The National Housing Policy Strategy through 2033 is set to be approved by the end of this year, said Vitaliy Bezgin, Minister of Communities, Territories, and IDPs, as he opened the first Annual Housing Conference in Kyiv.
“The government has planned for 2026 the preparation of the State Strategy for Housing Policy through 2033 and an implementation plan for 2027–2029. We are updating legislation on social housing and improving the management of the housing stock,” Bezgin said.
According to him, Ukraine’s State Housing Strategy through 2033, which is scheduled to be adopted by the end of the year, is intended to serve as the foundation for practical steps at both the national and local levels. The Annual Housing Conference is expected to yield concrete proposals that can be implemented by parliament, the government, and local communities with the support of international partners.
“Every day, Russia strikes at the homes of Ukrainians; every day, people are forced to leave their homes, particularly due to evacuation. Housing policy, support for communities, and work with internally displaced persons are interconnected areas. Our programs should be built around these areas: housing vouchers for IDPs, ‘eRecovery,’ and solutions for social housing, among others. The 2027 draft budget allocates 30.5 billion hryvnias for housing programs, which is 10.8 billion hryvnias more than last year. ‘Housing remains the focus,’ Bezgin added.
The minister emphasized that, given the unprecedented challenges, housing policy must become the state’s absolute priority. “Investments in housing are investments in people, in economic stability, and in Ukraine’s future,” he noted.
The first annual housing conference, “Housing Recovery, Community Revitalization: Scaling Housing Solutions for Ukraine’s Recovery and Development,” will run through November 5. It will bring together over 1,000 representatives from government, communities, international organizations, the business sector, and the expert community.
Over the course of three days, more than 1,000 participants (representatives of national and local authorities, international organizations, the business community, and others) will discuss the reconstruction of destroyed housing, the development of social and affordable housing, financing for the housing sector, and the comprehensive recovery of communities. The program includes four plenary sessions and 59 technical sessions organized into six thematic areas.
The conference is organized by the Ministry of Communities, Territories, and IDPs of Ukraine and the World Bank Group. The event is supported by the Government of Austria and the Aid, Recovery, Reconstruction, and Reform Fund (URTF).
Moldova’s Minister of Energy, Dorin Junghiu, stated that the country may purchase some gas from Ukraine, and negotiations are already underway.
“Moldova may purchase between 10 million and 50 million cubic meters of natural gas from Ukraine. The final volume will depend on the availability of surplus reserves and the commercial terms of the deal. Potential purchase volumes will be influenced by both existing contracts and the availability of gas for delivery to Moldova,” the minister said during a broadcast on Radio Moldova on Tuesday.
According to him, this issue was discussed last week during a government delegation’s visit to Kyiv, after which Moldova conducted a test purchase of gas, importing 2 million cubic meters.
Jungietu declined to specify a possible gas price or the formula for calculating it, so as not to influence the course of negotiations: “These are commercial negotiations, and we cannot disclose the pricing formula at this time. The purchase must be commercially advantageous for Moldova. Negotiations are ongoing; we want to secure a price below market value. That is the current situation.”
So far, the authorities have not announced the signing of a contract, the final price of the gas, or the timing of potential deliveries.
According to the Minister of Energy, in the future, Moldova will be able to cover approximately one-quarter of its daily natural gas consumption through supplies from the Romanian Neptun Deep field in the Black Sea once production begins, which is expected in late 2027.
“The gas will be purchased under a contract signed last year between Energocom and the Romanian company OMV Petrom. The volumes were made public last year. We’re talking about roughly a quarter of our daily gas consumption. The pricing formula is also based on exchange indicators but includes a discount. Of course, we cannot disclose the size of the discount, since this is not so much a matter of confidentiality as it is a matter of revealing Energocom’s procurement strategy, which is undesirable,” stated Dorin Jungietu.
According to him, another advantage of supplies from “Neptun Deep” is lower transportation costs, which could help lower rates for end consumers.
On May 7, 2025, the state-owned company Energocom signed a three-year contract with OMV Petrom to purchase natural gas from Neptun Deep.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last Friday that his country will contribute 500 million euros to the European Union’s planned 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine, APA reports.
“As for the loan for Ukraine… 500 million euros will be our initial contribution. This is a very important and effective mechanism, and I truly commend the initiative of European Commission President von der Leyen, the members of the Commission, and President Costa in establishing it—using frozen assets to provide Ukraine with much-needed financing,” Carney stated during a joint press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa.
The Canadian Prime Minister noted that his country’s contribution is an example of the implementation of Canada’s recently announced partnership with the European Union, adding that it is a “positive alliance.”
The public organization “Union of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions of Ukraine” sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, in which it opposed granting university boards of trustees the right to manage the property and funds of higher education institutions, as well as to appoint and dismiss the heads of these institutions.
“We have repeatedly warned government officials against ill-considered steps and reforms that lead to a decline in the quality of educational and research processes and destabilize the situation within academic communities, which are already suffering during these difficult years of war. The public is concerned about the unchecked influence of certain civil society organizations and individuals who abuse their power to initiate so-called ‘reforms,’ for which the ministry’s previous leadership allocated up to 50 billion hryvnias in grant funds, World Bank loans, and other resources. “The results of these ‘reforms’ are either unknown to the public or highly questionable,” the organization’s statement reads.
In particular, it is noted that Union members were outraged by the efforts of a group of individuals to exert influence over university leadership by introducing management changes through the strengthening of supervisory boards.
In this regard, the Union sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, in which it strongly opposed granting supervisory boards the right to dispose of the property and funds of higher education institutions, as well as to appoint and dismiss the heads of these institutions.
“In practice, academic councils, faculty conferences, and student self-governing bodies are being stripped of their influence over university affairs, and all faculty members, researchers, staff, and students are being deprived of the right to elect and recall the university president,” the civic organization added.
At the same time, according to Ksenia Semenova, president of the National University “Kyiv Aviation Institute” (KAI), the Union of Rectors is a controversial civic organization known for its statements opposing educational reforms.
“Half a year ago, they issued a statement calling for the repeal of the high school reform. It later turned out that none of the university rectors had actually signed that statement or even seen it in person. The members of this civic organization are not universities but individuals, some of whom are not university administrators. In short, this is not a representative body but a special-interest group,” she wrote on Facebook after a meeting between the Union and the leadership of the Ministry of Education.
In response, the Union claimed it was under attack by “certain radicals, heads of educational institutions who were appointed in violation of current legislation and are exerting overt pressure on the leadership of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine through certain members of the Ukrainian Parliament and specific political forces.”
As previously reported, in September 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers launched a pilot project at three universities aimed at strengthening the role of supervisory boards. Specifically, the participants in the pilot project were the National Aviation University (NAU), which was reorganized into the state-owned non-profit enterprise “National University ‘Kyiv Aviation Institute’ (KAI),” as well as Zaporizhzhia National University and Vasyl Stefanyk Carpathian National University.
Mykhailo Fedorov, the former deputy prime minister in charge of education, announced in mid-2025 that the reform would be extended to all higher education institutions in 2026. However, in late 2025, Mykola Trofimenko, the deputy minister of education responsible for this area, stated that supervisory boards would be enshrined in law, but the reform would remain voluntary.
On October 6, 2026, Trofimenko stated that the Ministry of Education had not found the two-year pilot program sufficient to confirm the effectiveness of the model for strengthening the role of supervisory boards at universities. For his part, Minister of Education Andriy Butenko believes it is still too early to assess the results of the pilot program at this intermediate stage.
Ksenia Semenova, president of the National University “Kyiv Aviation Institute” (KAB), believes that the experiment to strengthen the role of supervisory boards at universities should be extended to all higher education institutions or, at the very least, provide for a change in their organizational and legal form to state-owned nonprofit associations.
The Ministry of Education proposes to extend the slightly modified pilot project on implementing a strengthened model of higher education institution governance for another two years. Specifically, the bill proposes to conduct another two-year pilot program involving the National University “Kyiv Aviation Institute” (KAI), Zaporizhzhia National University, and Vasyl Stefanyk Carpathian National University, which already participated in the previous pilot program that lasted the past two years. Other state universities under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and Science will be able to initiate their participation in the enhanced model by decision of their academic council, and the ministry will also be able to independently initiate the inclusion of an institution in the enhanced model if signs of a crisis situation are identified.
In late October, following a meeting with the Union of Rectors, the Ministry of Education and Science stated that it does not plan to involve universities on a large scale in the pilot program aimed at strengthening the role of supervisory boards in higher education institutions.
Source: https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/news-1-3-438-zayava-spilki-rektoriv-ukraini
On October 19–21 of this year, a Ukrainian delegation led by Deputy Minister of Health Yevhen Gonchar paid a working visit to Uzbekistan. The delegation also included Deputy Minister of Economy and Environment Vitaliy Petruk, Chairman of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine Ruslan Illichov, and representatives of pharmaceutical companies.
During talks with representatives of the Uzbek Ministry of Health and relevant agencies, the parties exchanged experiences in the areas of healthcare provision, drug reimbursement, public procurement, and improving access to medicines. Particular attention was paid to expanding the supply of Ukrainian pharmaceutical products, localizing production, and attracting investment.
A key issue was the simplification of GMP inspections of Ukrainian enterprises. Starting January 1, 2026, a national GMP certificate will be required for the registration of medicines and the renewal of registration certificates in Uzbekistan. At the same time, conducting inspections directly at Ukrainian production sites is complicated by the ongoing war. The Ukrainian side proposed allowing remote or hybrid inspections and temporarily extending the validity of existing certificates. Uzbekistan expressed its readiness to help resolve this issue, in particular by preparing legislative amendments that would provide for the possibility of remote inspections.
On October 21, the Uzbekistan Center for Pharmaceutical Product Safety and the Ukrainian Ministry of Health signed a memorandum on regulatory cooperation in the field of medicines and medical devices. The document provides for the exchange of information, expertise, and practical experience to ensure the quality, safety, and efficacy of medical products.
On the economic front, Vitaliy Petruk, Deputy Minister of Economy and Environment of Ukraine, and Akram Aliyev, Deputy Minister of Investment, Industry, and Trade of Uzbekistan, discussed the expansion of trade, economic, and investment ties, as well as the prospects for resuming the regular work of the intergovernmental commission.
The Ukrainian delegation visited the Tashkent Pharma Park pharmaceutical cluster, familiarized itself with its research and production infrastructure and opportunities for investors, and toured the production site of the Ukrainian company “Lekhim” in Uzbekistan. The cost of the company’s production complex project is estimated at 42.5 million U.S. dollars.
In Ukraine, 30,033 re-registrations of sole proprietorships were recorded from January through September 2026, accounting for about 14% of all new registrations. Thus, one in seven entrepreneurs who registered an individual entrepreneur this year had previously run their own business, according to data from the Unified State Register published by the “OpenDataBot” service on November 2.
According to the study, in the first nine months of 2026, 29,382 individuals who had previously closed their sole proprietorships returned to entrepreneurial activity. At the same time, the number of re-registrations for the current year (which is not yet complete) has already exceeded the total for all of 2025.
The share of re-registrations of sole proprietorships in Ukraine has been growing for the third consecutive year. While it accounted for about 5% of all registrations in 2023, reached 7% in 2024, and increased to 10% in 2025, the figure reached 14% in the first nine months of 2026.
The highest number of re-registrations was recorded in Kyiv—3,862, or nearly 13% of the national total. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast ranked second with 2,861 registrations, and Odesa Oblast ranked third with 2,226. The top five also included Lviv Oblast with 2,115 repeat registrations and Kyiv Oblast with 2,032.
According to Danylo Getmantsev, chairman of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax, and customs policy, the increase in the number of re-registrations is due to several factors, including the simplification of administrative procedures, the financial burden on entrepreneurs, and opportunities for tax optimization.
Specifically, starting in June 2023, entrepreneurs were able to automatically terminate their business activities through the “Diya” portal, and as of November of that same year, the registration of sole proprietorships and the selection of a taxation system were combined into a single application.
An additional factor has been the rise in the cost of maintaining sole proprietorships even in the absence of income. According to Getmantsev, starting in January 2025, the corresponding financial burden for certain categories of entrepreneurs may exceed 30,000 UAH per year due to payments of the unified social contribution and the military levy. This will prompt some entrepreneurs to temporarily suspend their activities and resume them once new orders come in or their business stabilizes.
At the same time, re-registration can be used to change the place of business and switch to different local tax rates.
Getmantsev noted that he does not see a systemic problem with re-registering a sole proprietorship, provided that tax laws are followed. However, he did not rule out the use of such procedures in certain schemes to fragment businesses or conceal employment relationships, though he assessed the proportion of such cases as insignificant.
The study also identified entrepreneurs who repeatedly terminated and resumed their business activities. The record belongs to a 25-year-old entrepreneur from the Dnipropetrovsk region, who has eight re-registrations carried out in 2021, 2022, and 2024. His business is related to real estate and advertising.
Four other entrepreneurs from the Kharkiv, Volyn, Rivne, and Khmelnytskyi regions each have seven re-registrations. They worked in the fields of trade, programming, design, computer repair, and healthcare.
“OpenDataBot” clarified that a repeat registration is defined as any new sole proprietorship established by an individual who previously held entrepreneur status. The first registration is not included in the statistics, and a single individual may carry out multiple repeat registrations over the course of different years.
“OpenDataBot” is a Ukrainian service for monitoring open government data that analyzes information from government registries, particularly regarding entrepreneurs, companies, court decisions, and business financial activities.
business registration, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, SMALL BUSINESS, Sole proprietorship, UKRAINE, Опендатабот
