A weekly podcast on business, leadership, and human decision-making — told from Kyiv, Ukraine, a city at war and in constant transformation.
A decade in corporate environments across 12 countries, plus years of entrepreneurship, taught me one thing: numbers are never the full story. Human behavior and decision-making patterns shape business success — and failure — as much as any strategy slide. This is where I unpack those patterns, through the lens of wartime economy, leadership, and everyday life on the ground in Ukraine.
Get to know me → https://www.ishkraba.com/links
This Is What One Week in Ukraine Looks Like | Ukrainian Diaries #37
This episode looks at how Ukrainian businesses are adapting to sustained attacks on logistics and retail infrastructure. The costs rising, delivery networks splitting, warehouses rebuilding for the second and third time. Alongside the behavioral reality of a population that can't put life on pause for an indefinite war and going to music festivals and symphony orchestra.
Two realities, running at full volume, simultaneously.
Topics: war economy, business resilience, human behavior, Ukraine.
Enjoy the episode or read the full reflection here (https://substack.com/@ishkraba/note/p-210499244?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=3mnzti)
an ethnic-electronic event on 8–9 August, Kyiv. Photo: “Vyrij” / Olga Zakrevska, Andriy Kharlamov
A decade in corporate environments across 12 countries, plus years of entrepreneurship, taught me one thing: numbers are never the full story. Go deeper on the behavioral side of business decisions → https://www.ishkraba.com/ (https://www.ishkraba.com/)
3 Aug 2026
The Fastest-Growing Sport in Wartime Kyiv | Ukrainian Diaries #36
There are roughly 200 padel courts in Ukraine already, with more opening every month — in a country at war. That's not a contradiction. It's a business decision that makes more sense than it first appears.
This episode looks at why padel is booming in Kyiv right now: the economics (three courts fit in one tennis court's footprint), the psychology (ninety minutes of forced presence, in a city that needs it), and the investment logic of building a physical business where a rocket doesn't distinguish between a military target and a new court on Podil. Not recklessness. A particular kind of wartime pragmatism.
Topics: business decision-making, consumer behavior, investment risk, war economy, Ukraine.
Enjoy the episode or read the full reflection here (https://substack.com/@ishkraba/note/p-209416945?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=3mnzti)
A decade in corporate environments across 12 countries, plus years of entrepreneurship, taught me one thing: numbers are never the full story. Go deeper on the behavioral side of business decisions → https://www.ishkraba.com/ (https://www.ishkraba.com/)
Photo by Vincenzo Morelli (https://unsplash.com/@vincenzomorelli?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)
27 Jul 2026
How a 1,000-Year-Old Drink Became a Market | Ukrainian Diaries #35
Kvass has been around since Kyiv Rus — people in this city were drinking something close to it in the 9th century. Today it's a real seasonal retail category, and the brands winning at it aren't selling a drink. They're selling memory.
This episode traces kvass from the yellow street barrels of Soviet-era Kyiv to branded supermarket bottles today — and what it reveals about consumer behavior, cultural code, and why some products survive for a thousand years while others don't make it a decade. Not nostalgia. Just a very good product that traveled well through time.
Topics: consumer behavior, market trends, Ukrainian culture, branding, Ukraine.
Enjoy the episode or read the reflection here (https://open.substack.com/pub/ishkraba/p/how-a-1000-year-old-drink-became?r=3mnzti&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer)
A decade in corporate environments across 12 countries, plus years of entrepreneurship, taught me one thing: numbers are never the full story. Go deeper on the behavioral side of business decisions → https://www.ishkraba.com/ (https://www.ishkraba.com/)
Photo by Bunyamin Enes Binmar (https://unsplash.com/@ebinmar?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/people-walking-on-a-dark-street-child-holding-a-light-QmiH7ycFuSM?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)
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