“We should have a business traveler’s handbook that answers key questions for companies entering Ukraine for the first time,” said Derek Berlin, senior vice-president of Logistics Plus, a US company working in Ukraine. “How to find train tickets, which hotels speak multiple languages, which ones can operate during power outages, and what security firms you can work with to try to get in.”
Since March 2022, the company has provided urgent aid to Ukraine. Initially focused on immediate relief, its strategy shifted as Kyiv regained territory, moving to essential services for the government, citizens, and international businesses. It has also helped raise more than $1m in donations and delivered medical supplies, food, clothing and power generators to communities affected by the war.
Berlin joined the efforts in spring 2023 to help guide the transition and, nearly two years later, Logistics Plus has teams in Kyiv, Odesa, and Ivano-Frankivsk. “It has been tough, but we have amazing Ukrainian employees,” he said. “We didn’t need to import any Americans, there is outstanding talent there.”
One of the company’s biggest logistics achievements was delivering more than 22,000 tons of gas pipe through Ukraine’s Danube and Black Sea ports, despite ongoing Russian attacks. They used ships to deep-sea ports, then barges on the Danube from the Romanian port of Constanta, eventually moving more than 1,000 truckloads of equipment for natural gas production to sites across Ukraine.
It was the first non-grain delivery to Ukraine after the full-scale invasion and was “a very challenging project because of the state of the ports, and finding a ship owner willing to do it,” Berlin said. “We had done a lot of research and felt confident the risks were mitigated.”
Frequent air raid alerts, which halt work and force everyone into shelters, are a constant irritation. The head of ports and fleet operations at one of Ukraine’s largest agriculture export companies told Berlin his teams had lost an entire month of labor in a year due to taking shelter.
“It’s a nuance often lost on people overseas how unbelievably disruptive all this is, even when you’re not in a violent incident,” Berlin said.
Housing, transport, energy, industry, commerce, and education have been the sectors most affected by the war, according to the World Bank, and foreign companies in Ukraine have been unable to protect their assets. A survey of US companies by the American Chamber of Commerce found 49% had assets damaged or lost, while 19% reported some had been occupied by Russia.
Despite the disruption, companies have continued to invest foreign capital. YouControl, which tracks commercial data, listed 3,570 companies in Ukraine, adding foreign beneficiaries or participants to their ownership between February 2022 and April 2024. It also reported the establishment of 2,950 companies backed by foreign capital in the same period.
The majority of investments have been in the relatively safer Kyiv and Lviv regions, with significant activity in the Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv regions. Some 44% of investments were in wholesale, retail trade and vehicle repair, with significant activity in manufacturing, IT, construction and transport.
“Attracting investments into a war-torn country is not trivial,” said Halyna Yanchenko, an MP and Secretary of Ukraine’s National Investment Council. “There are at least three sectors where foreign investments are being attracted very actively – the defense industry, energy, and the production of construction materials.”
The government in Kyiv forecasts domestic defense production could soar to $35bn this year, up from $20bn in 2024. Meanwhile, the urgent need for equipment maintenance and repair is attracting foreign companies to shift operations to Ukraine, either in partnership with local firms or by transferring technology.
“Many venture funds and companies are turning to Ukraine for its rapid innovation cycle,” Yanchenko said. “Prototypes are tested directly on the front lines, instead of in labs or on test ranges, and manufacturers work closely with military units to quickly receive feedback and make improvements.”
Co-production initiatives are strongly encouraged by government programs, she added. For example, a UK Export Finance (UKEF) initiative mitigates risks and finances investment projects.
“Currently, UKEF’s key focus is on developing cooperation between the UK and Ukraine in the defense industry,” Yanchenko said. “They see the benefits British companies can gain from collaborating and co-producing with Ukrainian firms.”
Denmark is also actively investing approximately $970m in Ukraine’s defense industry, encouraging others to follow the “Danish model,” under which weapons for Kyiv are purchased directly from Ukrainian companies. Manufacturers like Rheinmetall, KNDS, and AeroVironment are also opening production facilities and forming joint ventures with Ukrainian manufacturers.
“Ukraine has a very impressively functioning economy despite all the strains that Russia is putting on the country,” Berlin said. “I hosted a call with the governor of Odesa region and his leadership team a few weeks ago for about 30 senior representatives of the US business community who are interested in better understanding the landscape and role that US investment could play.”
European companies have been willing to enter the Ukrainian market thanks to their public-private cooperation models, under which governments take responsibility for potential losses.
“Public financing is used to support overseas operations by European companies, which helps mitigate some of the risks,” Berlin said. “This isn’t necessarily through insurance, but through upfront investment, so the risk is removed from the company’s balance sheet from the beginning, instead of relying on insurance after something negative happens.”
He encourages potential investors to distinguish between real and perceived risks and is working with the Ukrainian government and G7 representatives to better communicate the issues and opportunities involved. He insists they shouldn’t be deterred by the apparent dangers.
“Everyone I’ve traveled with — congressional delegations, business leaders, and security experts — finds Ukraine a perfectly pleasant and remarkably resilient place to visit and operate,” he said. “I have business friends who bring their middle school children with them, and they even play soccer games while there.”
Elina Beketova is a Non-resident Fellow with the Democratic Resilience program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). She is the author of Behind the Lines, a database and article series focused on Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories. Elina began her career as a journalist in Crimea and later worked as a journalist, editor, and TV anchor for news stations in Kharkiv and Kyiv.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
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