It took several months of Russia’s full-scale invasion to turn some of the most valuable assets of Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov into a pile of dust, metal, and concrete. The tycoon's long list of painful business losses includes the Mariupol-based Azovstal steel plant, one of the largest
Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s exports were a reason to celebrate. Last year, the country hit a 10-year record with $68 billion in exports. As Russia’s invasion enters its seventh month, no one can predict when Ukraine can expect to post these kinds of results again. According
As Ukrainian soldiers fight Russia on the front lines, workers at Ukraine’s state employment centers are fighting their own battle: finding jobs for the hundreds of thousands of people who are now unemployed as a result of Russia’s war. The war has forced the country’s unemployment rate
In its brutal war of conquest in Ukraine, Russia has been destroying everything in its path since its full-scale invasion began on Feb. 24. In addition to the immense human toll Russia’s war has taken on Ukraine, the country’s businesses – from small сozy cafes, cinemas, and supermarkets to
Russia's war in Ukraine is not only killing civilians but defenseless animals as well. Marine biologists and ecologists from countries in the Black Sea region are sounding the alarm, as dolphins die en masse for the fourth month in a row. Ivan Rusev, an environmental scientist at Ukraine's Tuzly Estuaries
Ukrainian farmers begin the July harvest knowing there may be nowhere to store their grain or export it, as Russia’s naval blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports enters its fifth month. According to Ukraine's estimates, 22 million tons of grain already stockpiled across the country remain in their silos.
In 1937, Pablo Picasso, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest painters in history, said after visiting an exhibition in Paris: “I bow down before the artistic miracle of this brilliant Ukrainian.” He was talking about the folk painter Maria Prymachenko and her paintings in the “naive art” genre. Eighty-five
Unlike Ukraine's manufacturing plants, warehouses and stores, many of which lie in ruins, its IT sector has had much better luck. The tech industry reacted with lightning speed to the new reality dictated by Russia's all-out war against Ukraine. Early in the invasion and even before it, companies started to
After Ukraine ended 2021 with a historically high gross domestic product (GDP) of $195 billion, top officials issued optimistic forecasts for the coming year. Then the war began, killing all of the country's economic plans. As of late April, the Russian military has destroyed 30% of Ukraine’s infrastructure, causing
As Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine, experts feared that the Ukrainian banking system would collapse in the event of an all-out war. The closure of Ukraine's main banks, cashless ATMs, and free fall of the national currency were expected by many. Yet, the Ukrainian banking system proved the opposite,
Editor's Note: Natalia Datskevych is a journalist with the Kyiv Independent. An endless feeling of fear that seems to never go away. Every loud sound, every sudden spark in the sky, causes panic. My life, together with the lives of millions of Ukrainians, turned into hell when Russia launched a
Millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes as Russian forces continue to bombard residential areas across the country. While more than 3 million have gone abroad, many have relocated to western Ukraine, which is currently safer than the rest of the country. English teacher Oleksiy Shpak and
Spring. As the winter softens, Ukraine’s farmers used to take to their fields, sowing the seeds of wheat, sunflowers, and buckwheat and tending to poultry farms whose yields are sent across the world. This year, planting has become a luxury, in many cases fields and livestock have been abandoned.
Companies in Ukraine are about to receive temporary tax and legal relief amid growing threats of a full-scale war with Russia. On Feb. 22, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a program on “economic patriotism,” which will ease the tax burden, including possibly reducing value-added tax from current 20% to 8%
On Feb. 8, the Diia City, a special legal and tax regime for IT businesses, came into force. With Diia City, the government wants to raise the share of the IT sector in the country's gross domestic product to 10% from the current 4%. As of Feb. 11, three days
As Ukraine is facing the threat of a renewed, possibly all-out invasion by Russia, another risk arises. Dozens of countries, including Egypt, Yemen, Lebanon, Tunisia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and even China rely on Ukrainian harvests to feed their people. The Middle East and Africa absorbed nearly 40% of Ukraine's exports of
