EU should welcome Ukraine as a partner for Europe’s own good.
Ukraine is important to Europe as a source of economic growth and energy security, as well as a bridge to Russia. Western interests and values are best served by engaging Ukraine as a solid European partner.
Moreover, energy security is another advantage that Ukraine offers Western nations. Ukraine has the third-largest shale gas deposits in Europe – 42 million cubic feet of technically recoverable reserves that are currently being developed by Shell and Chevron. This is an environmentally friendly energy source not only for Europe but also for an entire planet whose population will continue to grow through the middle of this century.
As it leaves behind the legacy of Soviet-style communism, Ukraine can serve as a source of inspiration to its neighbors and nations throughout the world for how a country can move forward to free-market democracy and the rule of law. Ukrainians demand democracy, free speech, and a free press, in line with European traditions.

Bringing Ukrainian laws and norms in accordance with those of the EU will help to achieve symbolic and substantive progress for democracy regionally and worldwide. It is of economic, political, and geostrategic importance to Europe and the US that Ukraine comes under the European umbrella of shared values and free trade.

While Ukraine is not a member of NATO, it has proven a reliable partner. So bringing Ukraine closer to the EU is also positive in terms of Western security interests, especially since recent polling shows Ukrainians are caught between clashing loyalties to the West and the East and closely divided on whether to join the EU or the Russian-sponsored Customs Union.

Indeed, Ukraine is perfectly positioned to become a geopolitical and economic bridge between Europe and Russia. In many ways, Kiev was the original cradle of Russia, and Ukraine still has strong ties to Russia in terms of heritage, faith, culture, and language. In fact, alongside its Ukrainian population, Ukraine boasts a large, Russian-speaking population, with familial and cultural connections to Russia. But Ukraine wants to align itself with Europe and with European values, and Western nations should embrace this opportunity before we lose it.Make no mistake: Western interests and values are best served by engaging Ukraine as a solid European partner. This is a serious geopolitical opportunity for Europe and the US. We should make the most of it.

Swedbank

Swedbank to pull out of Russia and Ukraine.
While Swedbank has avoided losses in Russia, the bank’s operations in Ukraine have lost 11 billion kronor ($1.69 billion) since 2007.

“Looking back, this clearly hasn’t been a good investment for Swedbank’s shareholders,” Swedbank’s head of investor relations Johannes Rudbeck told the TT news agency on Monday.The company expects to complete the sale of its Ukraine operations during the first half of 2013 while it also plans to wind down existing operations in Russia, where it has a lending portfolio of approximately 2.6 billion kronor.

“This is the final step in our strategy to concentrate Swedbank’s business activities to Sweden and the three Baltic countries. The executive management can now turn its full attention to our home markets,” Swedank CEO Michael Wolf said in a statement.The Ukraine operations are being sold via a share purchase agreement with Mykola Lagun, the majority owner of Delta Bank and will result in a 340 million kronor hit to Swedbank’s first quarter earnings.
According to Rudbeck, Swedbank’s fortunes in Ukraine have been “heading in the wrong direction”.

“Our assessment is that it’s been harder and harder every year we’ve done business in Ukraine,” he told TT, adding that in Russia, Swedbank is only a bit player in the market.

“We are very small.”Swedbank announced in 2011 it was closing retail banking operations in Ukraine, part of a longer-term shift away from Russia and Ukraine, two countries for which the bank had high hopes prior to the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
“There was another strategy in place then and different management,” Rudbeck explained.

In spring 2008, the Yuliya Tymoshenko government annulled the contract but it has been revived after a positive decision by the Stockholm Arbitration Court. Donetsk oligarch Rinat Akhmetov is searching for joint investors in the Vanco project.

Royal Dutch Shell won a tender in 2012 in a consortium with other international petroleum companies for the exploration of offshore deep-water reserves in the Black Sea’s Skifska field. They agreed to pay an upfront premium of $300 million upon signing the PSA and pledged to invest $200 million in the exploration phase.

The fourth policy, probably the most important, is supporting an expansion of gas production

Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell Ukraine Graham Tiley told the Ukrainian edition of Forbes magazine last year that it is entirely feasible for a three-fold increase in gas production from the current 20 billion cubic meters.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Ukraine was the biggest gas producer in the Soviet Union and much of this infra-structure of pipelines, underground storage and expertise remains. From the late 1970s the center of Soviet energy moved to Western Siberia and Central Asia.

One of the companies supporting Ukraine’s drive for energy independence is Cub Energy, a relatively small player in Ukraine’s energy sector registered in Toronto, a city it chose believing it offered better opportunities than London or Oslo.

Jan 1 New Year’s Day
…is no doubt the main holiday of the year. According to the most recent polls about 90% of the Ukrainians have called it their favorite holiday, everybody impatiently waits for round the year. People decorate the New Year Tree, cook festive dinners, buy presents, go to numerous New Year’s parties that are generously held not only at the end of December but also in the first two weeks of January. There is a saying that a person will spend the year the way he has welcomed it, so many do their best to have fun on the New Year’s Day. One usually spends this day or, to be more precise, evening and night with his family or friends. The local channels show loved-by-all Soviet films and a few minutes before midnight, the annual festive address of the President to his nation is broadcasted. This bright holiday is loved by people of different ages, but it is especially dear to children. They believe that Ded Moroz, or Santa Claus, comes this night and puts gifts under the tree, of course if they haven’t been naughty in the old year.