According to the General Staff, the Russian army suffers significant monthly personnel losses, while the aggressor's cumulative financial damages have already exceeded $700 billion.
The tax authority confirmed that it will not impose sanctions on citizens and businesses for deadline violations caused by technical issues in the electronic cabinet, which lasted from 24 to 28 October.
Problems with the timetable, free meals, and staffing decisions have arisen at the capital's art education institution. Acting director Alevtina Kahidze is not providing clear answers to the staff and parents.
Law enforcement seized over 20 kilograms of cannabis and other prohibited substances worth 10.5 million UAH from the suspects. Both were remanded in custody.
Lithuania plans to create an open database showing the proportion of relatives among staff in state and municipal institutions. The project aims to help identify nepotism risks.
Fastiv District Prosecutor's Office secured the cancellation of supplementary agreements that led to a 161.5% increase in electricity costs. The court ruled these changes illegal and ordered the funds returned to the budget.
A Russian drone attacked railway equipment at Ordivka station in Kharkiv region. No casualties reported; the crew abandoned the locomotive after the alert was issued.
Following a Russian attack, approximately 4,500 subscribers in Sumy region remain without electricity. Full restoration of supply is expected by the end of the day.
The Kyiv City Commercial Court is reviewing a lawsuit filed by Niko LLC, in which the plaintiff demands that Farmasel LLC be ordered to withdraw 29 types of medicinal products from circulation and physically destroy them. Among them are anaesthetics, haemostatic agents, and resuscitation solutions, which are critically important for saving the lives of wounded military personnel and civilians. Farmasel LLC systematically supplies these medicines to combat zones and frontline medical facilities.
The lawsuit was filed on 9 October 2026. The plaintiff is Niko LLC (sole participant and director — Serhiy Dyadychko), whose actions are carried out by the property manager of the arbitration trustee Diana Kozlovskaya. Point 22 of the operative part of the claim contains a direct demand to order the defendant to "withdraw medicinal products from civil circulation and destroy them".
The list of drugs proposed for destruction includes: Hemaxam, Bupivacaine, novocaine, sodium chloride physiological solution, water for injections, magnesium sulfate, Diclofenac, Revmastop, Dexatifen-N, Diklasel, Eufilin, Levotsin-N, and Aveotsin-N. This is a basic set for operating theatres, resuscitation, and trauma departments. According to Farmasel, it is precisely these agents that military hospitals regularly request. Many of these active ingredients are included in the National List of Essential Medicines.
The dispute arose over the rights to the Nikopharm trademark (certificate No. 113454). After losing its production site in occupied Makivka in 2014, the rights to the mark were transferred under a 2015 legal transaction, and in 2024 they were acquired by Farmasel. The plaintiff is challenging these transactions and is asking for the rights to the mark to be returned to the debtor's estate, and for products associated with the use of the mark to be destroyed. The declared value of the claim is approximately UAH 106.7 million.
Particular attention is warranted for the expert opinion No. 788/09.2026 dated 4 September 2026 by Irina Mishchenko. It values the rights to the Nikopharm mark as of July 2015 (shortly after the plant was seized) at UAH 94.27 million, which at the time amounted to nearly USD 4.2 million. The calculation effectively summarises hypothetical royalties from past years' revenue instead of forecasting economic benefits after the loss of the plant, and also contains arithmetic inconsistencies.
On 13 October, the Kyiv City Commercial Court, presided over by Judge Leonid Omelchenko, opened the proceedings and adopted security measures, including prohibiting Farmasel LLC from disposing of the trade mark. The defendant's side is preparing an appeal. The lawsuit cites Articles 15–16 of the Civil Code and Article 41 of the TRIPS Agreement as justification. As evidence of the mark's use, the plaintiff provided only references to pharmacy websites and directories, without printouts or proof that mark No. 113454 was specifically applied to the packaging.
The law permits the destruction of goods for intellectual property rights violations (Article 432 of the Civil Code of Ukraine), but first, the fact of the violation must be proven and the proportionality of the measure assessed. Furthermore, since 18 January 2025, Law No. 3910-IX has been in force in Ukraine, which prohibits placing information about third-party legal entities on medicinal product packaging if they are not the manufacturer or applicant. This casts doubt on the practical economic value of the mark itself for commercial use on packaging.
An investigation by Stop Corruption TV, published on 11 September 2026, revealed an 86-page technical report concerning the former Nikofarma plant in occupied Makivka. The document was prepared following a visit on 11–12 December 2024. The report considered the possibility of resuming production on residual equipment, logistics to Moscow (a route of approximately 1,280 km), the use of a free economic zone under Russian Federation legislation, and obtaining Russian licences. The client of this document has not yet been identified.
The chronology of events appears significant: on 18 December 2024, Panamanian Horizonix Capital Corp. became a participant in Niko LLC. That same month, the company's licence for industrial production of medicines expired. In February 2026, Niko LLC ordered the State Expert Centre of the Ministry of Health to scan archival materials up to 5,000 pages in volume. The purpose of this order for a company on the verge of bankruptcy with no production capacities remains unclear.
The demand to destroy medicines came against the backdrop of systematic strikes on the pharmaceutical industry. In December 2025, stocks of Badm LLC medicines worth UAH 5 billion were destroyed in Dnipro; in September 2026, the Biokon logistics complex near Kyiv was destroyed; and in early October, the Kusum pharmaceutical plant in Sumy was hit. Experts highlight reduced stocks and shortages of specific items on the market.
Farmasel LLC holds the status of a critically important enterprise (Ministry of Health Order No. 1804 dated 26.11.2025). The company has 211 employees and paid UAH 28.5 million in taxes in 2025. According to Prozorro, Farmasel fulfilled 847 contracts with healthcare facilities for a total amount exceeding UAH 175 million. The general list of buyers, accounting for purchases through distributors, includes 1,644 customers, among them 26 emergency hospitals, 63 military units, and 59 military and departmental medical facilities, including 10 military hospitals and 14 veterans' hospitals.
Among the buyers are also 28 medical institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (including the Main Medical Clinical Centre, the Central Polyclinic, rehabilitation centres, and territorial associations in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Odesa, and Chernivtsi regions) and two medical institutions of the Security Service of Ukraine. Six Ministry of Internal Affairs institutions also received free charitable aid from Farmasel.
The company's charitable aid register for 2022–2026 records 313 recipients: 17 emergency hospitals, 26 military and departmental medical institutions, and 13 military units. These include the Main Military Clinical Hospital, Okhmatdyt, the I.I. Mechnikov Hospital, and the A.O. Shalimov Institute of Surgery.
Yuriy Barabash, Director for Development of the "Mercy and Health" Foundation, notes: "Medical facilities located on frontline directions are experiencing a very severe shortage of medicines and aid. There is never enough of it. It is only easy for those who do nothing, who do not help, who do not participate. Therefore, these medicines, along with these resuscitation ambulances, will go to the front to those who desperately need this help".
Vitaliy Novikov, Head of the Hospital Promotion Department at Farmasel LLC, says: "As soon as the military actions began, the first call from the head was to me: to call the Kyiv hospitals and offer free aid. The first were the Central Military Hospital, Feofaniya, and Okhmatdyt. Even when everything was blocked, in the hardest times, we still transported and delivered medicines in very large volumes. The majority of our medicines are for emergency medical care. They are needed at a specific time for a specific person to save a life. Regardless of shelling, regardless of power outages, we will always do this".
The consequences of the account freezes have already affected financial performance: following the third quarter of 2026, the company, which was profitable in 2025, is reporting losses. Despite this, Farmasel drugs continue to reach hospitals and military hospitals. The workforce of the enterprise demands transparent justice, especially considering Judge Omelchenko's previous ruling of 27 August 2026 to recover funds from the enterprise in the amount of approximately UAH 60 million, which contained significant textual similarities with the plaintiff's documents.
The destroyed drugs will not replenish the liquidation estate of Niko LLC and will not bring money to creditors. Instead, satisfying the lawsuit could lead to a shortage of life-saving medicines, disruption of supplies to military hospitals, and a blow to Ukrainian production. The state must investigate the circumstances related to the former plant in Makivka and the receipt of archival documentation before the legal dispute creates irreversible consequences.
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first!