for problems with maritime logistics. However, EU border countries, including Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, have stated that cheap Ukrainian products were putting pressure on local farmers.
The Hungarian ban is not a general ban on all Ukrainian exports. It primarily concerns supplies to Hungary’s domestic market. The transit of Ukrainian products to other EU countries or beyond the union had previously been maintained, since for Ukraine land and Danube routes remain an important part of export logistics.
Hungary explains the restrictions by the need to protect farmers from sharp price fluctuations. In 2022, flows of Ukrainian grain and oilseeds to neighboring countries increased sharply due to the reorientation of exports from the Black Sea to European routes. Reuters noted that before the war Hungary annually imported up to 50,000 tonnes of grain and oilseeds from Ukraine, while in 2022 the volume of such supplies rose to 2.5 million tonnes, and in 2023, before the introduction of the ban, amounted to up to 300,000 tonnes.
Corn became the main problematic category for Hungary. According to The Cattle Site, citing customs statistics, during the year after the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine exported 1.7 million tonnes of corn to Hungary, compared with about 30,000 tonnes before the war.
For Ukraine, the Hungarian decision has more political and logistical significance than critical trade significance. The main markets for Ukrainian agricultural exports in the EU are not in Hungary, but in larger consumer and processing countries. However, for border trade and certain commodity groups, the ban limits exporters’ flexibility and increases dependence on licensing, transit routes and agreements with the European Commission.
In 2025, the EU had already revised trade conditions with Ukraine, increasing quotas for a number of goods: for wheat — from 1 million to 1.3 million tonnes, sugar — from 20,000 to 100,000 tonnes, barley — from 350,000 to 450,000 tonnes, and poultry meat — from 90,000 to 120,000 tonnes. These changes were intended to balance support for Ukrainian exports and the interests of farmers in EU countries.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has appointed Michael Weinstein as an independent member of the supervisory board of the state-owned Sens Bank; from 2019 to 2023, he served as an independent member of the supervisory board of Oschadbank.
According to the bank’s report in the NSSMC’s information disclosure system, the government adopted the relevant decision by an order dated May 20, 2026; Weinstein will take office following approval by the National Bank of Ukraine.
His term on Sens Bank’s supervisory board is set to last until the current board’s term expires on October 3, 2028.
In recent years, Weinstein has also worked in financial institutions in Kazakhstan and the Netherlands.
Since 2019, he has been a member of the advisory committee of limited partners of the Kazakhstan Capital Restructuring Fund (Netherlands). In 2023–2024, Weinstein served as an independent member of the board of directors of JSC “Microfinance Organization OnlineKazFinance” (Solva, Kazakhstan), from 2019 to 2023, he served as an independent director of the Export-Credit Agency of Kazakhstan, and from 2019 to 2022, he was an independent member of the board of directors of JSC “National Management Holding ”KazAgro” (Kazakhstan).
As reported, in early May, the Verkhovna Rada’s Special Committee on Economic Security appealed to the Prime Minister, the Head of the National Bank, and the Minister of Finance with a request to investigate possible external influence on the activities of Sens Bank’s management bodies.
The committee also requested that Nikolai Gladyshenko, chairman of the bank’s supervisory board, and Alexei Stupak, chairman of the management board, be suspended from their duties for the duration of the investigation.
Subsequently, on May 6, Gladyshenko voluntarily stepped down from his duties as chairman of the supervisory board while the circumstances were being investigated, and these duties were assigned to independent board member Peter Novak.
SENS Bank was nationalized in 2023. According to the National Bank, as of April 1, 2025, with assets of 159.22 billion UAH, it ranked 9th among Ukraine’s 58 banks.
