Ashes instead of a factory: a Polish entrepreneur in Kyiv lost his life’s work
3 August 2025 23:19
Piotr Ploski, a Polish entrepreneur, has been living and working in Kyiv for over 15 years. Here, he founded a business producing window blinds, bedding, and products for children. His small company, which employed ten women, became not just a production base, but his life’s work.
This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to lifehack.poland.
Everything changed on the night of July 21, 2025, when Russian drones and missiles destroyed the factory to the ground.
“It was a colorful, lively workshop. Now there are only charred walls and 40 shades of gray-brown,” he told reporters as he stood among the scorched workshops. He saw the aftermath of the attack with his own eyes at 5:30 am, when the fire was still burning. A nearby worker’s dormitory was damaged and there were injuries.
Despite the destruction, Petro did not leave Ukraine. He emphasizes that Kyiv has become the center of his life. If he became a refugee, he would feel like a stranger even in Poland.
“I live five kilometers from the factory. I hear the sounds of attacks almost every day. This hum, sirens, explosions have become a habit that cannot be broken. War has become the background of our lives, but it is impossible to get used to it,” he says.
However, Ploskyi did not give up. He is currently raising funds to rebuild the company, hoping to rehire his employees and revive the business. “We don’t want to be poor relatives in foreign countries. We want to live and work here, despite other people’s plans and wars,” he wrote on the donation page.
Polish journalists and volunteers have already responded to his call for help. More than 15.5 thousand zlotys out of the required 20 thousand have been collected. Piotr covers the progress of the reconstruction work on his Facebook page, not losing faith in the future despite the smoke and ruins.
