More than 840 Ukrainian companies have moved to safer regions of the country as a part of a government relocation program, with 667 of them already operating in their new locations, the open data platform OpenDataBot reported on Oct. 23.
The relocations happened between the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 and the end of September 2023.
Currently, the government program allows companies to relocate their production facilities from areas near or within the war zones to 16 different regions of Ukraine. Zakarpattia and Lviv oblasts lead the way, with 120 and 199 companies relocated to these regions respectively. Chernivtsi Oblast registered 78 relocations, and another 70 moved to Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast.
Odesa, with only three companies, Zhytomyr with six, and Kirovohrad with 17 are at the bottom of the relocation demand list among Ukrainian oblasts.
The government’s business relocation program is being implemented by the Economy Ministry in cooperation with regional state administrations, as well as Ukrzaliznytsia (the national rail company) and Ukrposhta (the national postal service). To participate in the program, businesses must register online on the digital interaction platform.
Any business from the war-affected regions can participate in the program. Currently, relocation to any of 16 regions is possible. The oblasts are: Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Chernivtsi, Zhytomyr, Odesa, Vinnytsia, Volyn, Rivne, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kyiv Oblast (excluding the city of Kyiv itself).