According to Alona Lebedieva, the owner of the Ukrainian industrial and investment group Aurum, attacks on the energy infrastructure, besides the war, will be the key factors in the deepening of the economic crisis in Ukraine: “In 2022, we observed a reduction in business investment costs, a reduction in the horizon of investment planning, a reduction in consumer spending by the population, etc. Due to the attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure, we will see a catastrophic drop in the energy intensity of the GDP and an increase in the energy poverty of the population in 2023, which will be a major factor in the further recession of the country’s industrial sector.

Nevertheless, the systemic challenges for Ukraine in 2023, according to Alona Lebedieva, can be effectively overcome only by the joint efforts of the government, business and the population: “If business trusts the government, entrepreneurs trust each other, and the population trusts business, only in joint efforts will it be possible to effectively overcome the systemic challenges facing Ukraine in 2023.

As it was previously reported, Alona Lebedieva’s “Aurum” Charitable Fund sent more than UAH 6.5 million to help the Armed Forces in 2022.

Aurum Group is a Ukrainian multidisciplinary industrial and investment group.

Key areas of activity: wagon building, rolling stock repair, railway freight transportation, production of industrial pumps, chemical industry, real estate and agriculture. The Group’s enterprises are located in Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Ivano-Frankivsk regions and Kyiv city.