The NBU has lowered the official exchange rate for the dollar by 2 kopecks and for the euro by 22 kopecks

Gold prices have fallen below the $4,000 per troy ounce mark for the first time since last November, against a backdrop of a strengthening dollar and expectations of interest rate rises.

The European Union is providing Ukraine with the first tranche of aid, amounting to €3.2 billion. This forms part of a larger loan of €90 billion that the EU plans to grant to Ukraine over the next two years.

The Audit Office has launched a financial audit of the State Bureau of Investigations. The auditors will examine the SBI’s financial and budgetary reports, its accounting records, the use of budgetary funds and the functioning of its internal control systems.

Despite Oleksandr Tsyvinsky’s statements regarding a mechanism developed by the Economic Security Bureau for dealing with businesses that have evaded tax, the agency itself was unable to explain what this mechanism entails, how it selects the companies with which it reaches a compromise, or what criteria they use when exempting offenders from criminal liability. In particular, they noted that the matter requires “further consideration”.

The first instalment of the €90 billion EU loan to Ukraine has been revised: instead of €5.9 billion to fund drones, Kyiv is set to receive €3.2 billion in budgetary support. According to Euractiv, the defence funding has not been cancelled, but it is to be allocated in a separate, subsequent tranche.