National:
- The United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 22 passed a resolution calling Russia to stop the human rights violations in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula invaded and annexed by Russia in 2014. The resolution specifically mentions Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia Oleg Sentsov, Volodymyr Balukh, and Emir-Huseyn Kuku.
- Senior British MPs have concluded a four-day working visit to Ukraine’s troubled Sea of Azov region, having visited the port cities of Berdiansk, Mariupol and the surrounding areas. They shared their conclusions with Kyiv Post.
- The health of Pavlo Gryb, a Ukrainian political prisoner in Russia, deteriorated severely. According to his family and lawyers, Gryb has nearly lost sight.
- Four people were injured in the fire at the Christmas market in Lviv on Dec. 22.
- More than 60 percent of Ukrainians are not satisfied with how democracy has developed in Ukraine, a new poll shows.
Business news:
- Ukraine’s state-owned PrivatBank filed an appeal against a London High Court decision which had set back its attempts to regain billions of dollars that Ukraine’s largest bank claims its former owners, oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov, siphoned off before the bank was nationalized in 2016.
- Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded the sovereign rating of Ukraine in national and foreign currencies to “Caa1” from “Caa2.”
- More good news: Construction is up by 6.3 percent in Ukraine in 2018 comparing to 2017.
- Even more good news: Hryvnia is getting stronger against foreign currency, according to the National Bank of Ukraine.
- Naftogaz will reduce the price of natural gas for industrial consumers by 3 percent in January.
- Ukraine’s economy ministry will start negotiating a new trade deal with the U.K. in 2019.
- Industrial production is down in November by nearly 1 percent comparing to November of 2017.
- Ukraine’s new big export: frozen fish. Ukraine’s revenue from exports of frozen fish grew by 43 percent in 10 months.
Culture and lifestyle:
- In Alberta, a province in western Canada, more than 700 children are enrolled in the Ukrainian bilingual program. We visited some of the schools that run the program and talked to the teachers and students.
- Street artists gave a makeover to the Osokorky metro station in Kyiv. But their art provoked a mixed reaction: while some like the new look of the station, others say there is no harmony in the murals.
- The English-language guidebook “Kyiv By Locals” has published its second edition, celebrating it with a presentation at the TsUM department store.
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