KIEV, Ukraine (AP) – Volodymyr Kuzovkin’s office is less than 50 miles from the European Union, but for him and his factory, the EU is a world away.
Despite Ukraine’s desperation to integrate with Europe, a desire so strong it sparked the protests that ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych last year, much of Ukrainian business remains wedded to Soviet-era practices even as it is buffeted by a very modern economic crisis.
Ukraine is hoping to improve links between its heavy industry and European markets to help the economy recover. But for companies like Kuzovkin’s Lviv State Jewelry Factory in western Ukraine, the challenges are huge.
Trade with EU countries is not picking up. Business with oil-rich ex-Soviet states in Central Asia has tapered off because of uncertainty over the war in eastern Ukraine. And the local economy is in shambles – skilled workers are going to the front, inflation is soaring and loans are so hard to come by that some companies are considering bartering goods.
“People are spending on subsistence,” says Kuzovkin, a grizzled 74-year-old former miner who was put in charge of the Lviv factory in 1985 by the Soviet government.