Valerii Kopiika, chair of the Academic Council of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, won the university’s rector election, which took place on October 27.
According to the election commission’s protocol, Valery Kopiyka received 1,973 votes (51.74%), former KNU Vice Rector for Research Anna Tolstanova received 712 (18.62%), 159 (4.16%) for Ksenia Smirnova, former vice rector for international cooperation at KNU, and 77 (2.01%) for Oleksandr Korchenko, first vice rector of the State University of Information and Communication Technologies. Another 130 voters did not support any candidate, and 49 ballots were deemed invalid.
It is noted that 3,105 out of 3,823 voters participated in the election, which amounts to 81.3%.
According to the university’s charter, an election is considered valid if more than 50% of all eligible voters participate.
The candidate who receives more than 50% of the votes cast by those eligible to vote is considered elected as university rector; in the event of a runoff, the candidate who receives more than 50% of the votes cast by those who participated in the election is considered elected.
Thus, Kopiika won the election in the first round.
Kopiyka was born on March 5, 1962, in Kyiv. In 1984, he graduated from the Faculty of International Relations and International Law at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and earned a specialist degree in international relations.
From 1984 to 1986, he worked as a military translator in the Republic of the Congo; from 1986 to 1988, he served as a staff member at the “Znannya” Society in Kyiv; and from 1988 to 1990, he pursued graduate studies at the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
From 1990, he served as an assistant; from 1991, as an associate professor in the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy at the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv; and from 1997, as director of the EU European Documentation Center at the Institute of International Relations.
From 2007 to 2008, he served as deputy director for academic affairs at the Institute of International Relations at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv; since 2009, he has been the director of the Institute; and since 2021, he has been the director of the Educational and Research Institute of International Relations at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
From April through September 2026, he served as acting rector of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. In September, he was elected chair of the university’s Academic Council.
In accordance with the requirements of the Law “On Higher Education,” the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine must enter into a five-year contract with the elected rector no later than one month after the date of election.
As previously reported, on March 2, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine announced a competition to fill the position of rector at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The election was originally scheduled for May 27, 2026. However, on May 11, the Ministry of Education and Science postponed the election to October 27.
Former KNU Rector Volodymyr Bugrov was barred from the election after the Kyiv Court of Appeals upheld the ruling of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv regarding an administrative offense involving the submission of knowingly false information in his declaration.
In fairy tales, good always triumphs, and dawn follows even the darkest nights. This winter, the VDNG team continues to believe in miracles and invites everyone on a magical journey: on November 27, the 12th season of one of Ukrainians’ favorite winter events—“Winter Country”—kicks off.
Guests can look forward to updated festive decorations, an open-air ice rink, new themed locations, even more entertainment, and over 20 areas for winter recreation. Details are available in the news article at the link.
Kyiv ranks first among Ukraine’s regions in terms of the number of individuals registered as owners or beneficiaries of at least 50 companies. As of October 2026, there were 131 such owners in the capital out of 478 nationwide, according to data from an OpenDataBot study published on October 26.
Thus, Kyiv accounts for more than a quarter of all so-called mass company owners listed in the Unified State Register.
Second place goes to the Kyiv region, where 34 individuals are registered, each linked to at least 50 companies.
In third place is the Dnipropetrovsk region with 27 such owners.
Next are the Donetsk region, where 24 mass company owners are recorded, and the Kharkiv region with 18 entries.
Combined, Kyiv and the Kyiv region have 165 mass owners, accounting for more than a third of the national total.
At the same time, the largest owners by number of affiliated companies are also predominantly based in the capital.
Vitaliy Ilnitsky of Kyiv ranks first in the Ukrainian ranking with 5,889 companies. Another Kyiv resident, Vladislav Melekhin, ranks third with 858 companies.
Kateryna Doroshenko of Kyiv ranks fifth with 674 registered companies.
The largest mass owner outside Kyiv is Ruslan Merzlyakov from Donetsk, who is listed as the owner or beneficial owner of 2,221 companies.
According to the study’s methodology, mass owners are defined as individuals with registration ties to at least 50 legal entities.
However, the owner’s address listed in the registry does not necessarily correspond to the location where the companies they own actually operate.
Therefore, the concentration of mass owners in Kyiv does not mean that a corresponding proportion of these companies conducts business directly in the capital.
The structure of ownership of a large number of legal entities deserves special attention. Miroslav Laba, an expert on tax and regulatory policy at the Economic Expert Platform, notes that the registration of hundreds of companies under a single individual may be a sign of nominal ownership.
At the same time, he emphasizes that the mere fact that a single individual owns or manages a large number of companies does not, in and of itself, violate the law.
According to the expert, to ensure transparency in business activities, it is important to identify the actual managers and individuals who make business decisions.
In total, according to “OpenDataBot,” as of October 2026, there were 478 individuals registered in Ukraine, each of whom is linked to 50 or more companies.
Source: “OpenDataBot,” study dated October 26, 2026.
The capital plans to add over 1.5 GW of additional heat generation capacity, in particular through the construction of backup boiler houses, which, according to current estimates, will take about two months to complete, said Mykola Kalashnyk, Ukraine’s Minister of Recovery, Infrastructure, and Transport.
“According to current estimates, the work will take approximately two months to complete, with equipment installation at certain sites scheduled to be finished by the end of December. Therefore, this capacity will bolster the capital’s heat supply already during the heating season,” he wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday.
According to the minister, he, along with representatives of the city government, the client, and contractors, inspected the construction of protective structures for critical infrastructure facilities and backup boiler houses in Kyiv, as well as assessed the actual progress of the work.
Kalashnik noted that to accelerate the construction of backup boiler houses, they are exploring the possibility of alternative connections to gas networks, carrying out construction and gas-related work simultaneously, increasing the number of crews, and working in multiple shifts. According to him, the clients for the work are the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Kyiv Region and the Kyiv City State Administration, while issues regarding network connections, approval of design solutions, and the provision of equipment are being resolved jointly with city authorities and the gas distribution company.
Kalashnik also noted that there is ongoing coordination between the Ministry, the client, city authorities, and contractors to resolve issues related to network connections, approval of design solutions, and the provision of equipment. At the same time, amendments to the regulatory framework are being developed to accelerate the implementation of similar projects nationwide.
“We also inspected a facility that has been transferred from state to municipal ownership. In the near future, it is expected to become an additional heat source for part of the city. Protecting infrastructure and creating reserve capacity are key components of Kyiv’s resilience plan. A difficult winter lies ahead, and the capital needs these solutions right now,” the minister emphasized.
boiler plant, heat generation, HEATING, INFRASTRUCTURE, KYIV
Kyiv accounts for 28% of the offenses registered in Ukraine during the first nine months of 2026 related to the forgery, destruction, or replacement of VIN codes and other vehicle identification numbers. This was reported by OpenDataBot, citing data from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
In the first nine months of this year, 599 offenses under Article 290 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine were recorded in Ukraine. The highest number of cases was recorded in Kyiv—169. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast ranked second with 114 cases, and Odesa Oblast ranked third with 45.
In total, these three regions account for 328 cases, or about 55% of all offenses registered during this period.
Compared to the same period in 2025, the number of such offenses increased by 22%—from 387 to 599.
At the same time, the rate of cases referred to court remains low. In the first nine months of 2026, only five criminal cases under Article 290 of the Criminal Code were referred to court—about 1% of the total number of offenses recorded during this period.
In total, from 2020 through September 2026, 11,417 such offenses were recorded in Ukraine. 7,152 cases remain on record, and 69 cases have been referred to court over nearly seven years.
The destruction, forgery, or alteration of a vehicle’s identification number is punishable by a fine ranging from 2,550 to 4,250 UAH, community service for up to two years, probation, or restriction of liberty for up to three years.
Source: OpenDataBot.
More than 16 billion hryvnias have already been spent on improving the capital’s resilience since the beginning of 2026, compared to 2 billion hryvnias last year, and another 4.5–5 billion hryvnias are planned to be spent by the end of this year, said Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Center for Energy Research.
“This is effectively a tenfold increase in investment, and these investments are specifically in security measures. This includes protecting high-voltage substations, providing backup power for essential sewer systems, and providing backup power for heating systems,” he said during a discussion titled “Ukraine on the Threshold of Winter: Energy, Defense, and the New Diplomatic Reality” at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Friday.
At the same time, according to the expert, the city needs an additional approximately EUR1.5 billion to carry out the necessary work to improve resilience.
As he noted, this year’s preparations for the heating season in Kyiv were funded primarily by the local budget, while the central budget’s share amounted to only about 10%.
“The national budget is not in very good shape right now, and payments in treasury accounts were frozen for over a month, which dealt a severe blow to all local authorities and to winter preparations as well,” explained the director of the Center for Economic Development.
As a result, some of the equipment that the city had planned to install by November or December will have to be put into operation later due to the four-week delay.
As Kharchenko recalled, in January 2026, all of Kyiv’s local power generation capacity was destroyed. In other words, Kyiv—with consumption of approximately 2 GW at a temperature of -10°C, and consumption of 1.2 GW under the current weather conditions in Ukraine—had 1.3 GW of domestic generating capacity until January 2026.
“In January 2026, these facilities were physically destroyed. What does this lead to? It leads precisely to the effects that are currently causing great distress among Kyiv residents,” explained Kharchenko.
In the absence of power generation in the city, the metro shuts down and switches to backup power, and the water utility’s pumping stations also shut down and switch to backup power—which, under such operating conditions, cannot provide full service.
However, according to the expert, despite this, the city has currently secured its key systems against man-made accidents and strategic technological issues.
“But it’s one thing to maintain water pressure in the water mains—which allows water to circulate through the pipes, fill reservoirs, and support basic infrastructure—and quite another to deliver pressure, say, to Pechersk or certain other districts located on hills,” he added.
This cannot be achieved without the operation of the main power supply lines at the water utility’s facilities.
“Therefore, certain inconveniences this winter are almost inevitable,” the expert concluded.
According to Kharchenko, in most cities it is impossible—due to engineering and regulatory factors—to implement technical projects aimed at improving energy resilience in a single season lasting seven to eight months; this would take two to three years.
“First, you spend seven to eight months on paperwork—even if you have the money—and then you start building something. This applies to everything: installing backup power supplies, backup generators, decentralized cogeneration plants—absolutely everything,” he explained.
According to the director of the Center for Energy Efficiency (CEE), Kyiv, in particular, needs approximately another EUR1.5 billion to do everything necessary to ensure the city’s resilience. Nationwide, the need could amount to 250–300 billion UAH per year for at least the next two years.
energy resilience, HEATING SEASON, INVESTMENTS, Kharchenko, KYIV, POWER GENERATION
