When Russian forces crossed the Ukrainian border and advanced towards Kharkiv, Serhiy Evdokimov got into his car and started driving. “The city was full of checkpoints and blockades,” he recalled. “I would just stop at any checkpoint and ask, 'What assistance do you need?' 'Hot drinks, tea, coffee, energy drinks, warm clothes?'”
Kharkiv, just 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting at the beginning of the conflict. Evdokimov, an engineer working for the Swedish-Ukrainian software company Sigma, spent those first weeks working to procure and deliver supplies to soldiers guarding the city's defenses and to civilians sheltering in underground subway stations and basements.
As the defenders slowly pushed the Russian forces beyond the city limits, he followed them, transporting hundreds of hot meals a day from restaurants in Kharkiv to soldiers entrenched in the forests.
Evdokimov was one of more than 700 Kharkiv-based Sigma employees when Russia invaded in February 2022. While delivering aid, the company was working to evacuate its staff and their families from the war zone.
They were not entirely unprepared. For months before the invasion began, company leaders had conducted theoretical planning exercises and worked out some contingencies, but the speed of the Russian advance took them by surprise and meant that the plan had to be readjusted.
The week before the war, they had reserved a fleet of buses ready to take people out. “But once it started, the problem was that the bus drivers refused to go,” Evgeniy Bachinskiy, head of compliance at Sigma, who oversaw the evacuation plan, told Al Jazeera.
It took two weeks to get everyone who wanted to leave Kharkiv out of the city and into the relative safety of the west of the country. Some evacuees from the east slept at the company's headquarters in kyiv. It was a chaotic period, but soon the company was back up and running.
“All we need to operate is, you know, one person, an Internet connection and a laptop,” Bachinskiy said. “Within two weeks, I think 95 percent of our people were actually operating.”
Many Ukrainian tech companies have a similar story. Executives who had previously focused on profit and loss accounts suddenly had to become experts in logistics and humanitarian aid, figuring out how to get their people out of the fire and keep their businesses running with teams that were scattered by the war.
By and large, they succeeded and the industry not only survived, but thrived, growing against all odds, making money, keeping people at work while the rest of the economy struggled, and directly supporting the war effort by pivoting to create technology. of battlefield. .
As the war enters its third year, some of the shine of that miracle has come off. It has become more difficult to secure investment and clients from abroad, and the sector is suffering from fatigue and brain drain. But, tech leaders say, the resilience the industry built in the early days of the conflict is intact.
“Of course we are tired,” said Oleg Polovynko, a technology entrepreneur and adviser to the mayor of kyiv on technology. “But we are not demoralized.”
'A very high risk country'
Ukraine's tech industry was growing long before the full-scale invasion. A large, young, and well-educated workforce made it a natural place for Western European companies to set up administrative offices for software development and technical support. Local entrepreneurs built a technology outsourcing industry that worked with clients around the world. The startup scene was buzzing, gathering around new high-tech campuses in kyiv, Lviv and Kharkiv.
The government, eager to recalibrate the economy away from Soviet-era heavy industries, created tax breaks and other business support under its “Diia City” initiative. According to data from the IT Association of Ukraine, technology exports almost tripled between 2017 and 2021, reaching more than $7 billion.
In 2022, even with thousands of component companies working from basements, with generators and Starlink connections, the industry really grew. While Ukraine's economy shrank by almost a third, its technology exports increased by about six percent. Global technology companies rushed to support the country, announcing investments, donating IT resources and providing business support. Many of the sector's international clients pledged to continue working with Ukrainians, despite the risks.
“It was a shock for everyone; everyone wanted to help Ukraine,” said Iryna Volnytska, founder of SET, a technology-focused university in kyiv. “Sometimes it seemed like a donation, not a business, but the response was huge.”
It will always be difficult to maintain momentum, and in 2023, technology exports fell again below their 2021 total. “It's been two years,” Volnytska told Al Jazeera. “There is a crisis in the world, a recession. Right now you don't hear much about Ukraine in the world.”
Many technology companies are struggling to find new customers. “Ukraine is a very high-risk country. At any moment, your tech specialist could be drafted into the military or killed,” Volnytska said. Men of military age are not allowed to leave the country, so they cannot travel abroad to meet potential clients or partners.
Venture capitalists say they want to work with Ukraine, but they need to de-risk their investments. That means they are reluctant to invest in a company whose management team and infrastructure are located in Ukraine.
Some startups have adapted by setting up offices outside the country, and there are now Ukrainian tech groups in Warsaw, Berlin and other European cities, as well as outposts in the United States' Silicon Valley. The number of women working in management positions in the industry has increased, helping new companies develop internationally.
But the dangers and difficulties of living and working in a country at war have led many people to leave. Research by the Lviv IT Cluster, an incubator, found that 65,000 Ukrainian tech professionals now live outside the country. “It is the most difficult issue for Ukraine,” Volnytska said. “We have a huge brain drain.”
Ukraine needs technological talent. The country has leaned heavily on its startups to help it fight the much larger Russian military. A rapidly growing military technology industry is leading the world in innovations in drones, cybersecurity and other battlefield tools. Since the war began, global defense companies have flocked to the country to invest in promising new technologies, test their tools and collect data. Once the war is over, the tech industry will be an important source of jobs and investment to rebuild a devastated economy.
'Many plans B'
“Now, it's bad. But it is also an opportunity for us to rebuild from scratch and build a more innovative country,” Volnytska told Al Jazeera. “Many traditional industries were ruined. So do we want to build new factories or do we want to build some innovative technology companies?
Volnytska SET was launched two months before the full-scale invasion, hoping to prepare students to become tech entrepreneurs. Like the rest of the technological ecosystem, they have had to adapt, taking their courses online and adapting the curriculum to the current reality.
In May 2022, after the invasion, they launched a cybersecurity course. Five thousand five hundred people showed up. The university is preparing to launch an international program focused on cities with large Ukrainian refugee populations.
“Our students will study one year in Poland, a second year in Berlin, for example, next year in London, and the last year we want to bring them back to Kiev to show them that there are still opportunities in Ukraine,” Volnytska said.
As the second anniversary of the full-scale invasion approaches, the global narrative around Ukraine has been dominated by domestic politics within its international allies.
US military aid has been delayed by debates in Congress. While the broader tech industry has continued to support Ukraine, X owner Elon Musk has amplified Russian propaganda, including pushing for a controversial interview of Russian President Vladimir Putin by right-wing provocateur Tucker Carlson. On the ground, kinetic warfare has reached a stalemate.
“There was definitely fatigue a couple of months ago,” said Denys Gurak, a tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist who played a major role in lobbying the U.S. tech sector for support in the early days of the conflict. People had “inflated expectations” about the military's ability to launch a counteroffensive. But, he says, that moment has passed.
“Frankly, I feel like people just realize that nothing has changed,” Gurak said. “We still have to do the work. “We cannot afford to become fatigued.” Living in the United States for years, he will return to Ukraine next month.
Evdokimov is still in Kharkiv. The city continues to be bombarded by Russian drones and missiles, and he now combines his day job as an engineer with that of director of Sigma's charitable fund.
Living and working so close to war means having “many plan Bs,” he says.
“In case of power outages, I have power supplies, including diesel and gasoline. In case of Internet connection outages, I have three or four Internet channels reserved in different geographical areas of Kharkiv.”
It has not returned to normal and there are days when the emotional burden takes its toll. “[But] Life has not stopped here,” Evdokimov said. “We work; we are fine.”
