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Luca Léry Moffat

Economics reporter

Luca is the economics reporter for the Kyiv Independent. He was previously a research analyst at Bruegel, a Brussels-based economics think tank, where he worked on Russia and Ukraine, trade, industrial policy, and environmental policy. Luca also worked as a data analyst at Work-in-Data, a Geneva-based research center focused on global inequality, and as a research assistant at the Economic Policy Research Center in Kampala, Uganda. He holds a BA honors degree in economics and Russian from McGill University. Luca is originally from the UK.

l.moffat@kyivindependent.com
For media & speaking inquiries:
press@kyivindependent.com

Articles

Business

For Ukraine's mil-tech startups, access to credit remains a battlefield

by Luca Léry Moffat
When a bank asked Ukrainian defense tech company TAF Industries to pledge its assets as collateral for a simple bank loan, the company faced a dilemma: it couldn't reveal the location of its manufacturing facilities. To prove the factory existed, TAF came up with a bold workaround — blindfolding bank officials and driving them to the site. "It worked — they gave us a loan," Volodymyr Zinovskyi, CEO at TAF Industries, told the Kyiv Independent in a cafe in downtown Kyiv. Well into the fifth ye
Business

Telecoms giant Kyivstar wants a seat in Ukraine's driverless car revolution

by Luca Léry Moffat
Ukraine's most popular ride-hailing service wants to conquer the global robotaxi race. Uklon, owned by Ukraine's telecoms giant Kyivstar, gathered journalists, executives, and policymakers at Kyiv's shuttered Boryspil airport on May 27 to showcase the remote-driving technology the company is testing — and one day hopes to bring to the streets of Kyiv. "We want Ukraine to be the best in Europe for self-driving cars," Uklon CEO, Serhiy Hryshkov, told the crowd in a sleek ceremony, during which h
Business

Ukraine fails to pass IMF-backed reforms, despite millions of dollars on the line

by Luca Léry Moffat, Kateryna Denisova
Ukraine's access to billions in much-needed cash is once again hanging in the balance as lawmakers stumble on reforms. Having already missed deadlines on a long list of legislation required by the European Union, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund, Ukraine's parliament made limited progress during a plenary session on May 26 and 27 — failing to pass a new IMF tax and withdrawing other bills at the last minute for fear of a lack of votes, said lawmakers who spoke with the Kyiv Independe
Business

How leaked conversations suggest backroom influence at a Ukrainian bank

by Luca Léry Moffat
A state-owned bank that formerly belonged to a Russian oligarch is at the center of a spiraling corruption scandal implicating several people close to President Volodymyr Zelensky. In transcripts of recorded conversations published by Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda in the first weeks of May, two businessmen with ties to close friends of Zelensky discuss potential candidates for the board of Sense Bank — appearing to exert influence over a process that should be free of outside interfer
Business

Exclusive: Ukraine’s Finance Ministry quietly working to convince MPs to vote for unpopular tax change

by Luca Léry Moffat
Ukraine's Finance Ministry is hoping to convince Ukrainian lawmakers to vote for unpopular tax changes — needed to keep receiving cash for foreign donors — with improvements to electronic tax filing systems. Kyiv has agreed to a long list of reforms as part of large financing packages from international partners, including the International Monetary Fund, the EU, and the World Bank. Ukraine relies on the cash to support its military and state services functioning. One of the most scrutinized r

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