Business of Kyiv Region and Ukraine

Business

Cabinet Expands Ukrzaliznytsia Board: Who Joined and Why

# Government Adds Two New Members to Ukrzaliznytsia Board. What Stands Behind the Personnel Decision and Whether It Will Change the Monopoly's Work

Business

German sights for FSB instructor and micrometers for "Alabuga": how Turkey became a premium hub for Russian defense industry

Through Turkish shell companies, Russia is not obtaining mass-produced goods, but the most precise equipment — optics worth up to €3,200 per unit and measurement technology for drone production. China operates on volume, Turkey operates on quality.

Business

SpaceX IPO at $75 billion: Why ITAR is not just about espionage, but about who can actually buy shares in a rocket company

# Investors from China and Hong Kong barred from largest IPO in US history — basis was not general "concern," but specific US arms control law Chinese and Hong Kong investors have been denied access to the largest initial public offering in US history, with the restriction based not on vague apprehensions but on a specific American arms control legislation.

Business

Moldova Eliminates Tax Benefit on Cheap Packages from Temu Starting October: Pay 20%

# Effective October 1, 2026, each parcel worth up to 150 euros from international marketplaces — Temu, AliExpress, Shein — will be subject to standard VAT of 20%. The government calls this leveling the playing field, but consumers will face higher bills.

Business

Shadow Fleet in Court: Sweden May Transfer Caffa to Ukraine — First Precedent in Grain Theft Case

# Swedish Court in Ystad Rules Arrest of Tanker Caffa Lawful, Paving Way for Transfer to Ukraine A Swedish court in Ystad has declared the arrest of the bulk carrier Caffa legal, opening the path for its handover to Ukraine. This marks the first instance of a foreign court granting a request from Ukrainian prosecutors regarding a vessel suspected of transporting grain from occupied territories.

Business

€2 billion for 3,000 companies: How the EBRD and EU turn €315 million into a lever for business during the war

A new program provides small and medium-sized businesses with access to cheaper loans and grants of up to 30% of equipment costs through Ukrainian partner banks of the EBRD. But the real question is not about the volume, but whether war risk insurance coverage will be sufficient for banks to actually disburse these funds.

Business

Truck 26 Meters Long on M-05 Highway: What Two-Year Experiment with TLAPs Gives Ukraine

The Cabinet of Ministers has permitted the movement of three-unit road trains between Kyiv and Odesa without requiring special police permits for the first time. The Finnish model promises fuel savings of up to 30 percent, though the mechanism for actual weight control remains an open question.

Business

General from GUR at Energy Ministry: Why Does the Energy Minister Need a Defense Industry Advisor

# Ivan Havryliuk - a man who managed defense procurement for half a year - is now advising Shmyhal on a volunteer basis in a different ministry. This transition demonstrates how defense industry logic is gradually penetrating civilian sectors.

Business

After Chinese Failure and Arbitration Debt: Turkish Onur Completes Bypass Around Zhytomyr for 2.3 Billion Hryvnia

# Sinohydro Completed Half the Work in Three Years, Left Cracks in Concrete, and Won International Arbitration Against Ukravtodor for €10.3 Million. Now Onur is Finishing the Same Project — But the State Enters the Site with an Already Damaged Reputation as a Customer.

Business

Strike on Ukraine's only baby food factory: four killed on morning shift

On June 5, Russian drones destroyed an administrative building at the Yagotynske for Children plant in the Brovary district — the only specialized dairy food production facility for infants in the country. People were killed at their workplaces at 8 a.m.

Business

Gazprom Supplies Serbia With Gas for Three Months at a Time: Why Belgrade Cannot Sign a Long-Term Contract

A three-month extension — the second consecutive one this year. Behind it lies US sanctions against NIS, EU pressure to abandon Russian gas, and Moscow's silent leverage against Serbian nationalization.

Business

Aviation Fuel Shortage in Europe Postponed, Not Cancelled: What the USA and Nigeria Bought

The Strait of Hormuz crisis has forced the EU to seek alternative fuel sources — and so far it has found them. However, Goldman Sachs is already counting down to a critical inventory threshold.

Business

State Bank Sells Debt of Auto Holding with Real Estate in Donetsk: What This Means for the Buyer

# Ukreximbank puts up for auction loan claims against car market operator with collateral in Kyiv region, Zaporizhzhia and occupied Donetsk Ukreximbank has put up for Dutch auction a package of loan claims against a car market operator, with collateral including complexes in Kyiv region, Zaporizhzhia and occupied Donetsk. This is not merely a state bank balance sheet cleanup, but a test of who in Ukraine is willing to buy assets with legal risks of wartime.

Business

"200,000 vacancies and no one to fill them: how Ukraine's wartime labor market broke basic supply and demand logic"

Three-quarters of Ukrainian companies cannot fill vacancies — despite official unemployment figures near two million. The state is responding with a forecasting system and the digital platform "Horizon," but economists say that without 300-400 thousand labor migrants annually, this won't be solved.

Business

US IT sector cuts staff and simultaneously ramps up hiring — AI is both the knife and the glue

May 2026: 38,242 job cuts in the tech sector alone, the largest figure since early 2023. Yet the same sector leads hiring plans — a paradox that better describes the AI transition than any CEO statement.

Business

From July, all pharmacies in Ukraine must join "Affordable Medicines" — and this is more important than 51 new drugs

The Cabinet of Ministers is expanding the reimbursement program starting July 1: cardiac medications, cancer drugs from October, and most importantly—from July onward, no pharmacy will be able to refuse participation in the program.

Business

Supreme Court Allowed NBU to Sell "Osnova" Business Center in Kyiv — Zhevago's Bank Debt Exceeds Billions

A property complex in the center of the capital will go to auction after a court rejected the latest attempt to block debt collection from bankrupt "Finansy ta Kredyt."

Business

60 MW on its own gas: how Ukrnafta is converting oil fields into power plants

Finland Provides Credit — Ukrnafta Builds Gas Piston Generation Facilities Directly on Oil and Gas Fields in Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv Regions. Under this scheme, gas that was previously simply burned off or vented is converted into electricity for regional power grids.

Business

Bank Returns 947,000 Euros to Lviv: Five-Year Conflict with Polish Waste Plant Contractor Resolved

Control Process S.A. received €3.6 million advance from Lviv in 2021 — and failed to complete the plant construction. After the contract was terminated, the city recovered the remainder through a bank guarantee: €947 thousand. But the main claim is yet to come.

Business

10 units of equipment destroyed in one strike: how Russia is systematically destroying road infrastructure

A kamikaze drone struck a road construction site and destroyed 10 vehicles. This is no random attack — over three years of full-scale war, road workers have become a separate category of civilian casualties.

Business

One Strike — 300 Shops Without Supply. What Russia Destroyed in Dnipro on June 3

# Russian drone strike destroys major ATB distribution center in Dnipro region Russians have destroyed a distribution center of ATB supermarket chain with a direct drone hit, putting out of service a 37,500 square-meter facility that served as a key logistics hub supplying goods to one-third of the Dnipro region's network on a daily basis. Losses are estimated in the hundreds of millions of hryvnias, according to preliminary assessments.

Business

Gasoline in Crimea now only available with coupons: How strikes on the "Novorossiya" highway forced half of the annexed peninsula to switch to manual fuel management

From May 31, the occupation administration in Crimea introduced a coupon system for gasoline — AI-95 only with coupons, AI-92 no more than 20 liters per day. The reason is not an unexpected shortage, but a systemic disruption of logistics due to strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Business

Ocean Plaza for $100M and MGZ for $86M: Ukraine Selling Off Assets Confiscated from Rotenbergs — But There's a Problem with 34%

The State Property Fund published a schedule of seven major auctions for 29.4 billion hryvnias. The main lot — Ocean Plaza shopping center — is legally more complex than its starting price suggests.

Business

China Drives Down Russian Oil Prices — Beijing Uses Sanctions as a Bargaining Lever

# Premium on ESPO crude fell due to deliberately weak demand from Chinese refineries. Moscow sells at increasingly deeper discounts — and so far has no alternative.

Business

Glazers Want to Exit Manchester United — But Family Council Has Yet to Vote

# Translation: Bloomberg revealed internal family divisions: some are already convinced to sell, while others are stalling. Behind the scenes — a $3.6 billion market valuation, a multi-billion-dollar bill for Old Trafford reconstruction, and a 2027 clause weighing on everyone.

Business

Island with Mines and the President's Son-in-Law: Why Albania Doesn't Want Kushner's Resort

Affinity Partners obtained "strategic investor" status in Albania without public bidding — and now the anti-corruption prosecutor's office is examining how protected lands changed their legal status specifically for this project.

Business

15,000 tons per month instead of zero: how a plant in Chornomorsk is filling the gap left by Artemsol

The Black Sea salt plant in Odesa region has reached full capacity and became the first enterprise in Ukraine to process imported salt on an industrial scale after the loss of Soledar.

Business

Ackman Invested $4 Billion in UMG, Wanted to Buy the Whole Thing — and Left With Nothing

Pershing Square is selling its remaining stake in Universal Music Group for approximately $1.5 billion after largest shareholder Bolloré blocked a €55.75 billion acquisition. Bill Ackman's five-year investment in the world's largest music company is concluding without control and possibly without profit.

Business

22 hours without stopover: Qantas' first A350-1000ULR took off — and immediately faced a new delay

Airbus successfully tested the first ultra-long-range airliner for the "Project Sunrise" initiative, but passengers traveling between Sydney and London will not see a direct connection before 2027 — coming after several delays.

Business

Lithuania — Washington: Sanctions against Belarusian potash not up for discussion

The United States has lifted its own restrictions on Belarusian potash producer and is pressing Vilnius to resume transit through Klaipeda. Lithuania's transport minister responded with a single sentence: it's not worth spending time on this.