opendatabot shows that despite the Russian invasion, Ukrainian small businesses continue to grow and pay taxes for the state and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. During the year of the conflict, more than 202,000 new FOPs were opened in Ukraine. Most new businesses are opened in the retail sector.
After the start of the long-running Russian-Ukrainian conflict in February 2022, the registries failed for a period, and it was impossible to open a FOP. However, after the resumption of the opportunity to open oneself in March 2023, more than a thousand new sole proprietorships were registered. Already in April, the number of new sole proprietors has steadily increased, peaking in September at 20.1 thousand.
A small number of new small and medium-sized businesses began to rise in autumn and early winter. This is likely to have been caused by massive Russian shelling of energy infrastructure facilities and outages. However, already at the start of 2023, the number of small and medium-sized businesses started to increase.
The largest number of new FOPs has been registered in Kyiv since the full invasion began, with 29 thousand. In the Lviv area, 16.8 thousand FOPs have been recorded, and 15.9 thousand in the Dnipropetrovsk area.
The whole-scale war had an impact on the functions of new businesses. Prior to the war, more often a new business was opened with KVED "Computer programming, consulting, and related activities," and the categories "Provision of information services" and "Provision of other individual services" occupied the third and fourth positions. In the same sector, information and personal services occupy fifth and seventh positions in the list.
The conflict also impacted gender roles among the new FOPs. So, in 2023, every second new FOP is opened by women.
