Business news, entrepreneurship and startups in Kyiv region
# Tanker Kunpeng, carrying cargo from the Portovaya plant, drifted at sea for months and disguised documentation to mask Russian cargo – but India refused it anyway. This is the first public signal that fear of secondary sanctions outweighs even energy needs.
# Supreme Court Voids Two Granite Mining Permit Sale Agreements, Returns Asset to State The Supreme Court has ruled null and void two purchase agreements for a special permit to extract granite that belonged to the sanctioned "Unigran" company, transferring the asset to state revenue. This sets a legal precedent blocking the so-called "buffer-buyer" scheme.
Starmer's government is preparing full nationalization of British Steel for the first time in 38 years. Over a year of operational management, taxpayers have already spent £377 million, and the meter keeps running.
On May 21, 2026, SUP DAY FORUM will take place in Ivano-Frankivsk — an event dedicated to stand-up paddleboarding culture and active water recreation.
The price of flagship Russian oil has fallen below $81 per barrel: the discount to Brent has widened to $23.9, rolling back to levels that Moscow wanted to leave behind after the February price spike.
# Kernel investing ~$400 million in renewable energy generation, with new wind farm in Yahidne community part of this portfolio. The question is not whether the wind farm will be built, but rather who will buy this electricity and on what terms.
While the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed and the world has lost nearly a billion barrels of oil, Saudi Aramco has pumped a record 7 million barrels per day through alternative routes — and earned $33.6 billion in quarterly revenue.
The Cabinet of Ministers is launching a free internship program called "Experience Matters" for people over 50. The main barrier is not a lack of experience, but age stereotypes and gaps in digital competencies, which the program aims to address.
Morgan Stanley has calculated that all the factors that have so far held back Brent prices represent borrowed time. If the strait remains closed for several more weeks, the buffer will disappear and the market will shift into a new mode.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau investigated for two years how state coal went to a private trader instead of state thermal power plants during wartime fuel shortage — but the damage amount turned out to be below the anti-corruption threshold, so the case was taken by a regular district court.
While the Ministry of Development negotiates with Berlin on new supplies, the first real contract — with French Alstom — covers half the need and operates without any acceleration mechanism against attacks.
From February 2026, real estate agents will be required to verify clients when renting properties if the monthly rent exceeds 400,000 hryvnias. The threshold formally existed for years, but the verification mechanism only came into effect now.
# Cabinet adds two new industrial parks to registry in Khmelnytsky and Odesa regions The Cabinet of Ministers has added two new industrial parks to the registry — one in Khmelnytsky region and one in Odesa region. Together they promise 650 jobs and over 535 million hryvnias in investments, but the real bill will not be presented at registration, but when the first factory halts its assembly line.
A contractor failed to perform work since 2024, but instead of having the contract terminated, received another year of deferment—until the prosecutor's office intervened in the matter.
The first resident has started operations in the VinIndustry industrial park: Smart Line manufactures equipment for powder coating of metal and immediately enters foreign markets — with a capacity of 20 units per month.
Over two years, the agricultural holding completed a full cycle: three vessels in the fleet → one. Rotterdam Pearl V was sold, leaving the tanker Mavka — and the company does not hide that it is ready to get rid of it as well.
The European Commission has cornered Google: the company is willing to ease the demotion of news websites in search results — but only to avoid a billion-dollar fine, rather than admitting wrongdoing.
# State Property Fund Prepares Mechanism to Secure Government Bonds with Agricultural Land The State Property Fund is developing a mechanism whereby government bonds will be backed not by gold or GDP, but by specific hectares of agricultural land and rental payments from farmers. The precedent is modest in scale, but the logic derives from the global financial market.
The Hnizdychiv spirits factory has been idle since 2010, has creditor debts, and occupies eight buildings on nine hectares. Rivne-based agroholdng Tradex Agri, which has already converted a cement plant into a grain elevator, purchased it for 3.7 million hryvnias — less than the cost of a new truck.
In April, OPEC cut production to 20.55 million barrels per day — a 36-year low. Behind this figure stands one narrow point on the map that controls a fifth of the world's oil supply.
Gyula Balashi transformed zero state contracts into 150 per year over 13 years and earned nearly a billion dollars. After Orban's electoral defeat, he was the first to offer to surrender his business — but police are already taking action.
# The Founder of CNN Launched the First 24-Hour Television News Network in 1980 Without Any Market Research — and Changed How Humanity Gets Information. He Was 87.
# US Trade Representative Calls Iranian Oil Buyers Terrorism Sponsors, Names China as Primary Purchaser The US trade representative has labeled buyers of Iranian oil as sponsors of terrorism, with China identified as the leading purchaser. Trump's negotiations with Xi are becoming a test of whether Washington is willing to pressure its trade deal partner simultaneously with discussions on tariffs.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih has halted a blast furnace, two sinter machines, and iron ore mining due to the absence of trains from Ukrainian Railways. CEO Mauro Longobardo had warned of this risk back in 2024 — and it has come to pass.
# Translation Nissan is cutting approximately 900 office workers in Europe and consolidating production lines at Sunderland — while Honda has indefinitely halted construction of an EV factory in Ontario. Two decisions made almost simultaneously demonstrate that Japan's model of "catching up with China through electric vehicles" has failed.
The State Property Fund is launching public-private partnerships for assets that cannot be sold. An investor puts in money, carries out restoration, manages the property — but does not become the owner.
Investment company Dragon Capital has launched an updated business center based on the former Piramida shopping mall. Six years of construction during a full-scale war — what does this say about the state of commercial real estate in Ukraine?
# Translation "The trading house 'Donetsk Coal' received mines with a promise to invest 40 billion rubles, but instead left miners without money and initiated its own bankruptcy. This is not an isolated failure — this is a model.
Developer "Superposition" announced a large-scale resort on the Dniester Reservoir — but behind the impressive half-billion-dollar figure, so far there is only land, ambitions, and experience from one unfinished Carpathian project.
Hungarian billionaire and Orbán ally Lőrinc Mészáros appealed to the future prime minister following statements about oligarchs fleeing the country. Behind the letter stand 60,000 employees and a conglomerate that has lost more than half its value in six months.