Today's Contents
Just The Facts:
- US to provide $825 million to support Ukraine's energy system
- Swiss senate approves $108.5 million for Ukraine reconstruction
- Italy prepares 10th military aid package for Ukraine, sources tell Reuters
- Ukrainian MP outlines grid priorities for winter in BNN Bloomberg interview
Here's What They Think:
- Los Angeles Times: Biden should bolster military aid to Ukraine before leaving office
- Kyiv Independent: EU's support for Ukraine's EU integration depends on reforms and geopolitics
Sober Second Thought:
- Russia abducted 300 Ukrainian children to 'Russify' them, Yale study alleges
Dear subscribers,
Lisa Kaestner, Ukraine country manager for the IFC, made some interesting comments late yesterday at a seminar, coordinated by the US Department of Commerce and attended by URN Daily, on financing women-led businesses in Ukraine.
She said that, worldwide, the IFC is emphasizing "gender-inclusive" financing more than ever, with the fiscal year that ended in July setting an all-time record for the number of such projects financed. In Europe, more than a third of all projects financed by the IFC had an "explicit component related to gender."
The IFC's emphasis on women also holds true for Ukraine, she said, but her position as country manager, supervising across IFC programs, has showed her how projects to promote "digital infrastructure," a major aspect of the Ukrainian recovery, are also advancing financing for women and for SMEs.
"It's interesting for me to think about this topic of how access to finance, particularly for SMEs, goes together with the digital agenda," she said. "At the IFC, we have different teams working on these topics. But as country manager, I'm the one who gets to connect the dots. And one of the ways to reach groups that are not being reached, is through a digital platform. In Ukraine, we are doing work to actually put the digital and the finance together."
She said this observation infoirms IFC decisions on telecoms infrastructure, such as the move to contribute loan money to NJJ Capital's takeover of Lifecell, Ukraine's third-largest mobile operator, and fixed telecom provider Datagroup-Volia.
"The objective behind that financing was to ensure that, through the full-scale invasion, the mobile and telephone services in Ukraine continue to develop and grow," she said. "So we bring these two two lines together, the digital and the finances."
Further along those lines, she said, the IFC and the World Bank are working with Ukraine's central bank to move the country toward a cashless economy.
"We're working on regulatory issues around digital payments and open banking regulations around digital financial services and how to leverage more cloud technologies," she said.
"My hope is that, by connecting some of these dots between access to finance for women and access to digital infrastructure, and by removing regulatory barriers, we can contribute to some of the objectives that I think are implicit in our discussion today about how women can can better access finance."
She also said the IFC needs to better push its partner banks, who carry out much of the actual lending to SMEs, to track the gender breakdown of their actions.
"I was digging for data on how much of that is going to women" before the day's presentation, she said. "I will keep digging, because I did not find enough data. I don't know that the banks are tracking it. So I think this is a lesson learned - what gets what gets measured gets done. So we need to push our partner banks to look more at how much of that is reaching women led businesses."
US to provide $825 million to support Ukraine's energy system
The US plans to allocate $825 million in new assistance to ensure the stability of Ukraine's energy system, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha and US State Secretary Antony Blinken on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding on the new aid package during Blinken's visit to Kyiv.
The agreement creates a regulatory framework for improving the sustainability of Ukraine's energy system, including restoring its critical infrastructure, introducing distributed generation, reforming the energy sector, and promoting the post-war transition to a low-carbon economy, the ministry said in a press release.
"We and so many other countries are determined to do everything we can to continue to help Ukraine build energy resilience, and that's never been more important or more urgent, because Putin continues to weaponize the winter with horrific strikes on the entire energy grid, seeking to have people freeze to death, people without lights, take down industry," Blinken said during a press conference with Sybiha, as quoted by the US Department of State.
During the meeting, the two also discussed Ukraine's path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership, according to the State Department.
Swiss senate approves $108.5 million for Ukraine reconstruction
The Swiss Senate has approved a CHF 96 million ($108.5 million) loan for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
The funding will go towards the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's €4 billion capital increase, which takes effect on December 31.
The capital increase will generate loans of up to €24 billion for Ukraine by 2032, the Swiss parliament said in a press release on Tuesday.
In December 2023, the EBRD governors approved the capital increase, which brings the bank's paid-in capital to €34 billion, allowing the lender to invest more in Ukraine's reconstruction and war-time needs.
The EBRD has said the capital increase will also enable it to double its yearly investments in Ukraine to €3 billion.
The Swiss parliament's House of Representatives also has to approve the CHF 96 million funding.
Italy prepares 10th military aid package for Ukraine, sources tell Reuters
Italy is preparing a new military aid package for Ukraine which will likely be approved by the end of the month, two unnamed sources told Reuters.
The sources refused to provide further details, according to Reuters. Since 2022, Italy has provided Ukraine with nine packages of aid, including two Franco-Italian air defence systems known as SAMP/T.
In October, G7 leaders reached an agreement to deliver around $50 billion in Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) loans to Ukraine. The G7 is currently under Italy's presidency.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance said it signed a memorandum of understanding and a loan agreement with the European Union to attract up to €35 billion of Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA). The loan will be funded from G7's ERA initiative.
The final amount of the MFA will be determined after all parties to the initiative approve the amount of loans, the ministry of finance said, clarifying that the loans will be repaid from future revenues from frozen Russian sovereign assets in the EU.
"In recent months, we have been actively working with the European Union and other parties within the initiative to achieve concrete results in meeting Ukraine's financial needs in 2025 and beyond," commented Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko.
Ukrainian MP outlines grid priorities for winter in BNN Bloomberg interview
Ukrainian member of parliament and chairman of Economic Affairs Parliamentary Committee Dmytro Natalukha discussed the focus areas for rebuilding the country's economy in an interview with BNN Bloomberg.
The priorities for Ukraine at the moment is "to go through the winter" and ensure that the "power grid is stable," Natalukha said. He said other priorities include maintaining current prices and ensuring availability of specific products.
"Strategically, we have to keep an eye on still attracting capital into the country by proving the Russians wrong that even during war time, there are opportunities in Ukraine and we are ready to show it," Natalukha noted. (Timestamp in above link: 1:40)
Natalukha, who was speaking on the sidelines of the Rebuild Ukraine Conference in Toronto, Canada, noted that around 60% of Ukraine's GDP is directed towards war efforts, adding: "It's combined of different sectors, different industries. But the war effort is over consuming." (Timestamp: 2:12)
Natalukha stated that a Canadian armed vehicle supplier has decided to open a plant in Ukraine, "because they find that being based there (Ukraine) provides them a lot of competitive advantage in terms of learning from the ground and being able to produce the most advanced vehicles there are at the moment." (Timestamp: 2:30)
"What we are seeing is, basically, different businesses from different countries are opening and still investing in Ukraine regardless of the war," Natalukha said, adding that the generated taxes from the businesses are funding the Ukrainian war effort. (Timestamp: 2:50)
Los Angeles Times: Biden should bolster military aid to Ukraine before leaving office
US President Joe Biden must do whatever is needed to enhance military support to Ukraine before he leaves office to secure Ukraine's firm negotiating position and amid Russia's recent advances on the battlefield, Mikhail Alexseev, a professor of international relations at San Diego State University, wrote in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times.
Kyiv Independent: EU's support for Ukraine's EU integration depends on reforms and geopolitics
The EU's support for Ukraine's integration into the bloc will depend on Kyiv's progress with reforms, shifting EU public opinion, global geopolitical dynamics, and the outcome of the war, according to an op-ed published by Kyiv Independent.
Russia abducted 300 Ukrainian children to 'Russify' them, Yale study alleges
Russia has transfered over 300 Ukrainian children, mainly from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and added them to the databases of Russian citizens, according to a study by Yale University.
The research mainly relied on a combination of open-source databases, satellite imagery, and media reports to track the children's movements. The analysts aggregated, verified, and synthesized open-source media reports, Russian government documents and communications, and social media posts to identify the children.
The investigation by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab identified 314 children from Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia added to Russian adoption databases or foster care systems. The transfer is allegedly part of Russia's program for coerced adoption and fostering.
At least 208 of the 314 children have been put up for adoption or guardianship, while at least 67 have already been naturalized as Russian citizens since arriving in Russia. Out the total, 46.6% have siblings listed in the databases at the same time.
After being taken, the children were transferred to a midpoint location in Russia, including temporary accommodation centers and schools in Kursk and Rostov regions. They then have undergone pro-Russia re-education at the institutions they were placed in before being added to Russia's databases.
High-level Russian officials are responsible for the coerced adoption and fostering program, including President Vladimir Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, the study alleges. They both coordinate with occupying authorities in Ukraine to organize the transfers, it found.
The report said Putin played three main roles in the program, including directing the removal of legal and procedural barriers preventing adoption and fostering of Ukrainian children, directing the use of federal funds to finance the organizations expenses, and overseeing the military, security services, and administrative personnel responsible for deporting Ukrainian children.
In the legal analysis section, the researchers outlined how the actions by Russia could amount to crimes against humanity, as it violated international laws including the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Children. The findings of the research have been shared with the International Criminal Court's Office of the Prosecutor for further investigation, the researchers said.
Yulia Svyrydenko, first deputy prime minister of Ukraine, praised Ukrainian glass manufacturer KZS Glass in a social media post for investing in its own energy production, with a new solar power station and a gas-powered cogeneration unit with a capacity exceeding 1.5 MW.
USAID Economic Resilience Activity (ERA) posted that it is working with the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club Association (UCAB) to select five vocational institutions to receive "modern simulators to train drivers and operators for agri-logistics machinery" from USAID.
Oleg Kirichuk, communications officer at UNDP Ukraine, commented on a new documentary film, Beneath the Ashes, about the damage caused by the war to the environment and climate, saying it "exposes the deeper climate implications of the war."
Ukrainian law firm Sayenko Kharenko announced that it successfully defended the interests of Philip Morris Brands Sarl in a "high-stakes criminal case" covering
an organised criminal group responsible for the systematic export of counterfeit cigarettes abroad. The case involved over 800,000 cigarettes."
Global law firm CMS published an article breaking down Ukrainian tax changes that took effect over the weekend, including the "military tax, corporate income tax, advance payments, tax administration, tax relief for refugees, resource rent, and minimum tax liability for land."
The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine announced in a social media post that it sold domestic government bonds worth UAH 22.6 billion ($540 million) on Tuesday, including UAH 7.2 billion at a term of 3.5 years and a yield of 15.22%.
URN Daily: Sense Bank and Ukrgasbank for sale? And US seeks to cancel $4.7 billion of Ukraine's debt
