Новости за 16.03.2017

As the traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt or vyshyvanka conquers catwalks and red carpets around the globe, Ukrainian-made goods are seeing a resurgence at home as well as abroad in other areas. After Ukraine’s national currency, the hryvnia, lost more than two-thirds of its value following the start of Russia’s war in Crimea and the Donbas […]

After failing to coerce Ukraine into taking back the separatist-controlled parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts on Russian terms, the Kremlin appears to be radically changing its plans for the occupied territories in the Donbas. It seems Moscow is now trying to make the breakaway regions viable and economically independent from Ukraine. To do this, […]

A shaky economy and currency mean Ukrainian firms are finding it necessary to generate revenue in non-Russian foreign markets. But for every Ukrainian company finding success abroad, countless others have yet to make a breakthrough. That’s especially true among smaller businesses. In most European countries, national agencies help smaller enterprises expand globally. But in Ukraine, […]

The perception and value of Ukrainian-made goods are improving globally, not just domestically. Brand Finance, a valuation and strategy consultancy headquartered in London, said Ukraine had one of the five top-performing nation brands in their 2016 Nation Brand report. The company releases an annual study of global perceptions of national brands. While Ukraine is still […]

Alleged economic crimes committed by the ex-head of the Party of Regions faction in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the seventh convocation, Oleksandr Yefremov, will be examined in a separate case, Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) spokeswoman Larysa Sarhan has said. “The episode of the case dealing with economic crimes will be examined in a […]

For a country at war, Ukraine exports a lot of weapons. However, the country sells fewer than it did before Russia launched its war on Ukraine in 2014, seizing Crimea and instigating violence in the eastern Donbas that has killed 10,000 people. The war closed off the Russian arms market, once Ukraine’s biggest weapons buyers. […]

Five years before Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s chocolate empire Roshen started in 1996, a company was founded in Donetsk that became the first – and, at the time, only – cocoa importer and supplier to chocolate factories across Ukraine in 1991. By 1994, it began producing its own chocolate and other confectionery products. Its name […]

Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk says a negative impact of the blockade of trade with separatist-held territories of Donbas on Ukraine’s economy is preliminarily estimated at 1.3 percent of GDP. Read more here. 

Thousands of Belarusians took to the streets across the country on March 16 amid continued protests against a controversial law that would tax the unemployed. In the capital, more than 2,000 protesters joined an authorized rally against the government, and hundreds of people demonstrated in other cities, as well. Read more here. 

More than 30 leading companies in Ukraine will participate in the Kyiv Post Employment Fair on March 25 as they look to hire the best and brightest among hundreds of job seekers. Attendees will also be able to talk to experts for career advice. The fair is a biannual recruiting event with a 12-year track […]

The European Parliament is calling on Moscow to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens who are in prison or other conditions of restricted freedom in Russia, Crimea, and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists. Read more here.

MOSCOW – The Kremlin has not received any letters from former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said. “The thing is that the presidential administration has not officially received any letter. The presidential administration has not registered any document of the kind,” Peskov told reporters on March […]

European security watchdog OSCE on March 16  prolonged its monitoring mission to Ukraine by one year until March 2018. Read more here.

The Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is to extend its Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine by one year, until March 31, 2018, the organization’s press service reported on March 16. The decision to renew the mission’s mandate in Ukraine was approved by all 57 OSCE member states during an OSCE Permanent Council meeting […]

BRUSSELS – The European Union’s executive has approved a 600 million-euro ($638 million) loan to Ukraine, part of a program meant to help the country implement reforms and support its economy. Read more here.

Ukraine’s First Vice Prime Minister Stepan Kubiv and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Susan Fritz on March 14 signed an intergovernmental agreement granting Ukraine $54 million in financial help, Voice of America has reported. “The money will go to the fight against corruption, economic transformation, and the development of democracy,” U.S. […]

The Russian arm of Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International is preparing to offer services to holders of separatist passports from uncontrolled regions in eastern Ukraine, its boss said on March 16. Read more here.

Ukraine has imposed sanctions on five Russian-owned banks operating in the country after the Russian government forced them to accept clients using passports from the separatist-held territories in Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts. Read more here.

BRUSSELS – The European Parliament after debates on March 16 will adopt a resolution on Ukrainian political prisoners in Crimea. According to its draft, the European Parliament condemns the discriminatory policy pursued by the so-called authorities against the Crimean Tatars in the annexed Crimea, as well as those in Russia who are against the annexation of […]

On the 78th floor: a Russian who once was accused of mob ties and extortion by an oligarch. On the 79th, an Uzbek jeweler investigated for money laundering who was eventually executed on the street in Manhattan. And four floors higher, a pro-Moscow Ukrainian politician whose party hired a Donald Trump adviser. Read more here.

The Ukrainian side is ready to lift a ban on cargo transportation through the disengagement line in eastern Ukraine, if all enterprises on territories not controlled by Kyiv are returned to Ukrainian owners and ceasefire is observed, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said. “We say: return the enterprises to the Ukrainian owners no matter if they […]

Turkey’s foreign minister threatened on March 15 to cancel a landmark agreement curbing the flow of migrants and refugees into the European Union, the latest in an escalating war of words between Ankara and Brussels. Read more here.

Ukraine vowed to halt all cargo into and out of its rebel-held eastern regions, cementing an economically damaging unofficial blockade that the government had only days earlier sought to end. Read more here.

The Netherlands’ center-right Prime Minister Mark Rutte was on course for a resounding victory over anti-Islam and anti-EU Geert Wilders in an election on March 15, offering huge relief to other EU governments facing a wave of nationalism. Read more here.