Bendukidze Free Market Center

You may have heard about blackouts in Ukraine. The threat of a winter energy collapse has been a recurring reality for Ukrainians for a while now. Russia began its systematic campaign against Ukraine’s energy system in the fall of 2022. At the time, large-scale missile and drone strikes caused power, heating, and communications outages lasting for hours across the country.

The protests that began in Ukraine in July 2026 are often described simply as demonstrations demanding the return of former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. This is only partly accurate.

In the end of 2025, progress on Ukraine’s reforms showed mixed results. While there was some improvement in certain areas, others slowed down or even raised concerns.

According to the Fraser Institute’s latest Economic Freedom of the World report, Ukraine has once again found itself in the group of the least economically free countries in the world. Ukraine is currently ranked 143rd among 165 countries and territories, a slight improvement from the previous 150th place.

On July 3, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine presented its 2030 Employment Strategy aimed at supporting economic development by reducing unemployment, ensuring equal access to quality jobs, supporting SMEs, and increasing market flexibility. The Strategy is intended, among other things, to facilitate the creation of new jobs and reform the employment service system. It appears that the government’s primary focus will be on reactivating the economically inactive population, which exceeds 12 million people, and achieving a target of 20 million employed citizens.

Economics and finance are an inevitable part of everyday life for every individual. Economic decisions accompany us at every step: when buying products, saving money for education, retirement, or vacations, choosing a profession or a job, paying utility bills, loans, taxes, and so on. And how well-informed these decisions are directly impacts our individual and collective future.

Ukraine is going through a crucial period in its history, continuing its path toward joining the European Union despite a full-scale invasion. It is not a surprise that so much attention is drawn to this process both within Ukraine and beyond its borders. That is why Bendukidze Free Market Center and the Institute of Economic Research and Political Consultations launched the project \"Monitoring Ukraine\'s Accession Into the EU\".

The team from Liberte, the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting and Bendukidze Free Market Center, with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, continue to monitor Ukraine\'s progress or regression on its path to the EU on a monthly basis.

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine has severely limited its capacity to export goods. Since July, Russians have been relentlessly attacking Ukrainian ports, repeatedly sending missiles at the port infrastructure of Chornomorsk, Odesa, Reni, and Izmail. In spite of this, Ukrainian farmers have successfully exported 58 million tons of grain by sea, river, and land.

According to the Fraser Institute’s updated \"Economic Freedom of the World\" report, Ukraine has left the group of the most economically unfree countries. The report measures the level of support for economic freedom by countries\' institutions and policies in five areas: the size of government, the rule of law and the protection of property rights, sound money, the freedom of international trade, and the regulation of the labor market and business.