According to Experts Club, the largest companies in Ukraine’s non-bank consumer lending market significantly increased their revenue in the first half of 2026. The combined revenue from financial services provided by the five largest players in the segment reached 7.55 billion UAH, which is 24.5% more than in January–June 2025, according to calculations by the Experts Club analytical center based on reports from the National Bank of Ukraine.
When compiling the ranking, Experts Club considered companies whose primary business is issuing consumer and short-term non-bank loans. Therefore, the leasing companies “OTP Leasing” and “ULF-Finance,” which are included in the NBU’s general ranking, were not included in the microcredit ranking.
First place goes to “Ukr Credit Finance,” which operates under the CreditKasa brand. The company’s revenue from financial services for the first half of the year reached 1.977 billion UAH, compared to 1.871 billion UAH a year earlier. This represents growth of approximately 5.7%. The company’s net profit reached 172.6 million UAH, compared to 68.1 million UAH in the first half of 2025, meaning it increased by approximately 2.5 times.
In second place is “Spozhyvchyi Tsentr” LLC (TM “ShvydkoGroshi”) with revenue of 1.504 billion UAH. A year earlier, this figure stood at 1.032 billion UAH, meaning growth reached 45.8%. At the same time, the company became the leader in net profit among leading microcredit providers—361.3 million UAH compared to 186.1 million UAH a year earlier.
Third place goes to FC “Ye Hroshi” with revenue of 1.482 billion UAH, which is 34.7% higher than the figure for the first half of 2025—1.100 billion UAH.
In fourth place is “Aventus Ukraine,” operating under the CreditPlus brand. The company increased its revenue from 1.169 billion UAH to 1.413 billion UAH, or by approximately 20.9%. CreditPlus’s net profit nearly doubled—from 128.3 million UAH to 233.4 million UAH.
Miloan ranks fifth with revenue of 1.172 billion UAH, compared to 893.4 million UAH for the same period last year. Thus, the company increased this figure by approximately 31.2%.
The ranking of the largest microcredit companies by revenue for January–June 2026 is as follows:
CreditKasa — 1.977 billion UAH, +5.7% year-over-year
“ShvidkoGroshi” — 1.504 billion UAH, +45.8%
“Ye Groshi”—1.482 billion UAH, +34.7%
CreditPlus—1.413 billion UAH, +20.9%
Miloan—1.172 billion UAH, +31.2%
The combined revenue of these five companies grew from 6.07 billion UAH to 7.55 billion UAH.
Three other notable online lending companies made it into the top ten of all financial companies in Ukraine by revenue from financial services. MyCredit earned 1.071 billion UAH, which is 4% less than a year earlier, while Credit7 earned 1.012 billion UAH, or 6.8% more. “Bizpozika,” which specializes, in particular, in lending to entrepreneurs and small businesses, increased its revenue by a whopping 91.7%—to 1.066 billion UAH.
Thus, a significant portion of Ukraine’s highest-revenue non-bank financial companies today are involved specifically in lending to individuals and small businesses.
Experts Club notes that the first-half results indicate not only the recovery of the non-bank lending market following the shock of the first years of full-scale war but also its continued concentration around a few major digital brands.
The difference in growth rates is particularly telling. CreditKasa remains the largest company in terms of absolute revenue, but “ShvidkoGroshi,” “Ye Groshi,” and Miloan grew the fastest among the top five in the first half of the year. This means that the gap between market leaders is gradually narrowing.
At the same time, revenue growth should be evaluated alongside profitability. For example, “ShvidkoGroshi,” with revenue of approximately 1.5 billion UAH, reported a net profit of 361.3 million UAH, while CreditKasa, with nearly 2 billion UAH in revenue, earned 172.6 million UAH. CreditPlus, with revenue of 1.41 billion UAH, reported a profit of 233.4 million UAH.
In total, the NBU’s report for the first half of 2026 includes 381 financial companies, compared to 422 a year earlier. A total of 318 companies reported profits, with their combined financial result amounting to 10.8 billion UAH, compared to 8.7 billion UAH for the same period in 2025.
Another 64 financial companies ended the half-year with losses totaling 245.5 million UAH.
According to Experts Club, market dynamics point to two parallel processes: demand for fast non-bank loans remains high, and the sector itself is growing and becoming more financially stable, despite a decline in the total number of active financial companies.
Going forward, key factors for the market will include the cost of customer acquisition, the level of non-performing loans, regulation of the maximum cost of consumer loans, and the ability of companies to retain borrowers amid growing competition from banks’ digital lending products.
Data source: National Bank of Ukraine statistics for the first half of 2026, published in the NBU’s supervisory statistics section.
NBU Statistics on the Nonbank Financial Market
Chernivtsi and Transcarpathian regions accounted for 67% of all reports for illegal crossings or attempted illegal crossings of Ukraine’s state border in the first half of 2026.
According to data from the State Border Guard Service cited by OpenDataBot, 2,834 reports were filed in Bukovina over the six-month period, or 38% of the total. Another 2,170 reports, or 29%, were filed in Zakarpattia Oblast.
The Odesa region ranks third, with 997 reports, or 13%.
Thus, the Chernivtsi, Zakarpattia, and Odesa regions alone account for 80% of all recorded violations.
The situation has changed particularly significantly in the Chernivtsi region. The number of reports there is now approximately 30 times higher than it was before the start of the full-scale war. For the past two years, Bukovina has ranked first in the country in terms of the number of such violations.
Until 2022, the Odesa and Zakarpattia regions were the main leaders in this regard.
A significant increase has also been recorded in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Before the full-scale war, not a single such report was filed there; in 2022, there were only five, but by 2024, that number had risen to 1,209.
In 2025, 1,109 reports were filed in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, and in the first half of 2026 alone—there were already 377.
Across Ukraine, border guards filed 7,523 reports from January through June, which is about one-third fewer than during the same period last year.
Despite the decline, the frequency of such violations remains nearly ten times higher than pre-war levels. Before the full-scale war in Ukraine, approximately 2,700 reports were filed annually, whereas now an average of about 1,250 are filed per month.
However, the filing of a report does not automatically mean that a person is found guilty. Such cases are heard by the courts.
In 2025, the courts heard 24,519 cases under Article 204-1 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses. Fines were imposed on 12,628 individuals, while 10,493 cases—or 43%—were dismissed due to the absence of an incident or the elements of an administrative offense.
The total amount of fines imposed was 85.97 million UAH, but only 24 million UAH—or 28%—was paid voluntarily.
Source: OpenDataBot, based on data from the State Border Guard Service and the State Judicial Administration, published on August 28, 2026.
According to Experts.news, the decline in the number of recorded attempts to illegally cross the state border has not yet been accompanied by a corresponding decrease in migration outflow from Ukraine through official border crossing points.
In the first half of 2026, border guards issued 7,523 citations for illegal border crossings or attempted illegal border crossings—approximately one-third fewer than a year earlier.
At the same time, official border statistics show that over the six-month period, Ukrainians left the country 7.13 million times and returned 6.89 million times.
Thus, the net difference between departures and returns amounted to 244,300 people. A year earlier, during the same period, it was comparable—about 251,000.
At first glance, these figures demonstrate a significant gap between illegal attempts to leave the country and the overall migration outflow. However, these are fundamentally different statistical categories.
244,300 is not the number of detected emigrants, but the arithmetic difference between official departures and arrivals of citizens during the first half of the year. Some of these people may return to Ukraine later.
Furthermore, this figure includes all citizens with legal grounds for crossing the border, specifically women, children, men in relevant categories, and other individuals.
The figure of 7,523, in turn, does not represent the number of Ukrainians who managed to leave the country illegally, but rather the number of administrative reports filed by border guards for detected illegal border crossings or attempts to do so.
However, the aggregate data show that the main demographic risk for Ukraine today is linked not only to illegal border crossings but also to the number of citizens who legally leave the country and subsequently do not return.
For the full year of 2025, the difference between the number of departures and returns of citizens amounted to 290,300 people. This was 1.5 times less than in 2024, when the negative balance reached nearly 443,000 people. Over the four years of full-scale war, according to OpenDataBot’s calculations, the cumulative difference between official departures and returns amounted to approximately 3.1 million citizens.
At the same time, in the first half of 2026 alone, the negative balance had already reached 244,300 people, which is about 84% of the figure for all of 2025.
June accounted for the bulk of this year’s difference: during that month, the number of people leaving Ukraine exceeded the number of returnees by 210,900. “OpenDataBot” attributes this, in part, to a seasonal increase in travel during the vacation period; therefore, final conclusions regarding annual migration can only be drawn based on the results for the whole of 2026.
Thus, the decline in the number of illegal attempts to cross the border represents a notable change compared to the peak year of 2024; however, this alone does not signify an end to the demographic outflow.
The Ukrainian chain Lviv Croissants has opened its first restaurant in the state of California—in Fair Oaks, near Sacramento. The new location is the brand’s fourth in the U.S., the company announced.
The restaurant is located at 5343 Sunrise Blvd in the Quail Pointe shopping center. It spans over 206 square meters, and the dining area seats 54 guests. The restaurant operates under the chain’s new design concept, and its operational processes are integrated into a single technology platform that Lviv Croissants uses in the U.S. market.
The franchisee of the new restaurant is Ukrainian entrepreneur Oksana Melnychuk, who has been living in the U.S. for many years. After learning about the brand through Lviv Croissants’ partners in Atlanta, she chose this franchise for her first restaurant project in California.
According to the company, more than ten franchise agreements have already been signed in the U.S. market. By the end of 2026, the chain plans to open one or two more restaurants in the U.S. and continue more active franchise expansion in 2027.
“For us, it’s important not just to enter new markets, but to create the conditions for their long-term development. That’s why we’re investing in local infrastructure, a partnership model, and standards that allow us to scale the brand without compromising on quality,” said Andriy Halytskyi, co-founder and CEO of Lviv Croissants.
According to him, California is the logical next step in the chain’s expansion in the U.S., and the company is seeing strong interest in franchising from entrepreneurs across various states.
One of the key elements of Lviv Croissants’ U.S. strategy has been the creation of its own production infrastructure. Before opening its first restaurant, the company launched croissant production in Atlanta, Georgia. From there, products are shipped to the chain’s U.S. locations, allowing for centralized quality control.
The core menu at U.S. restaurants is standardized, though individual items are adapted to local demand. It includes large and small croissant sandwiches with savory and sweet fillings, breakfast items, salads, soups, specialty coffee, and cold beverages. The Lviv Croissants U.S. website features, among other items, pastrami sandwiches, teriyaki chicken sandwiches, and the classic Lviv Croissant.
The first Lviv Croissants restaurant in the U.S. opened in August 2024 in Roswell, Georgia. In 2025, the chain expanded to the West Coast, opening locations in Kent and Takwila, Washington. The Fair Oaks location became the fourth U.S. restaurant and the first in California.
Lviv Croissants was founded in Lviv in 2015. The first franchise location opened in Sumy that same year, after which the company began rapid expansion. Currently, the chain has over 190 locations in Ukraine and also operates in Poland, the U.S., Slovakia, France, Norway, and South Korea. In 2025, the chain’s locations sold over 11.5 million croissants.
California, FRANCHISE, Lviv Croissants, RESTAURANT, U.S., UKRAINE
According to the “Serbian Economist,” Serbia is ready to provide its territory as a venue for negotiations between Ukraine and Russia if both sides consider Belgrade’s involvement to be useful, said Andon Sapundži, Serbia’s ambassador to Ukraine.
“If there is a need for a venue for dialogue or negotiations, Serbia is ready to offer it,” the diplomat said in an interview with the Ukrainian publication “Apostrophe,” published on August 27.
At the same time, the ambassador emphasized that Belgrade has no intention of imposing its own terms for a settlement on the parties and believes that decisions regarding the start of negotiations, their format, and conditions should be made directly by Ukraine and Russia.
Sapundži also rejected the interpretation of Belgrade’s position as a call for Ukraine to cede part of its territory in order to end the war.
According to him, Serbia consistently supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.
At the same time, Belgrade does not consider itself a party to the war and hopes to maintain the ability to engage in political dialogue with both sides.
In early August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Belgrade. This was the Ukrainian president’s first visit to Serbia in eight years. According to Sapundži, during the visit, Zelenskyy and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić held three separate meetings in less than a day, including a nearly four-hour informal conversation over dinner, official talks, and a one-on-one meeting.
The Embassy of Ukraine in India, which also represents Ukraine in Nepal, has sent two staff members—including a consul—to that country to assist Ukrainian citizens following a massive flash flood and landslides in the Rasuwa district of Bagmati Province.
According to the embassy, Ukrainian diplomats will work directly on the ground in coordination with the relevant Nepalese authorities, local rescue services, and the Honorary Consul of Ukraine. The primary task is to locate Ukrainian citizens with whom contact has been lost and to provide them with consular assistance.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, 55 Ukrainian citizens are considered missing as a result of the natural disaster in Nepal. These include two tourist groups consisting of 47 and seven people, respectively, as well as one Ukrainian woman who was part of a foreign tourist group. As of August 27, there is no information regarding Ukrainian citizens who have died or been injured.
According to information received by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from local authorities, more than 1,100 people are considered missing following the massive flooding and landslides, including over 700 tourists from nearly 30 countries. At the time of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s announcement, at least 165 fatalities had been confirmed.
The natural disaster occurred on August 26 in the Rasuwa mountain district near the Nepal-Tibet border. A powerful torrent of water, rocks, and soil swept through the valleys of the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers, damaging settlements, roads, bridges, power facilities, and tourist infrastructure.
According to the latest expert assessments, one of the likely causes of the disaster may have been the collapse of a section of a glacier along with a mass of rocks and snow. Rescue operations are being hampered by damage to transportation and communications infrastructure.
The Embassy has urged Ukrainian citizens currently in Nepal to inform diplomats of their whereabouts and condition at the earliest opportunity, to follow the recommendations of local authorities and rescue services, and to avoid visiting the affected areas.
Relatives of Ukrainians with whom contact has been lost and who may have been in the disaster zone are asked to provide diplomats with information about their last known whereabouts.
Hotline of the Embassy of Ukraine in India: +91 92055 07157 (Viber, Telegram), email: consul_in@mfa.gov.ua.
Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Nepal: +977 1 441 6544, +977 1 441 6767.
24-hour hotline of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine: +38 044 238 1588, email: cons_or@mfa.gov.ua.
Original source — Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of India, statement dated August 27, 2026. Additional up-to-date information on Ukrainian citizens was provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
