In a Time of Conflict, Ukraine Entrepreneurs Make War Their Business

Lviv, Ukraine — Yuriy Zakharchuk once dreamed of combat uniforms for the stage, designing everything from medieval armor to space combat uniforms.

However, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Zaharchuk decided to move his business from the realm of fiction to the real world of war brought to his hometown of Kieu.

The transition from his company to making bulletproof vests and helmets makes sense, he said with a bitter smile. “We have always responded to every need, from the days of the Roman Empire to the fantasies of the future,” he said.

More seriously, he added that his business, Steel Mastery, is experienced in developing lightweight, long-wearing gear. “We know how to make things comfortable,” he said.

Zakharchuk, whose 70-worker company once provided costumes to thousands of European and American customers, is not alone in the switch to militarization. Throughout Ukraine, many companies are adapting to war life by making it part of their business.

In the southern city of Odesa, a local fashion brand had all the departments, including lingerie seamstresses, sewing cloth vests to fit body armor plates, and more.

In Lviv, some of the companies that flocked to this safer western region of Ukraine are working on armoring existing vehicles, military uniforms, and more secretly ammunition.

Volodymyr Korud, Vice President of the Lviv Chamber of Commerce, said: “Some are even involved in weapons, but that’s something we can’t argue with,” he said, fearing they might be the target of the military.

Many companies are working on charities to support the Ukrainian army. But more and more, companies are trying to establish a profitable model that can be maintained with exports in mind during and perhaps after the conflict.

Oksana Cherepanych, 36, said selfishness wasn’t the only factor behind her decision to redirect the company from manufacturing hotel and restaurant uniforms to manufacturers of Ukrainian regimental clothing.

“It’s also about saving work for our workforce,” she said. “We need to motivate people to stay in our country by allowing them to find jobs here. In doing so, we support our economy. “

Her plan went well. Her company, Lviv-based Gregory Textiles, is currently under contract with the Ukrainian Army to make uniforms for its Air Force. She was able to save the work of 40 seamstresses on staff and added 10 new positions. She provided those jobs to women who fled in the east of Ukraine.

She said the company earned only 60% of its pre-war revenue, but still made a profit.

Others, like Zakharchuk, are using this moment of reinvention for missions adjacent to the wacky. He manufactures ceramic plated body armor vests. This is a feat of smuggling kilns during the Soviet era and with the help of scientists in their eighties.

Body armor usually consists of a vest made of bulletproof fabric that holds a plate of armor on the front and back. The simplest approach is to make the plate out of metal. This is a skill that makes it easy to work with a company that specializes in costume armor. Instead, he decided to set up a new venture, the YTO Group, to manufacture ceramic body armor.

Ceramic plates are much lighter and are preferred by many troops for increased mobility. However, producing them requires advanced technology and equipment. Zakharchuk didn’t have it.

“I don’t know much,” he said. “But if you need something, find it. That’s my special skill.”

He had to first study how such plates were made, and then how to get the necessary machines. He searched job sites to find people with skills that he thought were relevant, and then cold-called them for advice.

In the end, he discovered that he needed a vacuum kiln. It was mainly used in Ukraine to produce special ceramics for the country’s Soviet-era nuclear power plants.

Faced with a series of rejections, he called the factories one after another. Some companies have already been closed, and others have informed him by apologizing for the destruction of the facility in the battle.

After two months of searching, he found a nuclear power plant with a devastated kiln built in the 1980s. He borrowed a bank loan and bought it for $ 10,000.

The kiln that fits behind a small trailer weighs over 1,500 pounds. It consumes the same amount of energy as powering 3,000 apartments. But that wasn’t a problem either.

The problem was the location. The kiln was in a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine in March. Still, Zakharchuk wasn’t upset.

“We bribed all Russian officers at the checkpoint there, and they helped us get rid of it. You made it my own” super special operations “. “He joked — a reference to Russia’s labeling of its invasion as a” special military operation. “

However, even with a kiln, Mr. Zaharchuk still needed know-how. So he turned to the circle of Ukrainian scholars between the ages of 75 and 90, who were experts in physics and cemented carbide during the Soviet era.

“They have over 50 years of experience,” he said, but their old age meant “sometimes difficult to communicate.”

Nevertheless, the initiative may be rewarded. His YTO group is currently producing test samples. If the company can grow, Zakharchuk aims to sell armor for about $ 220 to $ 250 per piece. This is about half the price elsewhere.

At Lviv, 31-year-old Roman Khristin also engaged in the body armor business. After many companies fled the country, the invasion destroyed his consulting business, which advised on logistics and crisis management.

Initially, he sought to support the war effort by delivering supplies such as pasta, medicine and fuel to frontline areas. But he quickly burned his resources and enthusiasm.

“Then I noticed: I should be involved in the economic battlefield, not the physical war. I am neither a fighter nor a soldier. But I can network and import And you can do the export. And I know how to start a business. “

That was when he turned to body armor. “At the beginning of the war, we needed 400,000 bulletproof vests, now twice that, and not half that when it comes to availability,” he said.

He bought the large amount of cloth needed to make the material for the bulletproof vest. His team also tested and settled their own formula to manufacture metal plates inside them.

He hopes not only to contribute to the maintenance of the Ukrainian economy during the war, but also to provide himself with the opportunity to go beyond that. “Now we are starting a sales team to start exporting to overseas,” he said.

Cherepanych also wants to maintain her new military uniform business and eventually spin it off from the hotel and restaurant uniforms business that she wants to regain after the war.

On the floor of her trendy brick office sewing room, bright and colorful fabric bolts are extruded to the sides, giving priority to olive green, beige and navy blue.

But she claimed they were still focused on style: “We want the army to be practical and comfortable, but it looks cool.”

Zakharchuk is currently raising $ 1.5 million from investors to help repair the kiln and expand production towards the goal of 10,000 sets of ceramic plates per month. He has been rejected 20 times so far.

As always, it doesn’t stop him

“There will be 100 and even 500 rejections,” he said. “But in the end, we will get money because we show them that we have money.”