\n<\/p>\n
The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business and tech from Ukraine directly in your inbox, subscribe here<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nIT Arena 2023<\/code><\/h3>\nThe war in Ukraine has been one of duality \u2014 trench warfare and artillery battles alongside revolutionary drone tactics; cities destroyed and occupied by Russia, and calm(er) ones where life has tried its best to carry forward; references to light and darkness, good and evil.<\/p>\nIT Arena, Ukraine\u2019s largest annual tech event, breathed the same dualism, with events, presentations, and panels about topics such as generative AI (ChatGPT is an example) and the role of titanium in revolutionary robotics held in Lviv\u2019s 123-year-old neo-Baroque opera house and just-as-old nearby museums and theaters.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s an uneasy feeling to talk about opportunities in tech and business during the war in the beautiful, relatively safe historic center of Ukraine\u2019s western city of Lviv \u2014 thousands of kilometers from the front lines. Walking around the richly festive oil paintings and mirrored halls lit up by strobe lights with my single-origin coffee, I felt almost guilty, and a bit unsafe from realizing that the event could become a Russian target.<\/p>\nBut as Chris Burry, investor and co-CEO at the Silicon Valley-based Market Access Center, put it at IT Arena last Friday, there is no denying that the war in Ukraine is a \u201cblack swan\u201d event that has caused seismic, \u201cstacking shifts\u201d in the world that have opened up a whole set of opportunities for technological advancement.<\/p>\nAmong Burry\u2019s many pieces of advice for Ukraine\u2019s tech entrepreneurs, one stuck out the most. If the country\u2019s techies are used to looking to Western markets to sell their products, they should start thinking about the Global South \u2014 a part of the world that stands to gain the most from the technological developments that are occurring right now in Ukraine in areas such as reconstruction and rehabilitation.<\/p>\nNo tech event in Ukraine would be complete without the country\u2019s young and charming minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, who gave a crowd-pleasing presentation on the main ways Ukraine has used the war to transform tech on the battlefield.<\/p>\nAs Fedorov was talking about transformative technologies that can save lives on the front lines, two small, unmanned ground vehicles came out onto the stage to a roaring applause. The minister thanked the robots for coming, adding that he was happy to see them.<\/p>\nIt was hard not to get inspired by the buzz of the event, but a conversation with a young startup brought me back down to earth, reminding me just how much more work and money are needed to actually win the war.<\/p>\nInterview with the startup, called Frontline, about the unmanned demining vehicles they\u2019re developing for Ukrainian soldiers, is coming soon on our website.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRussian Armed Forces conducting training exercises with the Zemledeliye mobile mine-laying systems. (Russian Defense Ministry)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nDemining Ukraine will require a tech revolution<\/code><\/h3>\nRussia has made a minefield out of Ukraine. According to Human Rights Watch, approximately 30% of the country \u2014 an area twice the size of Austria \u2014 is covered with mines. This poses a serious problem not only for civilians who unwittingly detonate them, especially children while playing outside, but for the military, who needs to clear them in order to advance.<\/p>\nRich Wordsworth recently wrote a story<\/a> for the Kyiv Independent on the problem of demining Ukraine. Not only is the technology for laying mines more advanced today, but landmines don\u2019t look like the classic, round landmine shape many of us still imagine them to be.<\/p>\nRussian forces have the ability, with the help of their \u201cZemledeliye\u201d (a word eerily meaning \u201cagriculture\u201d in Russian) mobile mine-laying systems, to lay tens of thousands of mines across Ukrainian fields within minutes \u2014 exactly what they have been doing since the start of the full-scale invasion.<\/p>\nThe technology to clear mines is in need of further development. There are bomb suits and machinery that are somewhere between a tank and a combine harvester, as well as drones, but in many cases, people and dogs are the ones out in the fields searching for and collecting mines.<\/p>\nAs with all wars, unfortunately, the demining process can\u2019t begin in earnest until the shooting stops. \u201cWhat is the point of clearing somewhere, only to have to go back and re-clear that area again later?\u201d Jon Cunliffe, of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) told Wordsworth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nUkraine will have to rely heavily on its nuclear power plants to get through winter, experts say. (Sources: Ember and the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy\/ Our World in Data\/ Illustration: Lisa Kukharska)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nIs Ukraine\u2019s energy system ready for future Russian attacks?<\/code><\/h3>\nAs winter approaches in Ukraine, the concern on everyone\u2019s mind is whether Russia is planning another series of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure this heating season.<\/p>\nI remember vividly when the attacks began last October. I was outside of Ukraine, working the news shift for the Kyiv Independent from my apartment in New York City when at around 3 o\u2019clock in the morning my time, the messages from my colleagues in Kyiv and around Ukraine came pouring in: \u201cExplosions near me,\u201d \u201canother explosion,\u201d \u201canother.\u201d After a relatively calm summer, it was earth-shaking.<\/p>\nThus began a winter of terror, stretching from October 2022 to April of this year \u2014 the exact time period of the country\u2019s heating season \u2014 during which Russia damaged or destroyed half of the country\u2019s energy system.<\/p>\nOur reporter Alexander Query recently wrote a story<\/a> about whether Ukraine has been able to prepare its energy infrastructure and gather enough energy resources to make it through this winter no matter what Russia has in store.<\/p>\nAccording to experts, Ukraine is likely ready, but it will all depend on the intensity of Russian attacks and how cold winter gets. What I found particularly interesting about Query\u2019s piece, however, was what Ukraine needs to do in the long term to not only make the energy network less vulnerable to outside forces but ultimately, more sustainable.<\/p>\nThe key is decentralization. Experts told Query that Ukraine needs smaller backup power sources scattered around the country instead of keeping a post-Soviet central system that is easy to target. The full-scale invasion has opened an \u201copportunity\u201d to speed up the energy transition, by thinking of how to rethink the entire energy structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden walk to the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nCorruption crackdown<\/code><\/h3>\nAs the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\nSeveral leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\nThe first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
IT Arena 2023<\/code><\/h3>\nThe war in Ukraine has been one of duality \u2014 trench warfare and artillery battles alongside revolutionary drone tactics; cities destroyed and occupied by Russia, and calm(er) ones where life has tried its best to carry forward; references to light and darkness, good and evil.<\/p>\nIT Arena, Ukraine\u2019s largest annual tech event, breathed the same dualism, with events, presentations, and panels about topics such as generative AI (ChatGPT is an example) and the role of titanium in revolutionary robotics held in Lviv\u2019s 123-year-old neo-Baroque opera house and just-as-old nearby museums and theaters.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s an uneasy feeling to talk about opportunities in tech and business during the war in the beautiful, relatively safe historic center of Ukraine\u2019s western city of Lviv \u2014 thousands of kilometers from the front lines. Walking around the richly festive oil paintings and mirrored halls lit up by strobe lights with my single-origin coffee, I felt almost guilty, and a bit unsafe from realizing that the event could become a Russian target.<\/p>\nBut as Chris Burry, investor and co-CEO at the Silicon Valley-based Market Access Center, put it at IT Arena last Friday, there is no denying that the war in Ukraine is a \u201cblack swan\u201d event that has caused seismic, \u201cstacking shifts\u201d in the world that have opened up a whole set of opportunities for technological advancement.<\/p>\nAmong Burry\u2019s many pieces of advice for Ukraine\u2019s tech entrepreneurs, one stuck out the most. If the country\u2019s techies are used to looking to Western markets to sell their products, they should start thinking about the Global South \u2014 a part of the world that stands to gain the most from the technological developments that are occurring right now in Ukraine in areas such as reconstruction and rehabilitation.<\/p>\nNo tech event in Ukraine would be complete without the country\u2019s young and charming minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, who gave a crowd-pleasing presentation on the main ways Ukraine has used the war to transform tech on the battlefield.<\/p>\nAs Fedorov was talking about transformative technologies that can save lives on the front lines, two small, unmanned ground vehicles came out onto the stage to a roaring applause. The minister thanked the robots for coming, adding that he was happy to see them.<\/p>\nIt was hard not to get inspired by the buzz of the event, but a conversation with a young startup brought me back down to earth, reminding me just how much more work and money are needed to actually win the war.<\/p>\nInterview with the startup, called Frontline, about the unmanned demining vehicles they\u2019re developing for Ukrainian soldiers, is coming soon on our website.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRussian Armed Forces conducting training exercises with the Zemledeliye mobile mine-laying systems. (Russian Defense Ministry)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nDemining Ukraine will require a tech revolution<\/code><\/h3>\nRussia has made a minefield out of Ukraine. According to Human Rights Watch, approximately 30% of the country \u2014 an area twice the size of Austria \u2014 is covered with mines. This poses a serious problem not only for civilians who unwittingly detonate them, especially children while playing outside, but for the military, who needs to clear them in order to advance.<\/p>\nRich Wordsworth recently wrote a story<\/a> for the Kyiv Independent on the problem of demining Ukraine. Not only is the technology for laying mines more advanced today, but landmines don\u2019t look like the classic, round landmine shape many of us still imagine them to be.<\/p>\nRussian forces have the ability, with the help of their \u201cZemledeliye\u201d (a word eerily meaning \u201cagriculture\u201d in Russian) mobile mine-laying systems, to lay tens of thousands of mines across Ukrainian fields within minutes \u2014 exactly what they have been doing since the start of the full-scale invasion.<\/p>\nThe technology to clear mines is in need of further development. There are bomb suits and machinery that are somewhere between a tank and a combine harvester, as well as drones, but in many cases, people and dogs are the ones out in the fields searching for and collecting mines.<\/p>\nAs with all wars, unfortunately, the demining process can\u2019t begin in earnest until the shooting stops. \u201cWhat is the point of clearing somewhere, only to have to go back and re-clear that area again later?\u201d Jon Cunliffe, of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) told Wordsworth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nUkraine will have to rely heavily on its nuclear power plants to get through winter, experts say. (Sources: Ember and the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy\/ Our World in Data\/ Illustration: Lisa Kukharska)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nIs Ukraine\u2019s energy system ready for future Russian attacks?<\/code><\/h3>\nAs winter approaches in Ukraine, the concern on everyone\u2019s mind is whether Russia is planning another series of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure this heating season.<\/p>\nI remember vividly when the attacks began last October. I was outside of Ukraine, working the news shift for the Kyiv Independent from my apartment in New York City when at around 3 o\u2019clock in the morning my time, the messages from my colleagues in Kyiv and around Ukraine came pouring in: \u201cExplosions near me,\u201d \u201canother explosion,\u201d \u201canother.\u201d After a relatively calm summer, it was earth-shaking.<\/p>\nThus began a winter of terror, stretching from October 2022 to April of this year \u2014 the exact time period of the country\u2019s heating season \u2014 during which Russia damaged or destroyed half of the country\u2019s energy system.<\/p>\nOur reporter Alexander Query recently wrote a story<\/a> about whether Ukraine has been able to prepare its energy infrastructure and gather enough energy resources to make it through this winter no matter what Russia has in store.<\/p>\nAccording to experts, Ukraine is likely ready, but it will all depend on the intensity of Russian attacks and how cold winter gets. What I found particularly interesting about Query\u2019s piece, however, was what Ukraine needs to do in the long term to not only make the energy network less vulnerable to outside forces but ultimately, more sustainable.<\/p>\nThe key is decentralization. Experts told Query that Ukraine needs smaller backup power sources scattered around the country instead of keeping a post-Soviet central system that is easy to target. The full-scale invasion has opened an \u201copportunity\u201d to speed up the energy transition, by thinking of how to rethink the entire energy structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden walk to the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nCorruption crackdown<\/code><\/h3>\nAs the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\nSeveral leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\nThe first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The war in Ukraine has been one of duality \u2014 trench warfare and artillery battles alongside revolutionary drone tactics; cities destroyed and occupied by Russia, and calm(er) ones where life has tried its best to carry forward; references to light and darkness, good and evil.<\/p>\n
IT Arena, Ukraine\u2019s largest annual tech event, breathed the same dualism, with events, presentations, and panels about topics such as generative AI (ChatGPT is an example) and the role of titanium in revolutionary robotics held in Lviv\u2019s 123-year-old neo-Baroque opera house and just-as-old nearby museums and theaters.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an uneasy feeling to talk about opportunities in tech and business during the war in the beautiful, relatively safe historic center of Ukraine\u2019s western city of Lviv \u2014 thousands of kilometers from the front lines. Walking around the richly festive oil paintings and mirrored halls lit up by strobe lights with my single-origin coffee, I felt almost guilty, and a bit unsafe from realizing that the event could become a Russian target.<\/p>\n
But as Chris Burry, investor and co-CEO at the Silicon Valley-based Market Access Center, put it at IT Arena last Friday, there is no denying that the war in Ukraine is a \u201cblack swan\u201d event that has caused seismic, \u201cstacking shifts\u201d in the world that have opened up a whole set of opportunities for technological advancement.<\/p>\n
Among Burry\u2019s many pieces of advice for Ukraine\u2019s tech entrepreneurs, one stuck out the most. If the country\u2019s techies are used to looking to Western markets to sell their products, they should start thinking about the Global South \u2014 a part of the world that stands to gain the most from the technological developments that are occurring right now in Ukraine in areas such as reconstruction and rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
No tech event in Ukraine would be complete without the country\u2019s young and charming minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, who gave a crowd-pleasing presentation on the main ways Ukraine has used the war to transform tech on the battlefield.<\/p>\n
As Fedorov was talking about transformative technologies that can save lives on the front lines, two small, unmanned ground vehicles came out onto the stage to a roaring applause. The minister thanked the robots for coming, adding that he was happy to see them.<\/p>\n
It was hard not to get inspired by the buzz of the event, but a conversation with a young startup brought me back down to earth, reminding me just how much more work and money are needed to actually win the war.<\/p>\n
Interview with the startup, called Frontline, about the unmanned demining vehicles they\u2019re developing for Ukrainian soldiers, is coming soon on our website.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRussian Armed Forces conducting training exercises with the Zemledeliye mobile mine-laying systems. (Russian Defense Ministry)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nDemining Ukraine will require a tech revolution<\/code><\/h3>\nRussia has made a minefield out of Ukraine. According to Human Rights Watch, approximately 30% of the country \u2014 an area twice the size of Austria \u2014 is covered with mines. This poses a serious problem not only for civilians who unwittingly detonate them, especially children while playing outside, but for the military, who needs to clear them in order to advance.<\/p>\nRich Wordsworth recently wrote a story<\/a> for the Kyiv Independent on the problem of demining Ukraine. Not only is the technology for laying mines more advanced today, but landmines don\u2019t look like the classic, round landmine shape many of us still imagine them to be.<\/p>\nRussian forces have the ability, with the help of their \u201cZemledeliye\u201d (a word eerily meaning \u201cagriculture\u201d in Russian) mobile mine-laying systems, to lay tens of thousands of mines across Ukrainian fields within minutes \u2014 exactly what they have been doing since the start of the full-scale invasion.<\/p>\nThe technology to clear mines is in need of further development. There are bomb suits and machinery that are somewhere between a tank and a combine harvester, as well as drones, but in many cases, people and dogs are the ones out in the fields searching for and collecting mines.<\/p>\nAs with all wars, unfortunately, the demining process can\u2019t begin in earnest until the shooting stops. \u201cWhat is the point of clearing somewhere, only to have to go back and re-clear that area again later?\u201d Jon Cunliffe, of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) told Wordsworth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nUkraine will have to rely heavily on its nuclear power plants to get through winter, experts say. (Sources: Ember and the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy\/ Our World in Data\/ Illustration: Lisa Kukharska)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nIs Ukraine\u2019s energy system ready for future Russian attacks?<\/code><\/h3>\nAs winter approaches in Ukraine, the concern on everyone\u2019s mind is whether Russia is planning another series of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure this heating season.<\/p>\nI remember vividly when the attacks began last October. I was outside of Ukraine, working the news shift for the Kyiv Independent from my apartment in New York City when at around 3 o\u2019clock in the morning my time, the messages from my colleagues in Kyiv and around Ukraine came pouring in: \u201cExplosions near me,\u201d \u201canother explosion,\u201d \u201canother.\u201d After a relatively calm summer, it was earth-shaking.<\/p>\nThus began a winter of terror, stretching from October 2022 to April of this year \u2014 the exact time period of the country\u2019s heating season \u2014 during which Russia damaged or destroyed half of the country\u2019s energy system.<\/p>\nOur reporter Alexander Query recently wrote a story<\/a> about whether Ukraine has been able to prepare its energy infrastructure and gather enough energy resources to make it through this winter no matter what Russia has in store.<\/p>\nAccording to experts, Ukraine is likely ready, but it will all depend on the intensity of Russian attacks and how cold winter gets. What I found particularly interesting about Query\u2019s piece, however, was what Ukraine needs to do in the long term to not only make the energy network less vulnerable to outside forces but ultimately, more sustainable.<\/p>\nThe key is decentralization. Experts told Query that Ukraine needs smaller backup power sources scattered around the country instead of keeping a post-Soviet central system that is easy to target. The full-scale invasion has opened an \u201copportunity\u201d to speed up the energy transition, by thinking of how to rethink the entire energy structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden walk to the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nCorruption crackdown<\/code><\/h3>\nAs the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\nSeveral leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\nThe first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Russian Armed Forces conducting training exercises with the Zemledeliye mobile mine-laying systems. (Russian Defense Ministry)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nDemining Ukraine will require a tech revolution<\/code><\/h3>\nRussia has made a minefield out of Ukraine. According to Human Rights Watch, approximately 30% of the country \u2014 an area twice the size of Austria \u2014 is covered with mines. This poses a serious problem not only for civilians who unwittingly detonate them, especially children while playing outside, but for the military, who needs to clear them in order to advance.<\/p>\nRich Wordsworth recently wrote a story<\/a> for the Kyiv Independent on the problem of demining Ukraine. Not only is the technology for laying mines more advanced today, but landmines don\u2019t look like the classic, round landmine shape many of us still imagine them to be.<\/p>\nRussian forces have the ability, with the help of their \u201cZemledeliye\u201d (a word eerily meaning \u201cagriculture\u201d in Russian) mobile mine-laying systems, to lay tens of thousands of mines across Ukrainian fields within minutes \u2014 exactly what they have been doing since the start of the full-scale invasion.<\/p>\nThe technology to clear mines is in need of further development. There are bomb suits and machinery that are somewhere between a tank and a combine harvester, as well as drones, but in many cases, people and dogs are the ones out in the fields searching for and collecting mines.<\/p>\nAs with all wars, unfortunately, the demining process can\u2019t begin in earnest until the shooting stops. \u201cWhat is the point of clearing somewhere, only to have to go back and re-clear that area again later?\u201d Jon Cunliffe, of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) told Wordsworth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nUkraine will have to rely heavily on its nuclear power plants to get through winter, experts say. (Sources: Ember and the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy\/ Our World in Data\/ Illustration: Lisa Kukharska)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nIs Ukraine\u2019s energy system ready for future Russian attacks?<\/code><\/h3>\nAs winter approaches in Ukraine, the concern on everyone\u2019s mind is whether Russia is planning another series of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure this heating season.<\/p>\nI remember vividly when the attacks began last October. I was outside of Ukraine, working the news shift for the Kyiv Independent from my apartment in New York City when at around 3 o\u2019clock in the morning my time, the messages from my colleagues in Kyiv and around Ukraine came pouring in: \u201cExplosions near me,\u201d \u201canother explosion,\u201d \u201canother.\u201d After a relatively calm summer, it was earth-shaking.<\/p>\nThus began a winter of terror, stretching from October 2022 to April of this year \u2014 the exact time period of the country\u2019s heating season \u2014 during which Russia damaged or destroyed half of the country\u2019s energy system.<\/p>\nOur reporter Alexander Query recently wrote a story<\/a> about whether Ukraine has been able to prepare its energy infrastructure and gather enough energy resources to make it through this winter no matter what Russia has in store.<\/p>\nAccording to experts, Ukraine is likely ready, but it will all depend on the intensity of Russian attacks and how cold winter gets. What I found particularly interesting about Query\u2019s piece, however, was what Ukraine needs to do in the long term to not only make the energy network less vulnerable to outside forces but ultimately, more sustainable.<\/p>\nThe key is decentralization. Experts told Query that Ukraine needs smaller backup power sources scattered around the country instead of keeping a post-Soviet central system that is easy to target. The full-scale invasion has opened an \u201copportunity\u201d to speed up the energy transition, by thinking of how to rethink the entire energy structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden walk to the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nCorruption crackdown<\/code><\/h3>\nAs the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\nSeveral leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\nThe first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Demining Ukraine will require a tech revolution<\/code><\/h3>\nRussia has made a minefield out of Ukraine. According to Human Rights Watch, approximately 30% of the country \u2014 an area twice the size of Austria \u2014 is covered with mines. This poses a serious problem not only for civilians who unwittingly detonate them, especially children while playing outside, but for the military, who needs to clear them in order to advance.<\/p>\nRich Wordsworth recently wrote a story<\/a> for the Kyiv Independent on the problem of demining Ukraine. Not only is the technology for laying mines more advanced today, but landmines don\u2019t look like the classic, round landmine shape many of us still imagine them to be.<\/p>\nRussian forces have the ability, with the help of their \u201cZemledeliye\u201d (a word eerily meaning \u201cagriculture\u201d in Russian) mobile mine-laying systems, to lay tens of thousands of mines across Ukrainian fields within minutes \u2014 exactly what they have been doing since the start of the full-scale invasion.<\/p>\nThe technology to clear mines is in need of further development. There are bomb suits and machinery that are somewhere between a tank and a combine harvester, as well as drones, but in many cases, people and dogs are the ones out in the fields searching for and collecting mines.<\/p>\nAs with all wars, unfortunately, the demining process can\u2019t begin in earnest until the shooting stops. \u201cWhat is the point of clearing somewhere, only to have to go back and re-clear that area again later?\u201d Jon Cunliffe, of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) told Wordsworth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nUkraine will have to rely heavily on its nuclear power plants to get through winter, experts say. (Sources: Ember and the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy\/ Our World in Data\/ Illustration: Lisa Kukharska)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nIs Ukraine\u2019s energy system ready for future Russian attacks?<\/code><\/h3>\nAs winter approaches in Ukraine, the concern on everyone\u2019s mind is whether Russia is planning another series of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure this heating season.<\/p>\nI remember vividly when the attacks began last October. I was outside of Ukraine, working the news shift for the Kyiv Independent from my apartment in New York City when at around 3 o\u2019clock in the morning my time, the messages from my colleagues in Kyiv and around Ukraine came pouring in: \u201cExplosions near me,\u201d \u201canother explosion,\u201d \u201canother.\u201d After a relatively calm summer, it was earth-shaking.<\/p>\nThus began a winter of terror, stretching from October 2022 to April of this year \u2014 the exact time period of the country\u2019s heating season \u2014 during which Russia damaged or destroyed half of the country\u2019s energy system.<\/p>\nOur reporter Alexander Query recently wrote a story<\/a> about whether Ukraine has been able to prepare its energy infrastructure and gather enough energy resources to make it through this winter no matter what Russia has in store.<\/p>\nAccording to experts, Ukraine is likely ready, but it will all depend on the intensity of Russian attacks and how cold winter gets. What I found particularly interesting about Query\u2019s piece, however, was what Ukraine needs to do in the long term to not only make the energy network less vulnerable to outside forces but ultimately, more sustainable.<\/p>\nThe key is decentralization. Experts told Query that Ukraine needs smaller backup power sources scattered around the country instead of keeping a post-Soviet central system that is easy to target. The full-scale invasion has opened an \u201copportunity\u201d to speed up the energy transition, by thinking of how to rethink the entire energy structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden walk to the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nCorruption crackdown<\/code><\/h3>\nAs the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\nSeveral leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\nThe first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Russia has made a minefield out of Ukraine. According to Human Rights Watch, approximately 30% of the country \u2014 an area twice the size of Austria \u2014 is covered with mines. This poses a serious problem not only for civilians who unwittingly detonate them, especially children while playing outside, but for the military, who needs to clear them in order to advance.<\/p>\n
Rich Wordsworth recently wrote a story<\/a> for the Kyiv Independent on the problem of demining Ukraine. Not only is the technology for laying mines more advanced today, but landmines don\u2019t look like the classic, round landmine shape many of us still imagine them to be.<\/p>\nRussian forces have the ability, with the help of their \u201cZemledeliye\u201d (a word eerily meaning \u201cagriculture\u201d in Russian) mobile mine-laying systems, to lay tens of thousands of mines across Ukrainian fields within minutes \u2014 exactly what they have been doing since the start of the full-scale invasion.<\/p>\nThe technology to clear mines is in need of further development. There are bomb suits and machinery that are somewhere between a tank and a combine harvester, as well as drones, but in many cases, people and dogs are the ones out in the fields searching for and collecting mines.<\/p>\nAs with all wars, unfortunately, the demining process can\u2019t begin in earnest until the shooting stops. \u201cWhat is the point of clearing somewhere, only to have to go back and re-clear that area again later?\u201d Jon Cunliffe, of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) told Wordsworth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nUkraine will have to rely heavily on its nuclear power plants to get through winter, experts say. (Sources: Ember and the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy\/ Our World in Data\/ Illustration: Lisa Kukharska)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nIs Ukraine\u2019s energy system ready for future Russian attacks?<\/code><\/h3>\nAs winter approaches in Ukraine, the concern on everyone\u2019s mind is whether Russia is planning another series of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure this heating season.<\/p>\nI remember vividly when the attacks began last October. I was outside of Ukraine, working the news shift for the Kyiv Independent from my apartment in New York City when at around 3 o\u2019clock in the morning my time, the messages from my colleagues in Kyiv and around Ukraine came pouring in: \u201cExplosions near me,\u201d \u201canother explosion,\u201d \u201canother.\u201d After a relatively calm summer, it was earth-shaking.<\/p>\nThus began a winter of terror, stretching from October 2022 to April of this year \u2014 the exact time period of the country\u2019s heating season \u2014 during which Russia damaged or destroyed half of the country\u2019s energy system.<\/p>\nOur reporter Alexander Query recently wrote a story<\/a> about whether Ukraine has been able to prepare its energy infrastructure and gather enough energy resources to make it through this winter no matter what Russia has in store.<\/p>\nAccording to experts, Ukraine is likely ready, but it will all depend on the intensity of Russian attacks and how cold winter gets. What I found particularly interesting about Query\u2019s piece, however, was what Ukraine needs to do in the long term to not only make the energy network less vulnerable to outside forces but ultimately, more sustainable.<\/p>\nThe key is decentralization. Experts told Query that Ukraine needs smaller backup power sources scattered around the country instead of keeping a post-Soviet central system that is easy to target. The full-scale invasion has opened an \u201copportunity\u201d to speed up the energy transition, by thinking of how to rethink the entire energy structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden walk to the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nCorruption crackdown<\/code><\/h3>\nAs the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\nSeveral leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\nThe first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Russian forces have the ability, with the help of their \u201cZemledeliye\u201d (a word eerily meaning \u201cagriculture\u201d in Russian) mobile mine-laying systems, to lay tens of thousands of mines across Ukrainian fields within minutes \u2014 exactly what they have been doing since the start of the full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n
The technology to clear mines is in need of further development. There are bomb suits and machinery that are somewhere between a tank and a combine harvester, as well as drones, but in many cases, people and dogs are the ones out in the fields searching for and collecting mines.<\/p>\n
As with all wars, unfortunately, the demining process can\u2019t begin in earnest until the shooting stops. \u201cWhat is the point of clearing somewhere, only to have to go back and re-clear that area again later?\u201d Jon Cunliffe, of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) told Wordsworth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nUkraine will have to rely heavily on its nuclear power plants to get through winter, experts say. (Sources: Ember and the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy\/ Our World in Data\/ Illustration: Lisa Kukharska)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nIs Ukraine\u2019s energy system ready for future Russian attacks?<\/code><\/h3>\nAs winter approaches in Ukraine, the concern on everyone\u2019s mind is whether Russia is planning another series of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure this heating season.<\/p>\nI remember vividly when the attacks began last October. I was outside of Ukraine, working the news shift for the Kyiv Independent from my apartment in New York City when at around 3 o\u2019clock in the morning my time, the messages from my colleagues in Kyiv and around Ukraine came pouring in: \u201cExplosions near me,\u201d \u201canother explosion,\u201d \u201canother.\u201d After a relatively calm summer, it was earth-shaking.<\/p>\nThus began a winter of terror, stretching from October 2022 to April of this year \u2014 the exact time period of the country\u2019s heating season \u2014 during which Russia damaged or destroyed half of the country\u2019s energy system.<\/p>\nOur reporter Alexander Query recently wrote a story<\/a> about whether Ukraine has been able to prepare its energy infrastructure and gather enough energy resources to make it through this winter no matter what Russia has in store.<\/p>\nAccording to experts, Ukraine is likely ready, but it will all depend on the intensity of Russian attacks and how cold winter gets. What I found particularly interesting about Query\u2019s piece, however, was what Ukraine needs to do in the long term to not only make the energy network less vulnerable to outside forces but ultimately, more sustainable.<\/p>\nThe key is decentralization. Experts told Query that Ukraine needs smaller backup power sources scattered around the country instead of keeping a post-Soviet central system that is easy to target. The full-scale invasion has opened an \u201copportunity\u201d to speed up the energy transition, by thinking of how to rethink the entire energy structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden walk to the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nCorruption crackdown<\/code><\/h3>\nAs the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\nSeveral leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\nThe first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Ukraine will have to rely heavily on its nuclear power plants to get through winter, experts say. (Sources: Ember and the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy\/ Our World in Data\/ Illustration: Lisa Kukharska)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nIs Ukraine\u2019s energy system ready for future Russian attacks?<\/code><\/h3>\nAs winter approaches in Ukraine, the concern on everyone\u2019s mind is whether Russia is planning another series of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure this heating season.<\/p>\nI remember vividly when the attacks began last October. I was outside of Ukraine, working the news shift for the Kyiv Independent from my apartment in New York City when at around 3 o\u2019clock in the morning my time, the messages from my colleagues in Kyiv and around Ukraine came pouring in: \u201cExplosions near me,\u201d \u201canother explosion,\u201d \u201canother.\u201d After a relatively calm summer, it was earth-shaking.<\/p>\nThus began a winter of terror, stretching from October 2022 to April of this year \u2014 the exact time period of the country\u2019s heating season \u2014 during which Russia damaged or destroyed half of the country\u2019s energy system.<\/p>\nOur reporter Alexander Query recently wrote a story<\/a> about whether Ukraine has been able to prepare its energy infrastructure and gather enough energy resources to make it through this winter no matter what Russia has in store.<\/p>\nAccording to experts, Ukraine is likely ready, but it will all depend on the intensity of Russian attacks and how cold winter gets. What I found particularly interesting about Query\u2019s piece, however, was what Ukraine needs to do in the long term to not only make the energy network less vulnerable to outside forces but ultimately, more sustainable.<\/p>\nThe key is decentralization. Experts told Query that Ukraine needs smaller backup power sources scattered around the country instead of keeping a post-Soviet central system that is easy to target. The full-scale invasion has opened an \u201copportunity\u201d to speed up the energy transition, by thinking of how to rethink the entire energy structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden walk to the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nCorruption crackdown<\/code><\/h3>\nAs the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\nSeveral leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\nThe first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Is Ukraine\u2019s energy system ready for future Russian attacks?<\/code><\/h3>\nAs winter approaches in Ukraine, the concern on everyone\u2019s mind is whether Russia is planning another series of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure this heating season.<\/p>\nI remember vividly when the attacks began last October. I was outside of Ukraine, working the news shift for the Kyiv Independent from my apartment in New York City when at around 3 o\u2019clock in the morning my time, the messages from my colleagues in Kyiv and around Ukraine came pouring in: \u201cExplosions near me,\u201d \u201canother explosion,\u201d \u201canother.\u201d After a relatively calm summer, it was earth-shaking.<\/p>\nThus began a winter of terror, stretching from October 2022 to April of this year \u2014 the exact time period of the country\u2019s heating season \u2014 during which Russia damaged or destroyed half of the country\u2019s energy system.<\/p>\nOur reporter Alexander Query recently wrote a story<\/a> about whether Ukraine has been able to prepare its energy infrastructure and gather enough energy resources to make it through this winter no matter what Russia has in store.<\/p>\nAccording to experts, Ukraine is likely ready, but it will all depend on the intensity of Russian attacks and how cold winter gets. What I found particularly interesting about Query\u2019s piece, however, was what Ukraine needs to do in the long term to not only make the energy network less vulnerable to outside forces but ultimately, more sustainable.<\/p>\nThe key is decentralization. Experts told Query that Ukraine needs smaller backup power sources scattered around the country instead of keeping a post-Soviet central system that is easy to target. The full-scale invasion has opened an \u201copportunity\u201d to speed up the energy transition, by thinking of how to rethink the entire energy structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden walk to the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nCorruption crackdown<\/code><\/h3>\nAs the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\nSeveral leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\nThe first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
As winter approaches in Ukraine, the concern on everyone\u2019s mind is whether Russia is planning another series of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure this heating season.<\/p>\n
I remember vividly when the attacks began last October. I was outside of Ukraine, working the news shift for the Kyiv Independent from my apartment in New York City when at around 3 o\u2019clock in the morning my time, the messages from my colleagues in Kyiv and around Ukraine came pouring in: \u201cExplosions near me,\u201d \u201canother explosion,\u201d \u201canother.\u201d After a relatively calm summer, it was earth-shaking.<\/p>\n
Thus began a winter of terror, stretching from October 2022 to April of this year \u2014 the exact time period of the country\u2019s heating season \u2014 during which Russia damaged or destroyed half of the country\u2019s energy system.<\/p>\n
Our reporter Alexander Query recently wrote a story<\/a> about whether Ukraine has been able to prepare its energy infrastructure and gather enough energy resources to make it through this winter no matter what Russia has in store.<\/p>\nAccording to experts, Ukraine is likely ready, but it will all depend on the intensity of Russian attacks and how cold winter gets. What I found particularly interesting about Query\u2019s piece, however, was what Ukraine needs to do in the long term to not only make the energy network less vulnerable to outside forces but ultimately, more sustainable.<\/p>\nThe key is decentralization. Experts told Query that Ukraine needs smaller backup power sources scattered around the country instead of keeping a post-Soviet central system that is easy to target. The full-scale invasion has opened an \u201copportunity\u201d to speed up the energy transition, by thinking of how to rethink the entire energy structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden walk to the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nCorruption crackdown<\/code><\/h3>\nAs the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\nSeveral leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\nThe first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
According to experts, Ukraine is likely ready, but it will all depend on the intensity of Russian attacks and how cold winter gets. What I found particularly interesting about Query\u2019s piece, however, was what Ukraine needs to do in the long term to not only make the energy network less vulnerable to outside forces but ultimately, more sustainable.<\/p>\n
The key is decentralization. Experts told Query that Ukraine needs smaller backup power sources scattered around the country instead of keeping a post-Soviet central system that is easy to target. The full-scale invasion has opened an \u201copportunity\u201d to speed up the energy transition, by thinking of how to rethink the entire energy structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden walk to the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nCorruption crackdown<\/code><\/h3>\nAs the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\nSeveral leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\nThe first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden walk to the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nCorruption crackdown<\/code><\/h3>\nAs the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\nSeveral leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\nThe first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Corruption crackdown<\/code><\/h3>\nAs the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\nSeveral leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\nThe first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
As the U.S. Congress stages a series of thrilling cliffhangers \u2014 will the government shut down, and will Ukraine aid be embedded in the bill that\u2019d keep it running \u2014 the White House is signaling that it\u2019s going to be stricter with preconditions.<\/p>\n
Several leaked and public documents suggest that Washington will soon insist Ukraine gets its act together on corruption if it wants to keep the spigot flowing.<\/p>\n
The first page of the State Department’s public integrated country strategy highlights Ukraine’s unique opportunity to tackle corruption and reforms. But the leaked version<\/a> reported by Politico is a sight more pointed, saying perceptions of corruption at the top could undermine foreign faith in the wartime government.<\/p>\nThe document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The document obtained by the media outlet outlines steps the U.S. is taking to help Ukraine tackle corruption and reform the country’s military, financial, and education sectors, among others.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a working draft<\/a> of mandatory reforms was sent to the Ukrainian government, with deadlines of three, six, 12, and 18 months. Some of these are about Ukraine’s crawling judicial reforms for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the High Council of Justice, and the rest of its hilariously unreliable judiciary.<\/p>\nOther reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\nStill, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\nReporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Other reforms concern changes at top state companies \u2014 another independent member for Ukrenergo and Naftogaz supervisory boards, finishing corporatizing Energoatom, cutting the umbilical between the Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine for good, choosing a supervisory board for the Ukrainian Defense Industry and adopting Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s good for Joe to dig the spurs into Ukraine\u2019s reform effort. Corruption burdens many of its institutions; the ones that came out during the war were public embarrassments. If Kyiv wants anyone to invest in defense and reconstruction, it has to make them reasonably sure the funds won\u2019t disappear into somebody\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\n
Still, there is a concerted effort by fans of Russia, to block aid by portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom, which it\u2019s not. American scrutiny will contain voices looking for any exploitable opportunity to do so. We should be careful not to oversimplify. The opportunity is there but reforms are hard when you\u2019re fighting a trench war for survival.<\/p>\n
Reporting by Igor Kossov<\/a>, reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/noscript><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
A Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nBroken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Broken promises<\/code><\/h3>\nRemember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\nWhile fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Remember all those companies that promised to leave Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Well, some major international companies have continued on with business as usual.<\/p>\n
While fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s has left, selling off its restaurants to a Russian buyer who did a quick rebrand and renamed the restaurants, \u201cTasty, period,\u201d rival Burger King is still operating<\/a> 800 restaurants in Russia.<\/p>\nRestaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\nForbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Restaurant Brand International, which owns 15% of Burger King\u2019s business in Russia, told the BBC it has \u201cno new updates\u201d on its plans to leave, following its pledge to exit in March 2022.<\/p>\n
Forbes Russia released<\/a> the revenue of the Russian divisions of the top 50 international companies featuring numerous household names including Nestle, Hyundai, PepsiCo, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\nU.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\nFrench and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\nNevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\nThe increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\nThe Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
U.S. companies dominated the list, with eight of the 10 businesses from last year\u2019s ranking featuring again this year. Tobacco giant FMSM\/Philip Morris was the most successful U.S. company, with revenue amounting to 399.9 billion rubles ($4 billion) last year, a 1.8% increase compared to 2021.<\/p>\n
French and German companies were also highly represented, with five companies each featured on the list. France\u2019s Leroy Merlin saw the largest revenue of any international company with 529.7 billion rubles ($5.3 billion), a 16% increase compared to 2021. However, the company is currently waiting for approval from the Kremlin to hand over its stores to local management.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, many international businesses saw decreased revenue, particularly from countries allied with Ukraine. Dutch real estate company Ingka Holding felt the greatest loss with -60.2%, although it still saw a healthy revenue stream of 119.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\n
The increasing pressure to leave the Russian market clearly has had some impact as 22 companies dropped off the list, with no representatives from Sweden, Spain, and Latvia featured in the ranking.<\/p>\n
The Moral Ratings Agency<\/a> published a list of shame in June last year spotlighting companies that failed to deliver on promises to exit Russia. According to the report, the majority of the 114 analyzed companies fell into a gray zone, wherein they partially reduced operations but hadn\u2019t left entirely.<\/p>\nReporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Reporting by Dominic Culverwell<\/a>, business reporter at the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
What else is happening<\/code><\/h3>\nUkraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Ukraine grain exports fall 25.8% so far in 2023\/24. <\/strong>Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023\/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022\/23, according to agriculture ministry data published on Oct. 2. Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on Oct. 1, 2023 compared with 297,000 tons last year. Dominic Culverwell contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\nFive grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Five grain ships heading to Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea ports for loading. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also said<\/a> that three other ships had recently left with cargo through Ukraine\u2019s temporary corridor in the Black Sea. The five vessels \u2014 Olga, Ida, Danny Boy, Forza Doria, and New Legacy \u2014 will be loaded with 120,000 tons of grain for Africa and Europe at the Odesa ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Kubrakov said on Facebook.<\/p>\nDenmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Denmark to open<\/a> diplomatic mission in Mykolaiv to help restore city. <\/strong>Denmark’s foreign minister also said that Copenhagen wants to open a new diplomatic office in Mykolaiv. “At the request of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, we are taking separate responsibility for the restoration of Mykolaiv and the entire oblast,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Kyiv ahead of a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\nUkraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Ukraine\u2019s Central Bank ditches<\/a> fixed exchange rate for first time since war. <\/strong>Ukraine\u2019s central bank said it was bringing a more flexible rate starting on Oct. 3, removing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia. The move is aimed at boosting the economy and businesses. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a “historic maximum,\u201d Reuters reported.<\/p>\nHigh Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
High Anti-Corruption Court provides<\/a> first monetary award to whistleblower. <\/strong>Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) announced on Oct. 2 that it had ruled to pay Hr 13.3 million (about $360,000) to a whistleblower in the case of a $6 million bribe attempted by a former first deputy head of the Kyiv tax service back in 2020. The case against the former deputy, Mykola Iliashenko, is the first example of a corruption-related whistleblower receiving a monetary award for their role in prosecuting a crime.<\/p>\nSubscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\nUkraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Subscribe to the Newsletter<\/p>\n
Ukraine Business Roundup<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Subscribe<\/span> <\/button><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
We\u2019ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The following is the fourth edition of our new Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business andRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}