Economy
Lifecell has invested 16 billion hryvnias in its network and has almost doubled its tax payments
Over the four years of the war, the mobile operator lifecell has invested around 16 billion hryvnias in network development and energy resilience. At the same time, the company has almost doubled its tax contributions: in 2025, it paid 3.96 billion hryvnias to budgets at all levels, compared with 2.03 billion hryvnias in 2022.
Amid the war in Iran, Russia is also profiting from gas by offering South Asian countries sanctioned LNG at a discount of up to 40%
Russia is attempting to capitalise on the natural gas shortage by offering liquefied natural gas from projects subject to sanctions to countries in South Asia. The supplies are being offered at a significant discount.
School meals 2026: the government is providing 46.5 million hryvnias for the modernisation of school canteens
The government will continue to fund the modernisation of school canteens and catering facilities in 2026. More than 46.5 million hryvnias in grants will be allocated to complete projects launched in 2025 that are at least 60% complete.
A safe haven for Putin: how Russia is using African countries to funnel money past sanctions
Russia is expanding its arsenal of tools for circumventing sanctions by channelling some of its international payments through cryptocurrency payment channels via African countries.
“It is time to draw conclusions,” the MP said, expressing his dissatisfaction with the work of the BEB under Tsivinsky’s leadership
Danylo Getmantsev, a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament and Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, has stated that he is dissatisfied with the work of the new team at the Economic Security Bureau. According to him, the time has come to draw conclusions, so MPs plan to hear from the Bureau’s leadership as early as next month.
Russia's international reserves fell by more than $60 billion over the course of the month
As of 1 April, the Russian Federation’s international reserves had fallen to almost $749 billion. Over the course of the month, they had decreased by $60.3 billion in nominal terms.
Financial Monitoring 2026: new rules for businesses from 2 February
On 2 February 2026, an updated procedure for information exchange in the field of financial monitoring came into force in Ukraine. For banks, insurance companies, notaries, auditors, estate agents, gambling operators and other entities subject to primary financial monitoring, this means new reporting rules, a switch to an online portal and a stronger focus on high-risk transactions.
The Ministry of Culture is launching the “Thousand Spring” project, worth 4 billion hryvnias, despite the budget deficit
The Ministry of Culture has announced the launch of the “Tysiachovesna” programme, with a budget of 4 billion hryvnias, to support the production of Ukrainian cultural content – ranging from films and TV series to music, visual arts and social media content. The initiative is being launched against the backdrop of the 2026 state budget, in which the deficit ceiling has been set at 1.902 trillion hryvnias.
Ukrnafta has begun to cut fuel prices amid a fall in global prices
The Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Svyrydenko, held a meeting with the Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz of Ukraine to analyse the current situation on the global oil and petroleum products markets.
Sabotage in France and attacks on the power grid have brought arms production to a standstill
A series of coordinated acts of sabotage targeting energy infrastructure took place in France, temporarily disrupting the power supply to defence industry facilities.
In March, the NBU fined a bank and five financial companies more than 2.3 million hryvnias
The National Bank has fined one bank and five financial companies. The reasons cited were breaches of financial monitoring regulations and foreign exchange legislation.
Financial institutions have started using ‘Diyu’ to issue loans
Non-bank financial institutions can now use the services of the ‘Diya’ app to identify and verify customers when granting loans. The new mechanism allows data to be retrieved from government registers with the user’s consent, which should improve the quality of creditworthiness assessments and enhance the security of financial transactions.
