One of Ukraine’s largest grain market operators, Nibulon, has reduced its staff threefold, retained four areas of operation, focused on the introduction of new digital services and technologies, and plans to return to its pre-war share of 10% of Ukraine’s grain exports by increasing exports this year to 4 million tons from 2.5 million tons last year, said the company’s owner and CEO Andriy Vadatursky.
“Before the war, the company employed 6,000 people. When I was waiting (for the core team to move from Mykolaiv to Kyiv – IF-U), there were 4,000 employees. Now there are a little less than 2,000. This is the path to optimization and automation of numbers. When people ask, ‘What has changed for you?’, I answer that everything has changed – the entire business model has changed,” he said at the Forbes Agro 2025 conference in Kyiv on Friday.
Vadatursky noted that Nibulon currently has four main business areas: agricultural production, logistics, trading, and digitalization.
According to him, Nibulon is developing agricultural production on slightly more than 50,000 hectares, while before the war, the agricultural holding operated on 82,000 hectares. Its lost agricultural land is located in the Luhansk and Kharkiv regions. In addition, before the war, the grain trader owned 28 elevators, 5 of which have been lost and 13 blocked. Nibulon’s logistics company currently operates 167 motor vehicles and 200 grain cars.
According to the company’s owner, the agricultural holding currently grows approximately 300,000 tons of grain on its own. However, in 2024, Nibulon was able to export 2.5 million tons of grain, and in 2025, it plans to supply up to 4 million tons to foreign markets.
“It is no secret that Nibulon entered the war with $530 million in loans. Currently, we have confirmed losses of $440 million, which, in addition to the loss of land and elevators, include the loss of about 140,000 tons of grain,” Vadatursky said, adding that in three years of war, the agricultural holding was able to earn $250 million and repay $160 million in debts to banks.
He assured that Nibulon intends to continue servicing its loans in 2025, despite the fact that 68% of its assets are currently not operational.
Vadatursky explained that during the war, Nibulon will focus on the efficiency of its businesses, their expansion, and vertical integration. At the same time, the main criteria will be efficiency and “streamlining by removing all inefficient components.” In addition, the grain trader will focus on the introduction of new technologies, digitalization, and artificial intelligence.
“We are targeting approximately $60-80 million in EBITDA to be able to repay all loans. To this end, we are doing everything we can to increase the amount of grain that passes through our system. And we have the ambition to return to our pre-war share of exports, which was about 10-12% of Ukraine’s total grain exports, by providing more competitive services than before the war and earning money through the introduction of technologies and increased efficiency,” the owner of the agricultural holding concluded.
Before the war, Nibulon cultivated 82,000 hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries around the world. In 2021, the grain trader exported a record 5.64 million tons of agricultural products and supplied record volumes to foreign markets in August (0.7 million tons), in the fourth quarter (1.88 million tons), and in the second half of the year (3.71 million tons).
After the war began, the company was forced to move its headquarters from Mykolaiv to Kyiv.
In response to Belarus’ unfriendly actions against employees of Ukrainian diplomatic institutions in Minsk and Brest, Ukraine has taken a number of measures, in particular, reducing the number of staff of the Belarusian embassy in Ukraine to five people, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oleh Nikolenko has said.
In addition, the Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine is canceling the diplomatic accreditation of other employees of the Belarusian embassy. Their and the family members’ stay on the territory of Ukraine is declared undesirable.
In addition, Ukraine establishes for Belarusian diplomats after their return to the country a permissive regime of movement outside the 40-kilometer zone from the center of Kyiv, and also cancels the exequatur of the honorary consul of Belarus in Lviv.
“We warn the Belarusian authorities that any further unfriendly steps towards Ukraine will receive an immediate and decisive response,” Nikolenko said on his Facebook.
Earlier, the Belarusian authorities decided to expel some Ukrainian diplomats and close the Consulate General of Ukraine in Brest, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said.
Dynamo Kyiv Football Club has expressed its sincere gratitude to head coach Oleksiy Mykhailychenko and his assistants Vadym Yevtushenko, Serhiy Fedorov and Mykhailo Mykhailov. Dynamo will begin preparations for the next season with a new coaching staff.
“Having received the team during the season, this coaching staff made every effort to fulfill the tasks set for the season. As a result, Dynamo won the Ukrainian Cup and took second place in the championship, which gives the right to compete for participation in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League. At the same time, the club’s management and the large army of Dynamo fans cannot satisfy with the current level of the team’s play, the lack of progress sufficient to fight for the title of champion of Ukraine and a worthy performance in European club tournaments. For this, Dynamo’s game must reach a new level of quality,” said a message on the club’s official website on Monday, July 20.
A new team leadership for the new season will be announced later.
In the championship of Ukraine, which ended over the weekend, Dynamo took second place and was on the verge of missing the Champions League qualification. The capital club lagged behind Shakhtar Donetsk, which became the champion for the fourth time, with 23 points.
McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd. (Kyiv), foreign-owned enterprise, which is developing the U.S. fast food restaurant chain McDonald’s in Ukraine, has suspended the recruitment of new employees due to quarantine and aims to maintain the current team.
“The closure of restaurants affected the company’s activity. Most of the business does not work, because restaurants are closed, and food can only be purchased through delivery or McDrive. Since people are the core of our business, we directed all our efforts to maintaining the team, its support and internal communication with employees who do not work forcibly,” the company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
To date, the company’s staff consists of almost 10,000 people, about 60% of them, are now idled due to the closure of restaurants under quarantine. In particular, about 55 restaurants of the U.S. chain are working with delivery partners, or through McDrive. No more than 40% of the company’s staff supports the operation of these restaurants.
“All employees of closed restaurants and those employees, who are over 55 years old, received payments for idle period or got paid leaves. In general, this is almost 60% of the McDonald’s team in Ukraine. Some employees chose unpaid leave to use later annual paid leave for the vacation. In addition, we have suspended recruitment and plan to save the jobs of our employees.”
The McDonald’s restaurant chain has 92 restaurants in 19 cities throughout Ukraine.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia (Kyiv) from 2020 seeks to implement the 40-50% drawdown among clerical personnel, a member of the board of Ukrzaliznytsia, Zeljko Marcek, has said.
“No one is going to cut 120,000 employees in one year. Work continues with the relevant ministry, government, and the World Bank on a program to gradually optimize staff over the next three or five years. There is a road map,” he said in an interview for the company’s project “12 Persons of the Ukrzaliznytsia Strategy.”
Marcek said that Ukrzaliznytsia will get rid of non-core assets.
Ukrzaliznytsia pays salaries to lumberjacks, foresters and dancers. On the balance sheet of the company are hundreds of enterprises not related to rail transportation. This Soviet heritage forces us to pay utility bills and land tax at a time when only 10 out of 200 social facilities are profitable. Therefore, we will have to get rid of assets not related to railways, rolling stock and communications facilities,” he said.
At the same time, according to Marcek, with the sale of non-core assets and a decrease in the number of employees, the wages of the main production personnel should increase significantly. In addition, programs will be developed that will attract qualified personnel and make the railway attractive to young people.
