Ukraine needs a modern national fire testing center of European standard, with an expanded material and technical base and the possibility of full integration into the European conformity assessment system, said Konstantin Kalafat, director of Kovlar Group LLC, in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“European integration processes in our country have launched a mechanism for adapting national standards to EU norms and introducing technical regulations. Technical requirements for building materials are now regulated by more than 500 harmonized national standards and about 300 so-called European documents on determining acceptability. Each of them contains dozens of product indicators that the manufacturer must confirm through testing in appropriate laboratories. Unfortunately, Ukraine currently does not have a testing laboratory that could conduct a full range of tests on building materials according to these indicators,” Kalafat said.
As for individual tests of fire-resistant materials and the availability of laboratories, there are accredited testing centers in Ukraine that allow such types of certification tests to be carried out. Kovlar Group has been cooperating with one of these centers since its inception. As Kalafat emphasized, professional fire tests of fire protection are a very important component of market stability and transparency.
“That is why Ukraine today needs a modern national fire testing center of European level – with an expanded material and technical base and the possibility of full integration into the European conformity assessment system. As industry experts, we are ready to join in initiating and implementing such a project. The development of a testing base is not a matter of competition between manufacturers, but a matter of the competitiveness of the entire country and trust in Ukrainian products at the international level,” he concluded.
Kovlar Group LLC was founded in 2015 in Kyiv and is the largest manufacturer of passive fire protection products in Ukraine. According to OpenDataBot, the company’s authorized capital is UAH 1.2 million, and its ultimate beneficiaries are Kostyantyn Kalafat (40%), Andriy Ozeychuk (35%), and Lyubov Vakhitova (25%). The company’s revenue for 2024 amounted to UAH 91.3705 million, which is twice as much as in 2023, and its net profit was UAH 13.4 million, which is 1.7 times more than in 2023. In the first quarter of 2025, the company’s revenue amounted to UAH 13.5 million, and net income amounted to UAH 1 million 983 thousand.
