Delivering under fire: How Nova Post became Ukraine's wartime success story

By Olena Harmash

CHERNIHIV, Ukraine, Dec 22 (Reuters) - On a November weekday in the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, an air raid siren pierced through the morning bustle at a Nova Post branch as manager Ihor Shutkovskyi ushered staff and customers to the safety of a concrete shelter.

Minutes later, the all-clear given, the team was back behind the counter, sorting parcels. It's a routine that now defines life for one of Ukraine's biggest private firms.

Nearly four years into Russia's invasion, Nova Post has learned to operate through blackouts, missile strikes and broken transport links. It now delivers more than 1.5 million parcels a day, cementing its status as a rare wartime corporate success outside the defence sector.

Daytime drone attacks have become common in Chernihiv, located some 125 km (78 miles) north of Kyiv, while overnight hits on energy facilities plunge homes and businesses into darkness.

"We are changing our processes, adapting to blackouts, to wartime," said Hanna Honchar, Nova Post's regional manager in Chernihiv, at a branch piled high with parcels containing everything from chocolate and books to generators and furniture.

Founded in 2001, Nova Post disrupted Ukraine's postal market with one- to two-day deliveries, breaking the grip of state-owned Ukrposhta. Today, it has turned wartime chaos into growth, linking Ukraine's western borders to frontline cities in the east and south and delivering to some of the millions of Ukrainian refugees in Europe.

The company plans further expansion in 2026, company officials told Reuters.

"The war years have become no less impressive in terms of our development than the early 2010s, when the company grew threefold every year," Vyacheslav Klymov, Nova Post's co-founder and co-owner, told Reuters at the company's headquarters in Kyiv.

DISRUPTING THE POST-SOVIET POSTAL SECTOR

Nova Post quickly became a symbol of innovation in an economy reliant on metals and grains. But Russia's war has devastated the economy. Millions of people fled the country or were displaced within Ukraine. Businesses relocated westwards away from front lines, while the focus shifted to defence spending.

The postal and delivery sector was hit hard initially, but soon regained its footing.

Nova Post is now pushing for further growth, with a focus on supporting small businesses across the country.

WAR WIPES OUT EMPLOYEES AND BRANCHES

Running the business during a war comes with mounting costs - human and financial.

Nova Post has lost 249 employees, including 227 who were drafted into the army and killed in combat, and 22 civilian staff killed at home or at work during Russian strikes on cities far from the front lines.

In financial terms, since the start of the invasion the company has incurred about 1 billion hryvnias ($24 million) in costs due to damage to hundreds of branches and other facilities, and another 3 billion hryvnias to cover around 138,000 destroyed parcels.

Despite the risks, Nova Post is often one of the last big businesses to leave a location - it shuttered the last of its 10 branches in the besieged eastern city of Pokrovsk only in February and continues to deliver to frontline locations, including the southern city of Kherson.

RECORD CHRISTMAS SEASON EXPECTED

Nova Post set a record in 2024 delivering about 480 million shipments, up 16% from the previous year, and expects double-digit growth this year, Klymov said, anticipating a strong Christmas season.

"We are preparing for the high season," he said, noting extra staff have been hired.

Net profits are growing too - up about 35% to 2.88 billion hryvnias ($67 million) in the first nine months of 2025 compared with the same period a year ago.

The company employs about 30,000 people and increased the number of automated parcel machines to nearly 33,000 in 2025 from about 24,000 in 2024, and its branches to about 15,000 in 2025 from 13,208 last year, details not previously reported.

Its growth isn't limited to Ukraine.

"When we entered the war, we were present in two countries - Ukraine and Moldova. Now we are in 16 countries," Klymov said.

The company is looking at Europe for more growth and plans to increase deliveries to and from the United States, China and other countries, Klymov added.

To keep the lights on, Nova Post has invested in generators and, at large sorting depots, its own gas supply.

"If the power goes out or we have a blackout, we have a generator and a Starlink. Even if there is no internet in the city we connect the Starlink and work," said Ihor Shutkovskyi, branch manager in Chernihiv.

Customers sometimes stop by "to charge their phones or simply dry their hair".

For Christmas and New Year, Nova Post has introduced festive packaging inspired by the traditional Ukrainian art of paper cutting known as "Vytynanka".

"It is important for us that ahead of the holidays each parcel brings joy even before it is opened," said Olha Poprotska-Matusiak, a Nova Post representative.

(Reporting by Olena Harmash, additional reporting by Alina Smutko and Yurii Kovalenko; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Elaine Hardcastle)