Wojciech Przybylski speaks with Maria Repko, Deputy Director at the Centre for Economic Strategy in Kyiv, about how Ukraine’s economy functions under winter blackouts, missile attacks and a war-driven defence industry boom.

In this episode:

– What daily life looks like in Kyiv at -20 degrees with rationed electricity and broken heating
– Why Ukrainians reject the ‘resilience’ label and what it obscures
– Poland–Ukraine cooperation after Donald Tusk’s visit and the shift from ‘emotional’ to ‘rational’ politics
– The SAFE mechanism, EU defence funding and why Ukraine’s defence industry iterates faster
– What to expect from the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk
– Why ‘closing the sky’ matters more than any reconstruction cheque
– Frozen Russian assets and what Europe signals by keeping them immobilised

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Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/at/podcast/ukraines-economy-is-growing-despite-genocide/id1515725435?i=1000749271637&l=en-GB

00:00 Guest intro: Ukraine’s economy under war
00:25 Podcast intro and context
01:38 Kyiv winter, vulnerability and survival
02:08 Heating destruction and electricity rationing
04:21 ‘We do not like the word resilience anymore’
05:16 Poland’s visit to Kyiv, new cooperation agenda
07:58 From ‘emotional’ to ‘rational’ bilateral politics
11:16 Subscription message (promo code)
11:40 Ukraine Recovery Conference and diplomacy track
13:15 Why the conference matters (Berlin, Rome, now Gdańsk)
14:23 A new defence pillar and business-driven recovery
15:13 ‘Close the sky’: prevention over recovery
17:21 Where frozen assets sit and why it stays opaque
18:50 Europe’s credibility and deterrence signal
29:51 Why financial support underpins state capacity
30:56 Deterrence logic and Russia’s military spending
32:29 Why Russia is not preparing to stop
34:07 Outro