Ukraine’s infamously corrupt former president ousted following the culmination of the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014 — making an ugly return? Hopefully not, but that’s what some in the business community in Ukraine are saying after recent news made headlines that investment banker and head of Kyiv-based Concorde Capital Ihor Mazepa was detained at the border with Poland on Jan. 18 while allegedly heading to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Mazepa, a vocal critic of pressure on businesses by law enforcement, was detained in connection with a 2014 case that accused him of illegally seizing state land in Kyiv Oblast in 2013.
Russian air defense systems in Leningrad Oblasts are likely not designed to protect the region against attacks from the south, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote in its Jan. 21 report. The terminal of Russia's Novatek natural gas company caught fire in the port of Ust-Luga in Leningrad Oblast near St Petersburg overnight on Jan. 21.
The world’s governments and major international organizations are meeting in the Swiss town of Davos for the 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) this week from Jan. 14-19. For Ukraine, Davos is a chance to keep the world’s attention on its cause and to get in front of the global business elite in the hopes of convincing them Ukraine is a worthwhile place to put its money. Eighty countries and one international organization attended the fourth national security advisers' meeting on Ukraine’s Peace Formula at Davos on Jan. 14.
You also get Monobank— Ukraine’s hugely popular mobile-only bank that has facilitated nearly $1 billion in donations to fund the war effort since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. In the first year of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainians donated Hr 8.5 billion ($224 million) through Monobank. “We’ve become more mature as a company, more ready for change, and more decisive in organizational decisions,” co-owner Mykhailo Rogalsky told the Kyiv Independent in an interview.