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Saturday, January 31, 2026
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Luca Léry Moffat photo

Luca Léry Moffat

Economics reporter

Luca 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.

l.moffat@kyivindependent.com

Articles

Civil Society Participation Index in five Eastern European countries.
Ukraine in charts

Chart of the week: The different paths of Eastern Europe's civil society

by Luca Léry Moffat
In Eastern Europe, shifting global orders have been a lived experience for decades. Just over thirty years ago, the end of communism and the retreat of Russian dominance paved the way for market economies and pluralistic societies, sometimes overnight. Since that rupture, civil society — the organizations that exist in the space between the ordinary citizen and the state — has been integral to the political, social and cultural transformations across much of the region. But that fast-paced chan
Launchers of the Bundeswehr’s Patriot air defense system stand in Poland, on April 3, 2023.
War

Ukraine needs billions in US arms as Greenland dispute pushes alliance to breaking point, documents reveal

by Luca Léry Moffat, Jimmy Rushton
Ukraine needs at least $27 billion in military equipment from non-European Union sources in 2026, highlighting the bloc's dependence on American technology to support Kyiv, negotiating documents show. The EU is set to spend 60 billion euros ($70 billion) on Ukraine's defense as part of a larger 90-billion-euro support package agreed in December, an unprecedented sum that European leaders hope will reboot its military industrial base and support the Ukrainian military’s continued operation durin
Politics

Zelensky picks a fight with Kyiv Mayor Klitschko as mismanagement, Russian attacks push city to the brink

by Kateryna Denisova, Dominic Culverwell, Luca Léry Moffat
Ukraine's capital Kyiv, home to over 3 million people, has rarely been prepared for winter. Frozen, icy sidewalks, bursting pipes, and year-long infrastructure collapse have been a key feature of the city under Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Now, following Russia’s Jan. 9 attack, Kyiv has been pushed into a humanitarian crisis, leaving residents without heating, hot water, and electricity through the coldest winter in years. President Volodymyr Zelensky has been open about who he holds to blame. Zel
Representative from the Iute Group signs an agreement with Ukrainian partners
Business

Small Estonian fintech to take on big Ukrainian banking sector

by Luca Léry Moffat
Ukraine's wartime banking sector will get a new player after an obscure fintech's bid to enter the country's market was finalized on Jan. 15. Iute Group, headquartered in Estonia, signed the final stage of acquiring a Ukrainian banking license during an upbeat press conference held in Kyiv on Jan. 15. It's reportedly the first foreign bank to enter Ukraine since 2021. "Since 2008, it's pretty much been only one direction — foreign banks leaving the country," Mykhaylo Demkiv, financial analyst
War

Chart of the week: Ukraine's missile interception rate slides lower as Russian attacks plunge country into crisis

by Luca Léry Moffat
Ukraine's missile interception rate slid lower in the first two weeks of 2026, as Russia continued its months-long bombing campaign against the country's energy infrastructure. Ukraine's Air Force reported downing 26 of the 73 missiles launched by Russia in the first two weeks of January, according to data compiled by Dragon Capital — an interception rate of 36%. The average monthly rate since October 2022 is 60%. In an overnight attack targeting several cities across Ukraine on Jan 12–13, Ukr
Lending in Ukraine is booming.
Business

Chart of the week: Lending boom suggests war is new normal for Ukrainians

by Luca Léry Moffat
Ukrainians continued a borrowing spree in 2025, suggesting that households and companies are settling into a new normal as the country approaches the fifth year of Russia's full-scale invasion. While new loans plummeted in the first few years of the full-scale invasion, borrowing started to pick up in 2024. By last year, the total value of loans taken out by Ukrainian households and companies was 50% and 27% higher than in 2023, respectively, according to data from Ukrainian think tank Center f

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