Team
Luca Léry Moffat
Economics reporterLuca is the economics reporter for the Kyiv Independent. He was previously a research analyst at Bruegel, a Brussels-based economics think tank, where he worked on Russia and Ukraine, trade, industrial policy, and environmental policy. Luca also worked as a data analyst at Work-in-Data, a Geneva-based research center focused on global inequality, and as a research assistant at the Economic Policy Research Center in Kampala, Uganda. He holds a BA honors degree in economics and Russian from McGill University.
Articles
Ukrainian oligarchs fail to pay $3 billion fine in landmark Privatbank case
Given two weeks to voluntarily pay the sum in a landmark ruling on Nov. 10, notorious Ukrainian oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholyubov failed to make any payments before a Nov. 24 deadline, PrivatBank said in a statement.
Europe preparing legal groundwork for reparations loan to Ukraine
"The next step is that the Commission is ready to present the legal text," said Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, in a speech to European lawmakers in Strasbourg on Nov. 26.
Ukraine rejects using Russian assets as bargaining chip in peace talks
"Keeping the assets permanently 'on ice' or turning them into a bargaining chip between Russia and another power only prolongs the conflict," Iryna Mudra, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelensky's office in charge of legal matters, told the Kyiv Independent in an email.
'Capitulation and betrayal' — Ukraine rages at controversial US peace plan, piles pressure on Zelensky
Amid mounting pressure from the White House, Kyiv is now grappling with a U.S. 28-point peace plan that many in the country view as a "capitulation."
Ukrainian activists, lawmakers, soldiers and veterans warn that the proposal could strengthen Russia's position, leading to further conflict rather than resolution — and not just on the front lines, but on the streets of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Ariev, a lawmaker with the opposition European Solidarity party, said that the leaked plan appears to be "a
European leaders push back on surprise Ukraine peace deal, affirm support for Kyiv
European leaders pushed back on Nov. 21 against parts of a new and controversial U.S. plan for peace in Ukraine.
Chart of the week: Russian aerial attacks on Ukraine keep rising
Last week, Russia launched a large-scale aerial attack on Kyiv, pummeling the capital with hundreds of drones and multiple missiles. At least seven people were killed, and 29 were injured.
The strike came two weeks after the previous large-scale assault — an interval that, for numbed Kyiv residents, felt like a long respite from the now-routine attacks.
Russia has sharply increased attacks on Ukrainian cities in 2025. With winter approaching, recent attacks have largely focused on the country'
Destroy. Fix. Repeat: Russia is creating a devastating doom loop inside Ukraine’s energy system
Within weeks of Russia's full-scale invasion, Oleksiy Povolotskiy found himself suddenly in charge of the recovery office at one of Ukraine's largest energy companies. His task: source replacements for energy equipment destroyed or damaged by Russian attacks.
Povolotskiy says that at first, he and his colleagues at DTEK had to guess the email addresses of their European counterparts, whom they'd never needed to contact before. After a few successes, they began building an impressive address boo
IMF and Ukraine begin talks for new loan program amid looming financing shortfall
"The discussions will cover the authorities’ economic policy objectives (...) and structural policies to strengthen governance, combat corruption, and enhance growth," Priscilla Toffano, the IMF's representative in Ukraine, said in a press release.
As Ukraine reparation loan talks drag on, EU provides billions to cover Kyiv's financial needs
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Commission on Wednesday delivered another tranche of short-term financial relief to Kyiv as talks over a much larger reparations loan based on frozen Russian assets remain mired in political deadlock.
The European Commission on Nov. 13 announced that Ukraine received 5.9 billion euros from existing European initiatives. Similarly, the European Investment Bank on the same day announced over 200 million euros in new grants to support critical infrastructure, inclu
Chart of the week: Europe doubles down on US weapons as Russian threat grows
Editor's note: An earlier version of this article stated that there was no public systemic accounting of U.S. weapons sales. It has been updated to state that data on weapons sales is limited.
The United States is the biggest exporter of military equipment in the world. But who’s buying?
Data on weapons sales is often scarce, with a limited level of detail. A new dataset from the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel released last week helps to fill that gap, revealing a sharp increase in European
'Justice prevails' as Ukrainian oligarchs ordered to pay $3 billion in decade-old PrivatBank case
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A London court ordered Ukrainian oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholyubov to pay more than $3 billion in damages and costs on Nov. 10, marking a major milestone in an almost decade-long saga revolving around once Ukraine's most powerful oligarch.
The decision concerns a case involving Ukraine's largest bank, PrivatBank, which the two oligarchs owned before it was nation
Chart of the week: What do Ukraine's front-line communities need?
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Kyiv-based humanitarians often tell the story of a United Nations convoy in late 2022 turning up with crates of food in recently liberated villages of eastern Ukraine, only to discover well-fed residents protesting that what they really needed was windows.
Apocryphal or not, the anecdote invokes a widely held suspicion that humanitarian organizations are out of touch with what p
No aid? No problem (yet): Ukraine stirs up a fiscal fix
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Ukraine is considering a cocktail of ideas to keep its finances afloat while it waits for Brussels to greenlight new aid, and a big drop in foreign aid in 2026 looms.
Unspent funds from government ministries in 2025, ad-hoc government borrowing, and front-loading loans whose disbursements are currently scheduled throughout 2026 could contribute to a buffer early next year, a top
Silence from Ukraine's allies after 'politically motivated' arrest of former top energy official
The arrest and detention of a former top energy official in Ukraine this week is an alarming new episode of democratic backsliding, Ukraine's civil society and lawmakers say — the latest in a series of politically motivated attacks on individuals and institutions.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, formerly head of Ukraine’s state grid operator Ukrenergo, was arrested on Oct. 28 in western Ukraine and accused of hiding from pre-trial investigation, his lawyers told the Kyiv Independent.
The accusations aga
Vegetables. Monetary policy. Facebook: How one post about a central bank decision fired up Ukraine's top economists
This is an excerpt from the Kyiv Independent business desk's Ukraine Business Roundup newsletter. To get more news like this directly to your inbox every week, subscribe here.
Last week, a debate ensued over Ukraine's monetary policy on Facebook, after the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) held the interest rate at 15.5% for the fifth consecutive meeting, warning that inflation could intensify amid Russian attacks and ongoing budgetary strain.
The normally routine and — to most people — dull exer
