January 2013

The year starts off well for Ukraine International Airlines, which takes over a number of flights after Aerosvit files for bankruptcy – because it sucks. A man opens fire on a local café in Rivne injuring eight people, and a loony in Odesa who wants to become the next Anders Breivik goes online with a picture of himself and his gun, saying he has chosen a student dormitory to start his mission. The country introduces a smoking ban in all public enclosed spaces, while Yulia Tymoshenko is named a suspect in the 1996 murder of Ukrainian businessman Yevhen Shcherban and his wife. Ukraine takes its traditional dip in the Dnipro for Khreshchenia or Epiphany and Gazprom slaps the country with a $7 billion gas bill (little do we know at this point that our financial issues only get worse). Bloomberg publishes a list of the world’s richest men, on which Rinat Ahmetov occupies 26th place, and Serduchka splashes out on a new car – Freddie Mercury’s 1974 Silver Shadow Rolls Royce, worth a whopping £74,600! Plus, the lovely Yulia Gritsenko wins the What’s On Face of Kyiv Cover Model 2012 competition!