Hennadiy Chyzhykov: “It is crucial not only to stop the aggressor but also to demonstrate that Ukraine is a nation with a bright future”

Gennadiy Chyzhykov is the President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industries, and trustee of Aspen Institute Kyiv Supervisory Board. He was a speaker at the fifth #UkrainianDialogue that Aspen Institute Kyiv held with Aspen Institute Mexico. Gennadiy spoke about challenges for Ukrainian business during the Russian-Ukrainian war.

In our country, millions of Ukrainians are facing the same nightmare

The war, started in Ukraine 8 years ago has a personal face for Gennadiy. He was born in Donetsk, lived and studied there. Since 2014, he and his family have lost 3 houses due to the war. 

— The first house was connected with my business in Donetsk. In 2014 I cut all connections with my business, with my house, with everything. In the first week of March this year, I lost my house 30 kilometers away from Bucha. In that region, there was one of the most difficult situations at the beginning of this war. I lost my third house 3 months ago. I took my mother, she is 85 years old, from the North Donetsk region. It’s a terrible situation for me. However, in our country, millions of Ukrainians are facing the same nightmare. These millions of Ukrainians are asking what is this and why it happens?

Gennadiy Chyzhykov stressed that a full-scale Russian military invasion of Ukraine and its consequences have a very negative impact on the economy. As of April 24, nearly 30% of Ukrainian businesses stopped, and 15% of them were working partly. For this time, about 47% of business is working partly, while 3% is not working.

— There are millions of working places lost. There are millions of Ukrainian small and medium businesses, who had their dreams to make bigger businesses, travel, to increase their families. And now everything stopped. 

 The situation in Ukraine is not just a war between Ukraine and Russia

Gennadiy Chyzhykov stressed that the situation in Ukraine is not just a war between Ukraine and Russia. This is a huge question to the whole world, which should be solved to protect not only Ukraine but the world from repeating this situation in future.

— This is the 21st century. We are practically in the center of Europe, living in a world where everything is possible. We have prominent international organizations such as the United Nations, the European Council etc, and we believed that these organizations could stop such a dramatic situation but what we see is that the war still continues.

Gennadiy Chyzhykov said that Ukrainians have already shown their resilience and became stronger, in particular — like a nation. Since the first day of the war, there are queues of people who would like to join the army to protect their country. And for Ukraine it is crucial not only to stop the aggressor but also to demonstrate that Ukraine is a nation with a bright future. 

Aspen Institute Kyiv launched the #UkrainianDialogue project in cooperation with Aspen Network international partners. Its goal is to create a platform for leadership dialogue between Ukrainians who fight for democratic values and other countries’ representatives that support Ukraine.