American Research Company Clutch published its ranking of world's top Internet of Things (IoT) developers. Featured in the listing are 35 companies from around the world, five of which are Ukrainian: Stanfy, Lemberg Solution, Eleks, Eastern Peak Software, Devabit.

The release of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko launched the process of releasing Ukrainian political prisoners who are illegally detained in the Russian Federation.
On May 25, pilot officer and member of the parliament Nadiya Savchenko returned to Ukraine. She had spent 709 days in captivity.

Gennadiy Afanasyev and Yuri Soloshenko, Ukrainian political prisoners whom the Kremlin held hostage, returned to Ukraine on June 14. Afanasyev was convicted of politically motivated "Sentsov-Kolchenko case" and sentenced to seven-year imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony in Russia.

Yuri Soloshenko was sentenced to six-year imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony in Russia under the article about espionage.

In August, performance of the National Olympic team in Rio came as a big disappointment to the Ukrainians. But just a month later the national paralympic athletes dispelled this sadness and had the whole world watch their impressive performances. The team started setting records even before the arrival to Brazil: Ukrainians won 169 licenses for performances in Rio - the biggest amount in the history of the team.

As a result the Ukrainian team won 117 medals, of which 41 were record gold medals, 37 silver and 39 bronze. Nothing could stop the Ukrainian team and they finished on the third place in overall medal ranking, beating the favorite of all Games - the USA Team.

In 2015, Ukraine launched an electronic public procurement system ProZorro, which provides public online platform for government procurement tenders. Owing to the ProZorro, the public procurement system reform is considered one of the most effective ones as officials used to plunder billions from the budget for their shady schemes for years. Since August 1, 2016 all public institutions and companies are obliged to make purchases with ProZorro. So far 258,000 procurements have been made and UAH 5.9 billion has been saved. The system has already established itself internationally winning World Procurement Awards 2016, and being recognized as Technology of the Future in Communication on Top - Davos and Open Government Awards 2016.

Against a backdrop of tickets for space flight, helicopters, their own churches and holy relics, hundreds of cars and flats, land plots and millions of dollars do not look so unusual. According to estimates, the total amount of declared wealth in hryvnia is around UAH 10 billion (70% of it is in cash). One of the deputies declared one trillion hryvnia, but later said it was a joke. Currently, the corresponding anti-corruption bodies are verifying the declaration of the joker and declarations of other officials.
Besides, the ridiculous assets being exposed to the public eye, the e-declarations are an important step in preventing corruption which Ukraine has been negotiating for a long time with many of its supporters, such as the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

First in over past 10 years a record high number of Ukrainian films were released, making it 30 movies by the end of 2016. Among them are 4 anthologies of short films, 8 documentaries, 2 animation films and 16 full-length films. Several films were produced in cooperation with other countries. Experts expect a revival of the film industry in Ukraine, in particular, thanks to the law "On State Support of Cinematography in Ukraine", which currently is being finalized for enactment by the Parliament.

In course of preparation for the winter holidays, Ukrainians received an unpleasant "present" . The government announced nationalization of the biggest commercial bank owned by tycoon Ihor Kolomoiskyi - PrivatBank. On December 18 the government became owner of 100% shares of the bank. According to the officials, the rationale behind this decision is stability in the national financial system. Head of the National Bank of Ukraine categorized the bank as "insolvent" and claimed it requires further funding of UAH 148 billion.

Roughly 50% of the citizens of Ukraine use payment system of the PrivatBank, every third citizen have either a credit or a deposit in this bank. The news about nationalization caused havoc among the PrivatBank clients who started massively withdrawing money from their accounts. After stabilization, the officials say they plan to sell the bank.