Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second-most-populous city and home to its thriving $6.8 billion tech sector. In September 2021, it housed more than 500 tech companies, and the industry had grown more than 50% in two years.
Today, Kharkiv, a city of 1.5 million people just 45km (25 mi) from the Russian border, is also among the most vulnerable as Russia bears down on the country. Downtown buildings stand in piles of rubble after Russian airstrikes, and thousands have fled. By mid-February, many tech companies were already evacuating their workers from Ukraine as Russia prepared to invade. The Israeli website builder Wix offered to evacuate 1,000 of its Ukrainian staff and their families to Turkey. Cimpress, which sells customized goods, made a similar offer to its 500 IT workers in Ukraine, as did the edtech firm Canvas.
Ukrainian tech workers are getting evacuated — and many say they will never go backRead More
