The State of Kyiv : 6 December 2020

It’s winter, the air temperatures in Kyiv have dropped, and we have even seen more snow. 

For the best and most important Ukraine news, the State of Kyiv newsletter is here as always.

Cool news:

  1. The Ukrainian team came fifth in the Women’s 4x6km relay competition at the International Biathlon Union World Cup in Finland. 
  2. A Ukrainian, Oksana Lyniv, has been awarded the best conductor award in Germany for 2020. 
  3. A group of school children in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro has designed a face mask that can measure your body temperature, heart rate, and blood oxygen level. This can help detect coronavirus. 
  4. A Ukrainian-made mobile app Reface – that allows swapping faces in photos and videos – has been recognised as one of the top apps for Android, according to Google Play. 
  5. The Ukrainian Parliament has supported on the first reading a bill that would allow men to get paternity leave at work.

Uncool news:

  1. Bad news for Ukraine: Russia has renewed its construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would funnel Russian gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine. Previously, the construction was blocked due to US sanctions. 
  2. Musician Oleksandr Derevianko was killed in Kyiv. The two perpetrators pretended to want to take music lessons from him, which allowed them to get inside his flat. Their motive for murder is believed to have been an appropriation of property. Their plan, according to law enforcers, was to hide Derevianko’s body and make everyone believe that he went on a “work trip” to the occupied part of the Luhansk region, where he would have “disappeared.” The two perpetrators were detained and are now in custody. 
  3. A Christmas tree decoration factory in the Kyiv region has been making Christmas baubles for the Russian army – with the army’s logo. 
  4. The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and Ukraine supermarket chain ATB are the three biggest plastic polluters in Ukraine, according to a report by the international movement Break Free from Plastic. Now, Ukrainian activists are demanding these companies publicize how much plastic they use and show clear aims of reducing that. 
  5. Ukraine has the highest electricity prices in Europe for the second quarter in a row, according to the European Commission.