Almost 8 thousand companies relocated to Ukraine in 8 months of 2025: businesses are adapting and changing locations
18 September 2025 18:34
According to the Opendatabot platform, between January and August 2025, 8,345 business moves took place in Ukraine within the country, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
In fact, 7,988 companies relocated, and some of them moved several times. The total number of relocations has stabilized: in 2025, there were 10% fewer than in 2021, and at about the same level as in 2024.
Main routes of relocation
- Moves mostly take place between Kyiv and other regions.
- The most popular destinations:
- Kyiv → Kyiv region (494 companies)
- Kyiv → Dnipropetrovska oblast (379)
- Kyiv region → Kyiv (378)
- Kyiv → Kharkiv region (358)
- Dnipropetrovska oblast → Kyiv (336)
Regions with a positive business balance
- Kharkiv region: 374 companies (more moved in than left).
- Zaporizhzhia (276), Lviv (161), Zakarpattia (83), and Kyiv (77) regions also received more businesses moving in than they lost.
Regions with a negative business balance
- The capital: 657 more companies left Kyiv than arrived.
- Other regions with a negative balance:
- Dnipropetrovska (-102)
- Donetsk (-97)
- Volyn (-83)
- Poltava (-62)
Business donors and the largest receiving regions
- Most businesses left the capital – 2,909 companies (36% of the total).
- Among other donor regions, the following stand out: Dnipro (824), Kyiv (770), Odesa (507), and Lviv (451).
- Kyiv remains the top destination with 2,252 companies relocating there.
- Popular receiving regions: Kyiv (847), Kharkiv (742), Dnipro (722), Lviv (613).
Additional facts about business relocation
- In 2024, 11,083 companies changed their legal address of registration.
- Main industries of relocated companies:
- 32% – wholesale trade
- 6% – construction
- 4.8% – real estate transactions
- There are 282 enterprises in Zakarpattia region that have been relocated from the war zone and frontline regions, which has a positive impact on the regional economy.
International context and investments
- More than 13 thousand Ukrainian businesses have been registered in Poland since the beginning of the war.
- Textile-Contact Group has opened a factory in Poland to produce knitted goods with an investment of more than €1.8 million.
- The plant, relocated from Poland to Chernihiv region, is scheduled to be launched by the end of 2025.
The relocation of business to Ukraine has become one of the key responses of companies to the challenges of the full-scale war that began in February 2022. Due to hostilities, rocket attacks, and instability in the frontline regions, many companies were forced to change their legal addresses and physical locations to maintain production, access to markets, and staff.
Until 2022, businesses in Ukraine remained largely stable in their regions, but with the outbreak of hostilities, a massive wave of relocations began, especially from the eastern and southern regions of the country. The main flows of business relocations are directed to the western regions, Kyiv and regions that are safer from the frontline.
The economic impact of the war is forcing companies to look for new opportunities to develop and preserve capital, and government agencies are actively supporting this process by encouraging business relocation and adaptation in new territories. This also contributes to the growth of the regional economy in those regions that receive IDPs.
Over the past three years, business mobility has led to significant changes in the geography of the Ukrainian economy, with lasting implications for investment, the labor market, and infrastructure development. Further relocation trends will depend on the security situation and economic conditions in the country and the world.
