Latest news with #SvitlanaHrynchuk
Reuters
16 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Ukraine in talks with Azerbaijan on gas import deal, Kyiv says
KYIV, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine is negotiating a deal with Azerbaijan to import gas from the South Caucasus country this year, Kyiv's energy minister said on Monday. "We are currently in talks. Azerbaijan is interested in this," Svitlana Hrynchuk told Ukrainian outlet RBC-Ukraine. Ukraine imported test volumes of gas from Azerbaijan earlier this year as it seeks alternative supply options after Russian long-range attacks severely damaged domestic production. Hrynchuk said the test project is now over and Ukraine is working on the deal to cover further supplies in 2025. Earlier in August, Russia attacked the Orlovka interconnector in southern Ukraine, Kyiv said, part of the Transbalkan route through which it receives gas from sources including Azerbaijan. Ukraine plans to have 13.2 billion cubic metres of gas in its underground storage for the upcoming heating season, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Monday. Separately, Kyiv's foreign minister on Monday accused Russia of attacking an oil depot belonging to Azerbaijani state-owned firm SOCAR for the second time in two weeks.
Euronews
04-06-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Russia's war caused €85 billion in environmental damage, Ukraine says
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine's Ministry of Environmental Protection had to change its focus from managing the country's natural resources and addressing climate change to tracking each case of the environment being deliberately attacked. From February 2022 until today, Kyiv has registered and documented over 8,000 cases of Russia's crimes against Ukraine's environment, the country's minister told Euronews. 'We call it crimes against the environment because there is pollution of water resources, destruction of water infrastructure, water supply infrastructure and soil pollution, soil mining and forest fires. All this is a result of Russia's war', Svitlana Hrynchuk said. Hrynchuk told Euronews that Kyiv's estimates of these 8,000 cases "in monetary terms to (amount to) more than €85 billion" — a figure that does not include the damage to the territories Russia currently occupies and therefore Ukraine cannot access. These losses also do not yet include the most recent attack on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the damage to its safety confinement, Hrynchuk noted. 'More than 45 countries have contributed throughout this period since the Chernobyl disaster. And only in 2017 we completed the construction of the new safe confinement for more than €1 billion, which was recently damaged in a Russian attack,' she explained. A Russian drone hit the confinement over the fourth nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on February 14 2025. The drone exploded upon impact with the sarcophagus, causing a fire that took approximately three weeks to extinguish. Hrynchuk pointed out that while it is possible to rebuild and restore civilian infrastructure, resuscitating the environment will be much more difficult, as "some ecosystems and some natural objects will not return to the pre-war original state." Dealing with daily Russian missile and drone attacks for three and a half years, Ukraine has been primarily focusing on air defence systems to protect civilians. Meanwhile, the civilians have been trying to protect the environment, Hrynchuk said. 'You will not find a single Ukrainian who will tell you that it is not a priority now, because it is exactly during Russia's war that we felt how important the natural resources are', she pointed out. This issue is of particular importance to those who have lost access to essential services, such as water. Millions of Ukrainians lost access to water supply when Russian forces destroyed the Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region on 6 June 2023. Its reservoir supplied water to cool the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — the largest nuclear facility in Europe — and provided water for irrigation in southern Ukraine. Kyiv attempted to restore the water supply to the people and industrial sites, but many consequences still remain unresolved, Hrynchuk said. 'First of all, these are complex and expensive projects, and these are projects in regions that are constantly under attack,' she noted. If it were not challenging enough to try to restore environmental losses under constant attacks, Kyiv also has to do so according to EU norms and regulations. Ukraine is set to undergo a key environmental and climate screening with Brussels on 16 June, when Kyiv will have to demonstrate its alignment with EU legislation. 'This is the largest and most extensive screening process in terms of volume and duration, because it affects every sector of Ukraine's economy. This includes agriculture, infrastructure, healthcare, and education,' Hrynchuk said. Brussels previously stated that Ukraine is making steady progress towards the EU, particularly by demonstrating the highest screening rate in the history of enlargement. Hrynchuk says environmental and climate protection aspects and sectors must be ready for European integration. To demonstrate its commitment, Ukraine ensured that its recent minerals deal with the US aligns with Kyiv's efforts to join the EU. 'The agreement clearly states that its implementation should take into account the principles and ambitions of Ukraine to join the European Union and should not contradict the rules and regulations that we have to follow', Hrynchuk said, explaining that the US deal will ultimately bring benefits for the EU as well. 'The supply chains of certain materials are highly dependent on imports from other countries. This is the same problem for both Europe and the US," she pointed out. "That is why it is very important to replace elements in these supply chains with raw materials and elements that are produced in the European Union, in Ukraine, in friendly countries, in civilised countries." "This is primarily a matter of national security for the European Union and Ukraine, as well as for the United States,' Hrynchuk concluded.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Losses in Ukraine's mining sector reach US$1.7 trillion since start of full-scale invasion
During the three years of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, Ukraine's mining sector has lost about US$1.7 trillion. Source: Svitlana Hrynchuk, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, in an interview with Reuters Details: About half of Ukraine's strategically important material resources are located in the temporarily occupied territories. Hrynchuk said that a large part of coal deposits, some lithium, manganese and other mineral deposits remain in the temporarily occupied territories. She expressed hope that a joint recovery fund with the United States would significantly increase the potential of the mining industry. "Currently, our natural resources sector accounts for 4% of gross domestic product, but the potential is much greater... We sincerely hope that the agreement will draw more attention to this sector and make foreign investment more transparent and attractive," Hrynchuk said. She stressed that Ukraine is radically reforming its mining sector in an effort to attract billions of dollars in investment under an agreement with the United States on mineral extraction. The country is focused on improving access to information and data on geological exploration, reducing bureaucracy and finalising lists of critical and strategic minerals that are crucial to the economy. Background: On 1 May, Ukrainian Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko and US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent signed an agreement on minerals. On 8 May, the Ukrainian parliament voted to ratify an agreement on the creation of a joint investment fund between Ukraine and the US. On 12 May, Zelenskyy signed the ratification of the subsoil agreement with the US. Earlier, it was reported that 20,000 deposits had been explored in Ukraine, but only about 3,500 deposits were being developed. New deposits are practically not being explored, and there is an acute problem of "dormant" licences, when no work is being carried out on explored and promising sites. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has expanded the list of minerals of national and local importance. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Japan Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Ukraine revamps minerals sector, eyes billions in investment from U.S. deal
Ukraine is overhauling its minerals sector, which has been pounded by three years of war, in the hope of unlocking potential and attracting billions of dollars of investment from a minerals deal with the U.S., its ecology minister said. The country has deposits of 22 of 34 minerals deemed as critical by the European Union for industries such as defense, high-tech appliances and green energy, as well as ferro alloy, precious and non-ferrous metals used in construction, and some rare earth elements. However, much of the sector is underdeveloped, weighed down by Soviet-era bureaucracy and lack of investment. After months of fraught negotiations, Kyiv and the United States agreed to a minerals deal in April that was heavily promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump. It created a fund, which became active on May 23, that will receive money from new mining licenses in Ukraine and invest in minerals projects. Ecology Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said in an interview that Ukraine hoped the fund would significantly increase the mineral industry's potential, noting extraction was a capital-intensive and long-term task. "Currently, our natural resources sector's share of gross domestic product is 4%, but the potential is much greater," she said late on Monday, without giving projections. "We really hope the agreement will draw more attention to this sector and make foreign investment more understandable and more attractive." With the conflict still ongoing, about half of the country's mineral wealth and a fifth of its territory are now under Russian occupation. Ukraine has lost most of its coal deposits, as well as some lithium and manganese deposits and other minerals. Hrynchuk estimated that the sector had suffered losses of about 70 trillion hryvnias ($1.7 trillion) due to the occupation of Ukrainian territory and combat action along a more than 1,000 kilometer frontline. Ukraine updated its strategy for its resources sector at the end of last year and was now focusing on improving access to information and data on geological exploration, reducing bureaucracy and finalizing the lists of critical and strategic minerals crucial for the economy, she said. The work is also part of Ukraine's push to move closer to the European Union, which Kyiv hopes to join in 2030. Hrynchuk said the government was working with the European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on a multi-year project to digitize up to 80% of Soviet-era geological data. That task is about 40% complete, she said. The government was also working to review an existing 3,000 mining licenses. Hrynchuk estimated that about 10% of them could be dormant. "We are not interested in taking away assets if there is a potential for them to work," she said. "We are interested for those assets which are... valuable for the state and have not been working for 10 years or more, to make appropriate managerial decisions about them. And to launch them back into circulation." The licence review will be done this year and next, she said. Despite wartime challenges, the government continued to auction mining licenses and last year raised 2.4 billion hryvnias from auctioning 120 mining licenses. It hopes to get a similar amount into the state coffers this year and has already awarded 32 licenses, with the majority for building sector materials, including clay, sand, marble, granite, but also amber. Investors, who at present are predominantly domestic, were mostly interested in licenses for oil and gas exploration, as well as minerals such as titanium, graphite and manganese, she said. The U.S. minerals deal was agreed despite a clash between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump during their meeting in the White House in February. Final documents to enable the joint investment fund to operate were exchanged last week, but projects will take time to materialise, Ukrainian officials said. The minerals deal, which U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent termed as a full economic partnership, hands the United States preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals accords and will help to fund Ukraine's reconstruction.
Reuters
27-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Ukraine revamps minerals sector, eyes billions in investment from US deal
KYIV, May 27 (Reuters) - Ukraine is overhauling its minerals sector, which has been pounded by three years of war, in the hope of unlocking potential and attracting billions of dollars of investment from a minerals deal with the U.S., its ecology minister said. The country has deposits of 22 of 34 minerals deemed as critical by the European Union for industries such as defence, high-tech appliances and green energy, as well as ferro alloy, precious and non-ferrous metals used in construction, and some rare earth elements. However, much of the sector is underdeveloped, weighed down by Soviet-era bureaucracy and lack of investment. After months of fraught negotiations, Kyiv and the United States agreed a minerals deal in April that was heavily promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump. It created a fund, which became active on May 23, that will receive money from new mining licences in Ukraine and invest in minerals projects. Ecology Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk told Reuters in an interview that Ukraine hoped the fund would significantly increase the mineral industry's potential, noting extraction was a capital-intensive and long-term task. "Currently, our natural resources sector's share of gross domestic product is 4%, but the potential is much greater," she said late on Monday, without giving projections. "We really hope the agreement will draw more attention to this sector and make foreign investment more understandable and more attractive." With the conflict still ongoing, about half of the country's mineral wealth and a fifth of its territory are now under Russian occupation. Ukraine has lost most of its coal deposits, as well as some lithium and manganese deposits and other minerals. Hrynchuk estimated that the sector had suffered losses of about 70 trillion hryvnias ($1.7 trillion) due to the occupation of Ukrainian territory and combat action along a more than 1,000 km (621 miles) frontline. Ukraine updated its strategy for its resources sector at the end of last year and was now focusing on improving access to information and data on geological exploration, reducing bureaucracy and finalising the lists of critical and strategic minerals crucial for the economy, she said. The work is also part of Ukraine's push to move closer to the European Union, which Kyiv hopes to join in 2030. Hrynchuk said the government was working with the European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on a multi-year project to digitise up to 80% of Soviet-era geological data. That task is about 40% complete, she said. The government was also working to review an existing 3,000 mining licenses. Hrynchuk estimated that about 10% of them could be dormant. "We are not interested in taking away assets if there is a potential for them to work," she said. "We are interested for those assets which are... valuable for the state and have not been working for 10 years or more, to make appropriate managerial decisions about them. And to launch them back into circulation." The licence review will be done this year and next, she said. Despite wartime challenges, the government continued to auction mining licenses and last year raised 2.4 billion hryvnias from auctioning 120 mining licenses. It hopes to get a similar amount into the state coffers this year and has already awarded 32 licenses, with the majority for building sector materials, including clay, sand, marble, granite, but also amber. Investors, who at present are predominantly domestic, were mostly interested in licenses for oil and gas exploration, as well as minerals such as titanium, graphite and manganese, she said. The U.S. minerals deal was agreed despite a clash between President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Trump during their meeting in the White House in February. Final documents to enable the joint investment fund to operate were exchanged last week, but projects will take time to materialise, Ukrainian officials said. The minerals deal, which U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent termed as a full economic partnership, hands the United States preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals accords and will help to fund Ukraine's reconstruction.
