Only 5 criminal cases involving the forgery, destruction, or replacement of VIN codes and other vehicle identification numbers were referred to court in Ukraine during the first nine months of 2026. This represents about 1% of the 599 offenses registered during this period, according to OpenDataBot, citing data from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
In total, from 2020 through September 2026, 11,417 criminal offenses were registered in Ukraine under Article 290 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Of these, 7,152—or about 63%—remain on the docket. In nearly seven years, only 69 cases were sent to court—about 1% of the total number of recorded offenses.
According to OpenDataBot, in previous years, about 40% of such cases were closed for various reasons, including the absence of an incident or the lack of elements constituting a criminal offense. In 2026, one in five open cases was closed, and the number of active cases stands at 473.
At the same time, the number of registered offenses is increasing compared to last year. In the first nine months of 2026, 599 such cases were recorded, compared to 387 during the same period in 2025—a 22% increase.
The highest number of offenses related to the forgery, destruction, or alteration of vehicle identification numbers was recorded in Kyiv—169 cases, or 28% of the total. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, 114 cases (19%) were recorded, and in the Odesa region, 45 (8%). Thus, these three regions account for more than half of all offenses recorded over the nine-month period.
Under Article 290 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the destruction, forgery, or replacement 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.
Finland is allocating EUR5 million to support Ukraine’s energy sector and is also donating ten locomotives to assist the country’s railway infrastructure, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced.
“Due to Russian attacks on Ukraine’s railway infrastructure, we… are transferring 10 locomotives to Ukraine. We hope they will help keep your society moving while Russia tries to bring it to a halt. We are allocating EUR5 million to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund. This fund complements Finland’s existing support for energy resilience, providing assistance where and when it is needed,” Orpo said at a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, according to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent.
He also announced that Finland will provide Ukraine with mobile heating containers in December, capable of heating medium-sized hospitals or apartment buildings.
Orpo added that Finland is preparing additional support totaling EUR3 million as part of Ukraine’s recovery program and will continue to provide significant support in the form of defense equipment.
“This year, we have provided Ukraine with five defense aid packages totaling over half a billion euros. We are currently preparing 36 packages, and we are doing so in close cooperation with the Ukrainian military. And we intend to make a decision by the end of this year,” he emphasized.
A prolonged blockade of the Black Sea could lead to a significant reduction in grain plantings during the 2026/27 marketing year (MY), primarily corn and wheat, farmers may partially shift to oilseeds, which are more profitable under these conditions, said Taras Vysotsky, Ukraine’s Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food.
“Our assessment is that the area planted with grains—primarily corn and wheat—will decrease, while the area planted with oilseeds—primarily soybeans and sunflowers—will increase,” he told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday, according to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent.
“The largest reduction in acreage—as it looks today—will be for corn: we do not rule out that this reduction could even be by half,” the minister added.
Regarding wheat, he noted that a survey of farmers showed that the potential reduction in wheat acreage is 15–17%.
“From our perspective, this will reflect reality. If we had 5.1 million hectares of planted area in the 2025/26 marketing year—which included both winter and spring crops, with winter crops accounting for 5 million hectares—then we estimate that planted area in the 2026/27 marketing year will be 4–4.2 million hectares, a 17% decrease,” Vysotsky noted.
According to him, the area planted with barley will be 1.5 million hectares, and that planted with rapeseed will be 1.3 million hectares, of which 0.2 million hectares will be spring crops, which corresponds to the previous year’s figures.
The minister noted that, on average, 20 million hectares in Ukraine are planted with the six main grain and oilseed crops (wheat, barley, corn, sunflower, rapeseed, and soybeans).
According to data from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, as of October 20, farmers had planted 3.93 million hectares with winter grain crops, or 75.4% of the projected area; over the past week, the planted area increased by 0.56 million hectares, whereas on the same date last year, the figure was 4.84 million hectares, or 74% of the forecast.
This year, 3.51 million hectares have already been planted with wheat (77.4% of the projected area), 0.34 million hectares with winter barley (57.9%), and 70,700 hectares with rye (92.1%). A year ago, these figures were 3.44 million hectares, 0.3 million hectares, and 60,000 hectares, respectively.
Winter rapeseed plantings in the 2026/27 marketing year exceeded the forecast: the area planted is 1.12 million hectares, or 101.4% of the planned volume, while last year 1.03 million hectares were planted.
According to estimates by the Mykhailo Ptukha Institute of Demography and Quality of Life Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the population of Ukraine in government-controlled territory currently stands at between 28 and 29 million people—as reported by the institute’s leading research fellow, Svitlana Aksyonova, on Hromadske Radio.
“This is certainly an alarming sign; this trend is certainly alarming. First and foremost, it’s not just that the number of births is decreasing, but the ratio itself is very alarming. For four consecutive years—from 2022 to 2025—the ratio remained at three. In other words, the death rate exceeded the birth rate threefold. And now we see that, to be precise, the excess is about 3.5 times. That is, the gap between the number of deaths and the number of births has widened. For me, this is a very alarming sign,” Aksyonova said.
She cited another alarming sign: the decline in the number of newborns occurred as early as the first half of the year, whereas the seasonal decline usually occurs at the beginning of the year, with the second half being more active.
“Of course, it’s better to wait until the end of the year, when all trends become clearer. We have certain patterns: in the first half of the year, slightly fewer children are born than in the second. But this time, the decline occurred as early as the first half of the year. And that, too, is a very alarming sign,” she emphasized.
According to Aksyonova, the difficult conditions of last winter—in particular, prolonged power and heating outages—may have influenced the decisions of Ukrainian families.
“I thought that the impact of this harsh winter, with its power and heating outages, would become apparent in the second half of the year, since the decision to have a child is made at least nine months before the baby’s birth. But the decline occurred earlier. It was also very distressing for me to see that during the winter, families with young children were effectively left to deal on their own with the problems the entire country was facing. They had to think not only about caring for a newborn but also about where to get a battery, how to warm up formula, and how to provide the child with basic necessities. “This is very difficult, and I think it will influence young families’ decisions about having children,” she explained, adding that, at the same time, part of the decline in the country’s birth rate can be attributed to pregnant women leaving the country for safety reasons.
In addition, Aksyonova drew attention to changes in the composition of Ukrainian refugees, noting a slight increase in the proportion of men among those who have received temporary protection in European countries.
According to estimates by the Institute of Demography, Ukraine’s population in government-controlled territory currently stands at less than 30 million people.
“According to our calculations, it’s between 28 and 29 million people. We no longer even estimate the figure at 30 million. But this is always a range, because such calculations involve a great many assumptions. However, it is clear that the population is declining,” she explained.
Currently, the Institute of Demography is working on a new migration strategy designed to facilitate the return of Ukrainians after the war.
“The Institute of Demography is currently engaged in very painstaking work on a migration strategy that is gradually developing mechanisms for the return of Ukrainians from abroad. This is a complex task. As they say, there are no simple solutions to complex problems. Unfortunately, there is no single universal tool for this problem that would allow us to bring people back quickly,” Aksyonova concluded.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever stated that the European Commission will not propose new mechanisms for using frozen Russian assets to meet Ukraine’s financial needs.
“I am certain of this, because that was precisely what was being discussed,” he said Wednesday in the Belgian Parliament while reporting on the results of last week’s EU summit.
At the same time, De Wever did not rule out that other EU member states might try to reopen the discussion. He criticized Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, who stated on the radio that he wanted to “take that money.” According to the Belgian prime minister, some recently elected European leaders are putting forward arguments that he had already refuted last year.
De Wever said he had warned his colleagues about the possible legal consequences of even such rhetoric, and that warning had the desired effect. “One of my colleagues told me on the sidelines that I had gone through this discussion like a flamethrower,” he said.
Last year, De Wever strongly opposed the use of frozen Russian assets totaling about 185 billion euros, which are held in the Belgian depository Euroclear. Instead, EU leaders approved a 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine for 2026–2027; however, estimates suggest this amount will not be sufficient.
At last week’s summit, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the EU for an additional 70 billion euros in support for next year.
EU, frozen Russian assets, Prime Minister of Belgium, UKRAINE
The total transit of grains and oilseeds from Ukraine through neighboring Moldova, Slovakia, and Hungary increased by 46.5% in September compared to August, but the bulk of the increase came from Moldova and Slovakia, Ukraine’s Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday.
According to his data, transit through Moldova rose by 59.7%—to 107,000 metric tons in September from 67,000 metric tons in August; through Slovakia—by 61.5%, to 336,000 metric tons from 208,000 metric tons; and through Hungary—by 8.5%, to 115,000 metric tons from 106,000 metric tons.
“An increase is possible; we’ll see how much. We’re working on all fronts,” Vysotsky emphasized.
At the same time, he refrained from making any forecasts.
“We’ll report the actual results every month,” the minister noted.
Regarding the prospects for opening a maritime grain corridor, the head of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy stated that “there are currently no signals from our partners that could be interpreted as providing any kind of planning horizon.”
“The situation remains unchanged—no more, no less,” Vysotsky said.
Earlier, the minister reported that in September, Ukraine managed to export 2.4 million metric tons of agricultural products, or 46% of what was supposed to be exported, including 1.4 million metric tons of grain (38%), 444,000 metric tons of oilseeds (83%), oil—311,000 metric tons, or 64%, and meal—280,000 metric tons, or 46% of the potential required exports.
EXPORTS, GRAIN, HUNGARY, MOLDOVA, SLOVAKIA, TRANSIT, UKRAINE
