The wartime economy has created a new set of challenges for Ukrainian businesses. Notably, only 0.3% of enterprises in Ukraine report having no business problems at all.
This is one of the key findings of the research “Current Business Challenges and Ukraine’s Investment Attractiveness”, conducted by the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) for the Business Ombudsman Council of Ukraine in May–June 2026. The study covered 319 enterprises across 20 regions of Ukraine, ranging from micro to large businesses. Of these, 81.5% had entirely Ukrainian-owned capital, while 16% had entirely foreign or mixed capital.
Labour shortages and related operational challenges
Labour shortages have become the leading challenge, cited by 70.8% of companies. The main causes are directly linked to the war, particularly mobilisation and workers leaving Ukraine. Larger businesses are more affected by the loss of key specialists, while microbusinesses struggle to compete because they cannot offer competitive wages.
Beyond labour shortages, the main operational challenges facing businesses include:
Property rights protection and the judicial system
At a systemic level, businesses express serious concerns about the protection of their assets. Some 63.6% of respondents rate the protection of property rights as poor, while a similar share (63.1%) say they do not trust the judicial system to protect business interests.
When seeking to defend their interests, companies most often turn to lawyers and business associations. Law enforcement agencies, by contrast, are seen as the least effective channel for protecting business interests.
Finance, pressure and war-related risks
Most companies describe their day-to-day interactions with tax authorities as neutral, and the majority report that they have not experienced undue pressure.
Despite the war, bank loans remain relatively accessible to medium-sized and large businesses.
Only 14.7% of enterprises have insurance against war-related risks, while half consider such insurance completely unavailable. As a result, direct financial support remains businesses’ main request to the government.
The full report is temporarily available in Ukrainian only via this link.
The project aims to identify the key challenges facing Ukrainian businesses amid the full-scale war and develop recommendations to enhance Ukraine’s investment attractiveness and improve the conditions for doing business
