6 hours ago 2

Ukraine Business Roundup — McDonald's and DOGE in Ukraine

The following is the March 18, 2025 edition of our Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business and tech from Ukraine directly in your inbox, subscribe here.

I’ve always wanted an excuse to talk to this newsletter audience about McDonald’s in Ukraine and now I have it.

This past week, McDonald’s announced it would be gradually reintroducing its breakfast menu in some cities after pausing the options at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion more than three years ago.

At every McDonald’s press event I have been to over the last few years, the question of when breakfast would be back was always asked. After years of customer requests, viral social media trends asking for a comeback, and the “operational hurdles” McDonald’s was always citing as the reason there was no breakfast, it’s now being served in seven western Ukrainian cities. Kyiv will still have to wait a few more weeks.

But while the return of McDonald’s McMuffins and hash browns is exciting on its own, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about the company itself. This may come to a surprise to our foreign audience, but let me just put it plainly: McDonald’s in Ukraine is good, like really good.

(And no, this is not a sponsored ad — but if you’re reading McDonald’s corporate, we wouldn’t be opposed to a sponsored edition of the newsletter. Kidding, sort of.)

As an American who grew up eating McDonald’s (despite my mother’s objections), and making fun of it, I feel I can be the judge of it. But just in case you don’t take my word for it. When an American friend visited Kyiv last year and I told him he had to try Ukrainian McDonald’s, he rolled his eyes. But as we were eating, he looked up at me and said, “But why is it so good?”

Another American acquaintance recently showed up to a party in Kyiv with McDonald’s in her hands, saying “I would never eat McDonald’s in the U.S., but when I’m here, I just have to have it — it’s so good.”

Okay, so why is it “so good”? One reason is likely the company’s structure. Unlike in the U.S. or U.K. where McDonald’s operates under a decentralized franchise model, everything in Ukraine, along with some other countries, is highly controlled by HQ. The top-down approach keeps quality control in check. Everything from the freshness and taste of the food to cleanliness and the service (which is also really good in Ukraine) is tightly monitored. Many of its products are locally sourced from Ukrainian producers, like the buns and meat — although surprisingly, not the potatoes, which are imported.

The result? The burgers actually look, and taste, like burgers, the fries are never soggy, and the apple pies are always crispy (except of course if you get them delivered, in which case they can get a little bit soggy, truth be told.)

Actually, the model was the same and the food just as good in Russia (I can confirm) and Belarus (hearsay) before McDonald’s in 2022 sold off its assets in the two countries to local companies that rebranded the restaurants as “Vkusno i Tochka!” which translates from Russian to “Tasty, period!” If you think the name is silly, everyone here thinks so too, and it never gets brought up without a smirk, as if to say, “Enjoy your knock-off McDonald’s! We know it’s not as good as the real thing.” The “real thing” being the better Eastern European version, of course.

It seems to me that the attention to high quality and good service have become a source of pride for the company, and therefore something it’s really keen to preserve, perpetuating the well-oiled machine that is McDonald’s Ukraine. At one press tour of its kitchen, a journalist asked why McDonald’s didn’t serve beer in Ukraine when KFC did. “Why, this is a family restaurant!” the company representative said.

When McDonald’s opened up in 1997 next to the Lukianivska metro station in Kyiv (which was actually hit in a Russian attack on the city not that long ago), it was, like the infamous opening in Moscow, a symbol of the post-Soviet countries opening up to the world.

Similarly, when McDonald’s started reopening restaurants in September 2022 after shutting down completely after the start of the full-scale invasion, people were ecstatic. Not just because they missed the tasty food, but because it signaled confidence in Ukraine and its future, despite Russia’s onslaught. The company has opened 20 new restaurants since 2022, bringing the total number of operating restaurants to 109 in 36 cities.

It also prides itself on being a “white business” in Ukraine, meaning that it employs all of its 10,000 or so workers officially and pays all of its taxes properly and transparently (something, unfortunately, not all businesses in Ukraine can boast). It is the largest taxpayer in the country’s food and beverage industry, paying $65.3 million in taxes last year.

Credit where credit is due. Ukrainian McDonald’s is crushing it — doing it better than its originators, and all while missiles and drones are flying overhead.

Role models

One prominent businessman seems to have been inspired by the axe SpaceX and X owner Elon Musk is taking to the U.S. government as head of the new agency DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency.

In a post on Facebook, co-owner of Nova Poshta — Ukraine’s leading private postal service that has expanded rapidly across Europe and the world over the last few years — said that as the company grows, its “management and administrative apparati” aren’t able to keep up with its company of 30,000 or so employees.

Volodymyr Popereshniuk’s solution? Creating an “efficiency department similar to DOGE” in which he plans to “divide employees into two categories, those who maintain the viability of the company and those who develop and improve it — and to give an advantage and resources to the latter.”

While Popereshniuk admits he isn’t sure DOGE is the perfect solution for business as it needs its employees to function, he supports the idea for the government.

“A commercial company is not a government, where you can fire every official and it will only get better,” he writes, adding an emoji of a smiley face.

Defense tech: Preparing for a shut down

Speaking of Elon Musk. As the U.S. temporarily cut off military aid to Ukraine and halted intelligence sharing, rumors started to swirl that Musk would shut off his company SpaceX’s Starlink satellite connection in Ukraine.

It hasn’t yet come to pass, but in the wake of the news, it became clear that Ukraine was preparing for that scenario if it did happen, and that some European satellite firms were hoping to fill the gap.

But it isn’t that easy. Today, Starlink satellite internet service dominates both worldwide and at Ukraine’s front lines, the Kyiv Independent reporter Kollen Post writes in his latest.

Moreover, Chinese rather than European competitors are building equivalent satellite constellations — if Ukraine is left waiting on an ally to provide an alternative to Starlink, Russia will likely get one from China first.

Read the full article here.

Turning heritage into trends

The clothing and homeware brand Gunia is one of the many to pop up in the last several years that is taking its inspiration from Ukraine’s cultural history.

But what sets it apart is its approach — taking Ukrainian historical artifacts, not to simply replicate them in a modern style, but to create entirely new ornamentation on its ceramics, clothing, and jewelry that appeal to both Ukrainians and foreign audiences.

“It’s important for us to create new objects, not to keep things the way they were made years before, but to take something as inspiration and then create something new. So we mix and match, we use different colors,” co-founder Maria Gavryliuk says.

Each seasonal collection — which includes a line of hand-painted ceramic dishware, jewelry, and clothing — is the result of months of travel, research, and a general quest for inspiration around Ukraine, its museums, and the world. The designs that emerge weave together folk, religious, and artistic motifs in modern compositions.

Read the full article here.

What else is in the news

UK, EU to discuss confiscating Russian assets ahead of Ukraine peace talks, Bloomberg reports

Negotiations will reportedly focus on establishing the legal and financial framework to seize Russian assets despite opposition from some EU member states, particularly Belgium and Germany. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and EU diplomacy chief Kaja Kallas are expected to discuss the issue during their meeting on March 18, according to Bloomberg.

Lviv airport could reopen by late spring, general director says

Lviv’s Danylo Halytskyi International Airport may resume aviation operations as early as April or May, according to an optimistic scenario under government consideration, its general director told Vysokyi Zamok media outlet on March 15. Other potential dates for reopening Ukraine’s airspace include the summer months. Despite many airlines and airports expressing their readiness for a return to air travel in Ukraine, the reality is we have no idea when it will actually be safe enough for that to happen.

EU approves third $3.8 billion tranche for Kyiv under Ukraine Facility program

Ukraine will receive 3.5 billion euros ($3.8 billion) after the Council of the EU approved the third installment of non-refundable grants and loans under the Ukraine Facility program, the Council announced on March 17. With this disbursement, Ukraine will have received nearly 20 billion euros ($21.7 billion) under the Ukraine Facility since the program was launched in early 2024. The Ukraine Plan outlines Kyiv's strategy for recovery, reconstruction, and modernization and a reform timetable as part of Ukraine's EU accession process over the next four years.

Canada contributes additional $35 million toward restoring energy infrastructure in Ukraine

Canada contributed another 50 million Canadian dollars ($34.8 million) to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund, Ukraine's Energy Ministry said on March 14. Canada's total contribution to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund is now over $41 million. Canada also declared a future contribution of 10 million Canadian dollars ($7 million) to the fund. The news follows reports the U.S. State Department instructed USAID to terminate an initiative set up to help restore Ukraine’s energy grid damaged by Russian attacks.

A final note from me:

One of the Ukrainian media outlets that has taken a hit from the recent shutdown of U.S. development aid is Bihus.Info — a highly respected investigative outlet in Ukraine. They are a super cool and fearless group of individuals that work tirelessly to uncover top level corruption in Ukraine in government, business, including in reconstruction. I subscribe to them personally and if you want to support their work, you can subscribe to their Youtube channel here or become a patron on Patreon here.