Peter Byrne

Law-enforcers have said they have found instances of Kyiv District Administrative Court judges influencing Ukraine's Constitutional Court on rulings regarding illegal enrichment and lustration, as well as consideration of legislation in parliament and investigations undertaken by the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI).

U.S.-based Trident Acquisitions Corp. has been recognized the winner of the tender for the development of the Dolphin hydrocarbon section on the Black Sea shelf on the basis of a production sharing agreement (PSA), according to company CEO Ilya Ponomarev.

Japan and Saudi Arabia have approved the import of raw milk and dairy products from Ukraine, reports Ukraine’s State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection. Although the national dairy herd is gradually declining, Ukraine ranks third in the world for exports of casein, or milk protein, fifth for butter, and eighth for dried milk.

Russia is building a $9.3 billion stretch of China’s ‘New Silk Highway’ designed to run 2,000 km from Kazakhstan across Russia to Belarus, cutting out Ukraine. Built with private Russian money, this Russian toll road is to become the main truck route between China and Europe. When completed, the ‘Meridian Highway’ is to allow trucks to travel between China and Europe in 11 days, as opposed to 15 days by rail, and 30-50 days by the sea, Wade Shepard writes in Forbes. But as configured the road "adds to a series of Russia-led transport projects that limit Ukraine’s connectivity with the east," Jonathan Hillman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies tells Forbes.

Monday marks the start of business school for the more than 250 new lawmakers of Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People party. This new crop of Rada members, most of them new to politics, will undergo a mandatory, one week course at the Kyiv School of Economics, a business school with a free-market orientation. Macroeconomics and sectoral economics will be two focuses of the intensive skills upgrade for a group who could be in office for as long as five years.

The bestselling Israeli author of "Sapiens" and "Homo Deus" has approved changes in the Russian translation of his latest book, "21 Lessons for the 21st Century," to omit examples of lies told by Russian President Vladimir Putin about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2014.

Regional gas companies owned by oligarch Dmytro Firtash are suspected of violating the law on economic competition in connection with the appointment of David Anthony Howard Brown as head of the supervisory board in all the companies.

Una Hajdari, a 2018 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow from Prishtina, Kosovo, has written a 800-word op-ed published by The New York Times on July 24, titled "The risks of radical renewal in Ukraine."

Summer shopping is off to a strong start with retail turnover surging 14% y-o-y in June, reports the State Statistics Service. The sales jump follows a 28% percent jump in consumer confidence in April and May, to 82.4 points, the pre-crisis levels of 2012-2013.

Gabriele Foa, a money manager for Algebris Investments, on July 23, was quoted from London as telling Bloomberg that Ukraine’s forecast 3% GDP growth could trigger payments.

Bloomberg in recent weeks has published numerous stories about Ukraine, including a July 23 piece by Volodymyr Verbyany about how candidates from President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People Party ousted oligarchs, celebrities and well-connected relatives from the legislature.

At a government meeting on July 17 in Kyiv, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said he and his party are the victims are dishonest election campaigning.

In Ukraine, where PwC has been active since 1993 and today has offices in Kyiv, Dnipro and Lviv, Maxim Vykhovanets and Dmytro Nechytailo have been elevated to partner level.

Ukraine'es Cabinet of Ministers officially published a decree on the introduction of special duties for the import of diesel fuel and autogas from Russia. They will take effect on August 1 and will grow on October 1. Experts say this will affect the increase in wholesale prices, but is unlikely to hit the pockets of car owners because of the high retail margin of gas stations.

Officials at ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine’s largest steelmaker, say that at the end of a 17-hour search on Sunday, state security officers confiscated machine parts, paralyzing a $150 million investment in a continuous casting machine. Anna Gatilova, Arcelor press secretary, wrote Monday: "ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih considers the recent events...a serious signal to the business community about the real situation with the protection of business in Ukraine...The company's management personally appeals to the President of Ukraine and the international community to intervene and stop unprecedented pressure on a foreign investor."