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What did 8 January 2020 mean for Ukraine's economy?
Summary
Two events on one date, a gas pipeline inauguration and an air disaster near Tehran, touched Ukrainian commercial interests.
What did 8 January 2020 mean for Ukraine and its neighbours? Two events stood out, and they sat in very different areas of economic life.
On that date, the heads of state of Turkey, Russia, Serbia and Bulgaria formally inaugurated the TurkStream gas pipelines. The ceremony involved four countries in the region, with Serbia and Bulgaria among the participants alongside Turkey and Russia. Ukraine was not among the heads of state named at the inauguration.
On the same day, an aircraft of the Ukrainian carrier MAU crashed near Tehran, in Iran, and 176 people were killed. The loss concerned a Ukrainian airline directly, and it placed the carrier at the centre of international attention.
The two events were unrelated, and nothing links them causally. Together they mark 8 January 2020 as a day on which Ukraine's neighbourhood saw a major energy infrastructure launch while a Ukrainian company suffered a grave accident abroad.
