Seyar Kurshutov on Business & Investment

  Ukraine needs nearly $588 billion for reconstruction — three times its entire annual GDP. At the same time, investor confidence has only recently begun returning to pre-war levels. The gap between the scale of this opportunity and the strength of the fear surrounding it is the central question of the coming decade. I have worked in international trade and investment for many years, and over that time I’ve grown used to a simple rule: money isn’t afraid of risk — it’s afraid of uncertainty. Risk can be calculated, insured, and priced in. Uncertainty cannot be calculated, so capital flees from it. That is precisely why conversations about investing in Ukraine so often hit a dead end: we talk about patriotism and reconstruction, while the investor is mentally trying to count what cannot be counted. So let’s be honest and name exactly what international capital is afraid of. Without that, any conversation about “investment attractiveness” turns into a marketing brochure that no one b...