Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

Lesy Ukrainy to invest UAH 400 mln in fire safety in 2026

The state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” plans to allocate UAH 400 million to upgrade its material and technical base and firefighting infrastructure in preparation for the fire-hazardous period of 2026, the company announced on Facebook.

“This year, we are tripling our investments compared to last year. We plan to purchase 16 large Ukrainian-made fire trucks, nearly 2,000 fire hoses, about 700 backpack sprayers, and dozens of forest firefighting units. The priority is to support frontline forestries operating in conditions of the greatest military risk,” the statement said.

This year, the state-owned enterprise also plans to equip 29 new observation towers with television systems and completely renovate 18 existing ones.

In addition, plans for 2026 include the creation of 31,000 km of new mineralized strips and the maintenance of 140,000 km of existing ones. To carry out this work, the company will purchase 42 special forest plows.

At the same time, Lesy Ukrainy will retrain its personnel: more than 2,000 employees will undergo training in the Forest Firefighting Manager and Forest Firefighter programs, and in the spring, joint training with the State Emergency Service will take place in the Poltava, Cherkasy, and Lviv regions.

A separate area of work will be the expansion of the network of recreational areas for safe recreation. State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” plans to build 50 such facilities in areas with a high risk of fire and significant tourist traffic. The largest number of sites is planned to be created in the Sumy, Chernihiv, and Carpathian regions, as well as in the Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Odesa, and Mykolaiv regions.

Last year, the company managed to reduce the area of forest fires by half compared to 2024. State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is one of the largest forest users in Europe, managing a state forest fund covering an area of 6.6 million hectares.

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11% of Ukrainians do not seek medical attention, according to a study by Active Group and Experts Club

More than 11% of Ukrainians never visit a doctor, while almost 10% do so more than 10 times a year.

According to the results of a survey conducted by the research company Active Group and the Experts Club analytical center in early February, 41.3% visit doctors 1-2 times a year, 27.2% – 3-5 times, and 10.4% – 6-10 times.

“The group of people who do not visit doctors at all requires a separate study of the reasons, which may include financial barriers, mistrust, and psychological burnout,” said Alexander Pozniy, director and co-founder of the research company Active Group.

He drew attention to the fact that most respondents visit a doctor once or twice a year, but noted that there may be different reasons for this.

“We need to ask the question, why is this so: because our people are so healthy, or because people cannot go to the doctor or do not trust doctors. But this is a question for the medical professionals themselves,” he said.

Pozniy also noted that according to the survey results, “family doctors are accessible to the majority of the population, especially in cities,” while access to specialists, especially for rural populations and populations in small or remote communities, raises questions “primarily due to the lack of the necessary number of specialists.”

For his part, Grigory Soloninka, a member of the board of the public organization “Kyiv Regional Organization of the All-Ukrainian Medical Society” (VUO), professor of the Department of Internal and Occupational Diseases at the Kyiv Medical University, noted that “we need to return to the issue of rural medicine and, perhaps, make certain changes so that the rural population does not receive fewer services than the urban population.”

“If we take a remote village, then, perhaps, there is a problem with getting to a narrow specialist and receiving specialized medical care,” he said.

For his part, Experts Club founder Maxim Urakin noted that “medicine is part of the country’s economic stability, and when medical expenses erode family budgets, it affects consumption, savings, and people’s ability to work and recover.”

“In Ukraine, almost a quarter of the population spends up to 20% of their family budget on medicine, and one in five spends more than 20%. If we translate this into the language of economic financial analysis, then from the point of view of international methodology, the fact that a person spends more than 10% of their budget is catastrophic. In other words, we see a sign of a serious financial burden,” he said.

The study was conducted on the SunFlowerSociology online panel on a representative sample on February 11-12, 2026. The survey involved 1,000 respondents from a representative sample in all regions of Ukraine, except for the temporarily occupied territories.

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28.4% of Ukrainians prefer Ukrainian medicines

According to a survey conducted by research company Active Group and the Experts Club analytical center in early February, 28.4% of Ukrainians prefer Ukrainian medicines.

According to Alexander Pozniy, CEO and co-founder of Active Group, 33.4% of respondents more often choose imported medicines, while for 38.2% of respondents, the country of origin of the drug is irrelevant.

“For manufacturers, this means that competition is based on reputation, proven effectiveness, and stability of supply, and Ukrainian brands can strengthen their position through quality and clear communication,” said Alexander Pozniy, CEO and co-founder of Active Group.

According to Experts Club founder Maxim Urakin, “the fact that almost a third of consumers choose domestic drugs shows the importance of accessibility and trust in quality in the domestic market.”

The study was conducted on the SunFlowerSociology online panel on a representative sample on February 11-12, 2026. The survey involved 1,000 respondents from a representative sample in all regions of Ukraine, except for the temporarily occupied territories.

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76% of Ukrainians consider electronic prescriptions convenient, according to a study

According to the results of a survey conducted by the research company Active Group and the Experts Club analytical center in early February and presented at the Interfax-Ukraine press center, 31.4% of respondents called electronic prescriptions “very convenient,” 44.1% called them “rather convenient,” 18.7% called them “rather inconvenient,” and 5.9% called them “very inconvenient.”

“Digital tools gain support when they save time and really simplify access to medicines,” said Experts Club founder Maxim Urakin.

“Negative attitudes among some users are usually associated with practical failures and varying levels of digital literacy, and this needs to be taken into account when fine-tuning the service,” said Alexander Pozniy, CEO and co-founder of Active Group.

The study was conducted on the SunFlowerSociology online panel using a representative sample on February 11-12, 2026. The survey involved 1,000 respondents from a representative sample in all regions of Ukraine, except for the temporarily occupied territories.

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Half of Ukrainians choose medicines based on a balance between price and effectiveness

According to the results of a survey conducted by the research company Active Group and the Experts Club analytical center and published in the Interfax-Ukraine press center, when buying medicines, 50.5% of respondents primarily focus on the combination of price and effectiveness, 25.0% on price, and 24.5% on effectiveness.

The survey was conducted online on February 11-12, 2026, with 1,000 respondents (18+).

“The choice of ‘price plus effectiveness’ reflects the desire to get results, but within a limited budget,” said Experts Club founder Maxim Urakin.

“Consumers are becoming more rational, and this intensifies competition among manufacturers for trust and affordability,” said Active Group CEO and co-founder Alexander Pozniy.
The study was conducted on the SunFlowerSociology online panel using a representative sample on February 11-12, 2026. The survey involved 1,000 respondents from a representative sample in all regions of Ukraine, except for the temporarily occupied territories.

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Dubai’s real estate market may face temporary slowdown

Dubai’s real estate market, which ended 2025 with record figures, may face a temporary slowdown in demand in early 2026 amid military escalation between the US, Israel, and Iran, but experts do not expect prices to collapse yet.

In 2025, real estate sales in Dubai were estimated at $187 billion, with more than 215,000 transactions. Investors from India, the UK, and Russia were identified as key buyer groups, while in early 2026, some investors took a wait-and-see approach.

Among the factors putting pressure on the market, analysts highlight reports of incidents in landmark locations and the impact of transport restrictions: temporary disruptions and closures of air hubs reduce the influx of foreign buyers and complicate transactions, especially in a segment that depends on quick visits and viewings.

At the same time, prior to the current escalation, price dynamics remained positive: according to REIDIN, in January 2026, the Dubai residential sales price index rose by 0.75% compared to the previous month and by 11.79% year-on-year, indicating continued inertial growth at the onset of the crisis.

Market participants admit the possibility of a “pause without a fall” scenario if the hot phase ends quickly, but warn that a protracted conflict could severely affect liquidity and lead to a more noticeable correction, primarily in the most sensitive segments and locations.

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