‘Tired not demoralised’: Ukraine’s tech workers fight growing war fatigue
Al Jazeera
It’s become harder to get investment and clients from overseas, and the sector is suffering from brain drain.
When Russian forces crossed the Ukrainian border and surged towards Kharkiv, Serhiy Evdokimov got into his car and started driving. “The city was filled with checkpoints and blockades,” he recalled. “I just stopped at any checkpoint and asked: ‘What assistance do you need? Hot drinks, tea, coffee, energy drinks, warm clothes?’”
Kharkiv, just 30km (19 miles) from the border, was the site of some of the fiercest fighting at the beginning of the conflict. Evdokimov, an engineer working for the Swedish-Ukrainian software company Sigma, spent those first weeks working to source and deliver supplies to soldiers manning the city’s defences, and to civilians sheltering in underground metro stations and basements.
As the defenders slowly pushed Russian forces beyond the city limits, he followed them, shuttling hundreds of hot meals a day from restaurants in Kharkiv to soldiers entrenched in forests.
Evdokimov was one of more than 700 Sigma employees based in Kharkiv when Russia invaded in February 2022. While he was delivering aid, the company was working to evacuate its staff and their families from the warzone.
They weren’t entirely unprepared. For months before the invasion began, the company’s leadership had done tabletop planning exercises, and built some contingencies, but the speed of the Russian advance took them by surprise, and meant the plan had to be readjusted.
