Category: News

Veteran Volodymyr Skosogorenko has received funds to expand production of processing garlic into paste and fermented black garlic  —  into spices, sauces and single-use stacks.

“Tell me, do you like to chop garlic and then wash that garlic press, clean it with a toothpick? No? In our business, it was important to find the pain point and solve it. We have found it – we free people from washing garlic presses,” Volodymyr says with a smile about his business.

Volodymyr Skosohorenko defended Ukraine in 2014-2015 in the Luhansk region. After discharging the military service, he began to look for himself and started studying psychology in order to help himself and others. In particular, he now volunteers as a psychologist working with wounded military personnel and those who are undergoing rehabilitation.

He decided to go into business because he wanted to earn money… to help combatants with psychological rehabilitation and to fund projects aimed to provide psychological rehabilitation to veterans of the Russian-Ukrainian war and their families.

Volodymyr shares that his own business started for him out of certain interest: how he can apply his combat skills in entrepreneurship? And now he confidently tells everyone that it is necessary to do business with veterans, if only because they want to make the product better, useful and with better quality.

How did it all begin? With his veteran friends, Volodymyr was looking for his business niche for a long time, and then he remembered that he had his two legal hectares of land, which he had leased to a farmer. This farmer grew garlic on that land.

Volodymyr invited him to talk and realized that this was it. So in 2021, he started his own business. His team consisted of several veterans. Later, Volodymyr Skosogorenko began studying the plant in more detail and realized that it was a veteran product.

He says: “There are a lot of hypertensives in the army, and garlic lowers blood pressure and has many other useful properties.”

After February 24th, almost all of Volodymyr’s brothers went to the front, and due to the injuries he received in 2014-2015, he was told to keep home front and create new jobs for them, so that there would be somewhere to return to after the Victory.

Now Volodymyr is dealing with the information front, monitoring the mental state of volunteers, and when everything more or less normalized, he continued to develop the “garlic” business. Volodymyr is currently working on two areas — creating small batches of the garlic paste and spices from fermented black garlic. He says that garlic, like lard, is a superfood.

“What is my dream? I want to see empty packaging from our products in the garbage!”, – shares the veteran. — “And if globally, then after filling Vinnytsia and all of Ukraine with our garlic products, I`m going to enter the international market as well.”

Volodymyr motivates with his thoughts: “In business, the idea is not so important, because there are many ideas floating in the air, but they often disappear, because there was no necessary knowledge for implementation. It is important to understand. Because when we started, we focused on one market, but it didn’t work. Then we changed the vector and everything began working. The main thing is stubbornness.”

After returning from the ATO zone in 2016, veteran Serhiy Svyrydenko founded the Eco Farm “Kozatske Podvirya” in  Ivanopil’a village in Donetsk region.

He raised a herd of goats there and made craft meat delicacies and fragrant cheeses.   But on February 24th, active hostilities came close to his settlement. The market stopped functioning, and the conditions for raising animals became difficult.  

Therefore, the man decided to move a thousand kilometers from home with 150 goats, equipment and machinery.  

Until 2014, Serhiy Svyrydenko had lived in Donetsk. Because of Russian “tourists” and “guest performers”, the situation became very tense, and Serhiy’s whole family went to the country house in the Ivanopillia village, Kostiantyniv district, “for two weeks”, which remained on the controlled territory. And it turned out that they had been staying there for 8 years.  

When Serhii realized that they would not return home in two weeks, he went to the Military Commissariat. He served in the 54th brigade as an artilleryman for a year and a half. He fought on the Svitlodar Arc. After the demobilization, he founded a goat farm in Ivanopillia.  

Serhii Svyridenko says: “What can you do in the village except farming? Everyone has cows, but only a few have goats. Firstly we bought seven ordinary goats. Then we began to learn what and to what. Then we ordered the first elite goat from Germany. And so it all slowly turned around.”  

At the same time, the man started making meat delicacies from pork. In 2017, they received a grant from the NGO “Ukrainian Donetsk Kurkul’” and built a mini-cheese factory at a price of 1 million hryvnias.   Meat delicacies and cheeses were sold in local shops, fairs and online. Things were going well. For example, in 2021, goods were sold for 4.9 million hryvnias. They were preparing to increase the volume of production and sales.  

But on February 24th, a large-scale war began and destroyed all plans. In spring airstrikes occurred in Ivanopillia. Since May, gas has disappeared in the village. And then the Russians shot up the pumping station, so people were also left without water.  

Serhiy’s farm had its own well. He says he could survive in the village on his own, but keeping livestock became increasingly difficult due to water and feed shortages.  

The man no longer believed that everything would pass in “a couple of weeks”, because he had the experience from 2014. Therefore, Serhiy Svyrydenko decided to leave the village for a more peaceful area. It was not easy to transport such a large herd.  

“I had no choice: either the goats will die of hunger in Ivanopillia, or we will move and I will be able to find feed for them. That is why I had been traveling around Ukraine since July, looking for places to move. Somewhere on television there was a program about my farm. Volyn businessman Ivan Bud had watched it. He invited me to his old farm in Volyn,” says the man.  

So, at the beginning of September, Serhiy Svyridenko hired a cattle driver. He loaded equipment, a tractor, and machinery onto the first floor, and 150 goats onto the second floor. He took two employees and products ready for sale and set off.  

The goats have already settled in the new place. Although it was not easy: a different climate, grass. Serhii says that many animals fell ill, six died. But currently the situation has more or less stabilized. Equipping of the farm is still going.

Active volunteering, teaching tactical medicine courses in 2014, participation in war in 2015, a successful start of her own business and war again – this is the story of Victoria Tkach, a veteran entrepreneur who won the #VARTO competition organized by the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine.

Victoria says, “The history of my own business began in 2018 when, as a volunteer, I began to study at the Kyiv School of Economics in order to return to civilian life and be able to work for myself. After receiving a grant in the amount of 25 thousand hryvnias, we purchased equipment and, having knowledge, how to develop a startup, got on the difficult road of business…”

At the front, Victoria did not eat meat, so her mother sent her dried vegetables and fruits, made with her own hands. That’s how the idea appeared to make nutritious dry goods, which would be useful for those who fight, go to the mountains, and for everyone who needs to take something not so heavy but with high energy value on the road. Initially, the business was to be called “Kus’”, but it was launched as Slice&dry’s.

Currently, her manufacturing deals with the drying fruits, vegetables, mushrooms and meat.

“Our products are popular among people who spend most of their time outside their personal comfort zone, their home, namely athletes, rescuers, military, doctors, police, tourists, climbers, and all of them are united by love for healthy food and respect to their health,” says the veteran.

With the beginning of a full-scale invasion, requests from the military increased 5 times. And therefore the capacity could no longer cope with the requests from customers, so the received money will be used to increase the capacity and expand the staff.

Victoria shares: “For me, this business is an opportunity to have something of my own and give the family another segment that will unite it. I see how my relatives are working on this project, and I am happy. I can see they like it. They talk about our case and joke about it all the time.”

“This is amazing because you can get the veteran business the most money with so little hassle. And it’s in these hard times!”, Oleksandr Kvyatkovsky shares his feelings on the victory in the #VARTO competition from the Ukrainian Veteran Foundation of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine.   

Oleksandr Kvyatkovskyi received funding for the processing of agricultural crops with the help of an agrodrone. He will provide such services for ukrainian farms.

Oleksandr is a combat veteran who served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ air reconnaissance in the Donetsk direction from  the first day of the war in 2014. Due to his health, he is currently unable to serve and is instead holding economic front.   

Since Oleksandr worked with drones and UAVs in the army, the idea for his business was actually on the surface. And now, during the agricultural season, he offers services for making maps of fields and using drone photos to assess the condition of crops. This information is needed to put precision agriculture into practice.  

Oleksandr also acknowledges that he couldn’t imagine how important his business would be now, given that many fields have been mined, and they still need to be cultivated and fertilized somehow.  

He explains: “Those farms where fights have taken place try to use tractor tillage as little as possible. It takes more than one year for full demining, the drone is a safer alternative to the tractor: fewer passes of heavy equipment means less chance of hitting a mine or an unexploded shell.”   

His business is funded on the principle of ensuring food security, which is a crucial  area of supporting state security, especially during wartime.

Oleksandr says that: “The use of drones is relevant not only in the military matters, but also in agriculture, because it allows the use of precision farming approaches. This results in significant cost savings, improves the effectiveness of the use of fertilizers and plant protection products, and lowers the expenditures of fuel and lubricants, among other benefits.”  

Oleksandr adds: “Not many people are aware that Ukraine is currently a leader in the development of unmanned technologies for the agricultural industry.  And drones  now are greatly helping to reduce the expenditures, fertilizers used for processing and to speed up the cultivating process, and this saves a lot of resources for farmers and helps to process them in a short time. There are even periods when there is no substitute for such drones. For example, when corn or sunflowers are high, and it is simply impossible to go there with a combine harvester because it will damage the crop.”  

With the help of the Ukrainian Veteran Foundation, Oleksandr will be able to revitalize his company, broaden its range of services, create new jobs, employ veterans, and help farms affected by the war recover faster.

During the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation , veteran entrepreneur Andriy Sarvira opened a volunteer headquarters on the territory of his exquisite First Wave restaurant in Dnipro.

In the first days of the war, the institution fed hot lunches to soldiers, internally displaced persons, and policemen. Half a thousand people ate there every day.

In 2014, Andriy was actively volunteering. In 2015, he volunteered for the 81st separate airborne assault brigade. In fact, it was the fourth wave of mobilization. They performed combat tasks in Popasnaya, Vodyanyi and other hot areas.

In 2016 he demobilized in the rank of junior sergeant, and then he decided to engage in entrepreneurship. Andriy opened the Veterano Pizza restaurant in Dnipro.

Things were going well; at one point, the restaurant was visited by the state’s first persons, who didn’t hold back from giving it rave reviews. In 2018, they moved to the center of the city, increasing the space of the restaurant and the number of visitors increased as well.

Later, Andrii stopped working under the Veterano brand, opening his own restaurant – First Wave, and a brewery by the same name. 

“Why First Wave”? It seemed very apt to me then. Because it is like the first wave of mobilization. The landing of the first wave of the main forces during the Allied operation in Normandy also went by this name – The First Wave. And because we were the first wave of brewers who started making craft beer,” Andriy explains the name of the restaurant.

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, this restaurant of Ukrainian-European cuisine was closed and worked exclusively as a volunteer headquarters to provide hot lunches to the displaced, the military and the police. Every day, the team fed about 500 people.

“I expected an invasion and knew that it would happen – not in previous years, but in 2022. There were all signs that it was going to happen, unlike any previous year. It was enough to listen carefully to what Russian officials and their other politicians were saying, they gave clear dates for a full-scale invasion. Zhirynovsky, for example, named one. After February 24, I left for three months to visit my friends in the east with, shall we say, a volunteer mission. I evacuated the family and launched a volunteer headquarters in the restaurant without hesitation,” says Andrii.

The establishment has recently reopened as a restaurant, but after its absence from the market due to the war, sales declined drastically.

“We counted the losses – it is quite a large sum of money. Especially including rent and utilities,” he says succinctly.

The veteran applied for the “VARTO” competition program of the Ukrainian Veteran Foundation. First Wave was one of the winners of the contest and will receive 860,000 hryvnas for development. In particular, they plan to purchase the new, more appropriate equipment.

“Our chance to keep the company afloat and to keep on developing is to attract a new wave of visitors, which we plan to engage with the help of entertainment and information events – concerts, exhibitions, lectures, and poetry evenings. We did it before, but thanks to the Ukrainian Veteran Foundation, we will organize them even more effectively,” emphasizes Andriy.

And he states: “So far, the restaurant has not returned to the pre-war number of visitors.”

But we at the Ukrainian Veteran Foundation believe, expect and know that a new wave of visitors will come to First Wave.

Clients will come, lending a helping hand to the veteran entrepreneur. Just as he, having given up profit, offered his helping hand to those who needed it in the first days of the war.

Suspended pizza for wounded services and medics in the hospital. The veteran will open a pizzeria that will work in support of the security forces.

Veteran Mykhailo Roschuk is one of the 30 winners of the #VARTO funding competition from the Ukrainian Veteran Foundation Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine. 

“I offered the idea of opening my own pizzeria to my brothers in 2020. I bought a franchise from Pizza BRO and now I’m ready for the opening,” says Mykhailo.

His project is aimed, first of all, at veterans, active services and other employees of the security forces.

“For veterans, active services, volunteers and the police, we constantly offer discounts of up to 25% on pizzas marked on the menu. And every visitor or customer can suspend a pizza, which we will hand over to wounded active services and doctors in the hospital,” Mykhailo says.

He also mentions that he plans to employ up to 6-8 people. Staff will be recruited, first of all, from the veterans. After all, Mykhailo is a veteran himself and understands how important it is to reintegrate services into civilian life.

“My battle path lasted during 2015-2016. He served in the 11th “Kyiv Rus” Mechanized Infantry battalion. Tasks were carried out near Troitske (Donetsk region) and Novozvanivka (Luhansk region). In 2008, he passed military service. I have the rank of senior sergeant,” the veteran says.

Soon the pizzeria will open its doors to visitors. The cafe will be located on Rusanivka, Mykolaichuk Str., 7a.

Veteran entrepreneur Mykola Voropai is a story about stubbornness, inspiration, forward movement, development and life.

Just think about it: the man was on a combat mission in Mariupol surrounded by Russians as part of the Marine Guard unit. After the start of the Russian full-scale invasion, he fought in Mariupol and managed to get out of the encircled city.

He moved to Subcarpathia and settled in Ivano-Frankivsk, where he started to resume his business.

In Mariupol, Mykola had his own photo studio and created souvenir products. During the full-scale invasion, he lost everything, and the businessman returned to action – together with the unit, he performed tasks in the area of the Azov Ship Repair Plant and the Mariupol Sea Trade Port.

Now the Ukrainian Veterans Fund is helping the entrepreneur in reviving his business: the man applied for the “Varto” competition of the UVF.

Mykola will receive funding for the implementation of the “ARTnation” project. Renuval”.

Its essence is the launch of its own production for cutting various materials, applying images, labelling products, etc. With these funds, they plan to purchase a laser machine, a milling machine, a 3D printer, and a UV printer. With the help of this equipment, according to the entrepreneur, it will be possible to print high-quality images on almost any surface.

Mr. Mykola plans to manufacture an impressive range of products: coasters for drinks, flower beds, clothes for amulet dolls, lamps, applying images on tiles, printing on fabrics, etc. We would also like to add that this is not Mykola Voropay’s first cooperation with the Ukrainian Veterans Fund — he has already received funding from the UVF as part of the “20 thousand hryvnias” program.

These funds also were used for purchasing photo and laser equipment, and in the summer of 2022 he resumed production of products. The business comes to life, something that once was lost is now renovated, once stolen  is returned to the owner, at the cost of a lot of work. And we at the UVF help in this by lending a hand of support.

In November 2019, Roman Yanko, a veteran of the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade, returned home from the war.

While still in the hospital, he considered various ideas for his own business. And one of them was the processing of waste from carpentry production into pellets.

The veteran says that he had a dream back in the trenches to process wood waste into something useful:

“Nowadays, pellets are the best bioresource for space heating!” veteran claims.  

He says: “Volunteers brought us sunflower pellets and we used them to heat the small houses. I became very interested in this, so I began to study this topic, machines, work processes, etc. Thanks to my friends, I delved into this process even more.”   

First of all, the veteran purchased a granulator machine, which can produce up to a ton of pellets a day, a screw conveyor and a screener-cooler. This business is a dream job for him. Mr. Roman says he waits every day until the night is over so that he can come and work again with God’s help. His brother works and helps him with production. And when someone ask him “What do you do?” Mr. Roman proudly answers “I am a businessman!”.

Roman Yanko’s talent for carpentry is just an accident, he says that his mother worked at the Chernivtsi souvenir factory “Bukovinka”. Therefore, the boy grew up near the wood processing machines. He is also a carpenter by education. When the war started in 2014, Roman Yanko went to the front without any hesitation, he became a soldier.

He says that he did not go for the rank or for medals. He went there with deliberation to defend Ukraine. Now the veteran is not at the front due to his health, but he contributes to the victory by working, supporting the Ukrainian economy and creating new jobs.

The veteran is convinced: “Belief in what you are doing and supporting your relatives is the main formula for success.” He claims that his wife Nadia’s faith and his own tenacity work wonders.

During the development of his business, Roman was able to create a wide client base, and there were even orders from abroad, but he didn’t have the capacity to fulfil such orders.

But, thanks to the victory in the #VARTO competition, his dream will come true, and most importantly, the number of people working on new equipment will also increase.

Veteran Valery Pryadun is one of the winners of the #VARTO contest of the UVF.

He plans to develop a cleaning company in Poltava with a full range of customer services.

“The launch of the company is expected in February-March 2023. Currently, the process of preparation and purchase of the necessary equipment is underway. Our company will focus not only on servicing offices but also private houses and apartments. I also plan to participate in tender procurement to have the possibility of working with state institutions,” says Valery.

The veteran also shares his vision for his future team. While the process of providing services and finding clients will be worked out, the team will be up to 5 people. But later on, he wants to organize two mobile cleaning brigades.

“We will also need to purchase a vehicle to transport the equipment. A million hryvnias would be enough to realize all these ideas. But I entered a slightly smaller amount in the tender application. Although, when he found out that he won the #VARTO competition, he was pleasantly surprised. If there will be any more contests, I will definitely take part in them,” says Valery.

In addition to the cleaning company, the veteran is also developing a company that provides security services in Poltava. Before founding his own business, the man worked in the ranks of the Security Service of Ukraine.

From 2015-2018 he was on an official mission in the zone of ATO/ Joint Forces Operation, in the Donetsk region. There he was engaged in counter-intelligence and other operational activities within the framework of the tasks assigned to the Security Service of Ukraine.