‘We all stay united and pray for peace’: How startup with Ukrainian and Russian staff is trying to get through conflict

When Russian bombs brought terror to Ukraine it changed everything for the fledgling democracy, its resilient people and its burgeoning tech industry.

Software startup owner Jacob Udodov knew instantly that the future of his Eastern European company – which has both Ukrainian and Russian employees – was impossible to predict.

Mr Udodov was woken at his home in Riga, Latvia, by his wife at around 8am on 24 February with the bleak news that Vladimir Putin’s brutal assault on Ukraine was underway.

He instantly jumped on Bordio’s group chat and urged the company’s Ukrainian staff to seek safety and shelter amid power cuts, no internet and fears for the safety of their loved ones.

“I instantly took my phone and opened our team chat. There were already messages from Ukrainian teammates like: ‘They started to bomb us’, ‘I hear explosions nearby’, ‘It seems like it’s everywhere,’” he recalled.

“People from different parts of Ukraine were telling the same things: Harkov, Kherson, Poltava, Kyiv. I couldn’t believe it was happening. I thought Russia could invade Donetsk and Luhansk, but not the entire country.

“I asked them not to think about work, but instead work out their own safety and move to the west.

“Technically we gave them a paid leave until they reach the safe place. Several of them left their homes and went west on that day. One of them was a developer from Harkov. Later, when Harkov was massively ruined, he admitted, that it was the best decision in his life.”

Mr Udodov founded Bordio in 2019 and it produces team collaboration and project management software.

Two of Bordio’s Russian programmers have fled their home country in response to Moscow’s actions, while the ones remaining in the country struggle to get their paychecks as Western financial sanctions bite.

“Two of them left the country after the war started. Others could not receive a salary payout as usual, because the bank we used banned all the payments to Russia. As a business, we had to try several banks, before we found one, that still made payments to Russia,” he said.

Mr Udodov, who is an ethnic Russian raised in Latvia, is doing his best to keep his company afloat through the violence and uncertainty.

“Today we have six employees stuck in a country that is besieged by war,” he told The Independent.

“Due to the situation, they can’t work productively, nor leave the country. As an employer, I can’t fire them, because it would be a disaster for them. Some of them had already lost their homes, I can’t take away their jobs. There is no other solution, but to wait until the war is over.”

And he added: “So in one day, we lost our six employees indefinitely. However, we couldn’t afford to stop the business completely. Even though Ukrainian staff wasn’t working, we still had to provide services and make money to pay the bills and payout salaries.”

Ukraine has a highly skilled workforce, with one of the largest tech engineering sectors in central and Eastern Europe attracting the likes of Google, Microsoft and Cisco.

Mr Udodov says the company has asked those employees outside Ukraine to work extra hours, as well as asking former employees to “help us for some time.”

“Surprisingly all of them were supportive and agreed to help in this situation. So after a few days, we managed to fill the gaps, and the business was working again,” he said.

He says that he hired programmers in Ukraine and Russia, because wage levels there are lower than western Europe.

He says that after the invasion the Russian employees at the company “supported Ukrainians telling them they are so sorry and ashamed for the actions of their Country. They asked if they can do something to help Ukrainians. It was obvious that in our company no one supported the Russian invasion.”

But he says he is proud that despite the difficulties his business has so far survived and that no-one in either country has been let go.

“Since the war started we haven’t fired any of our staff in Ukraine or Russia. We all stay united and pray for peace,” he said.

During the first few days of the fighting Anastasiia Kvitka, 32, remained at her home in Zaporizhzhia.

But when Russian troops opened fire on the nearby nuclear power plant, she and her husband packed a few essentials and took their cat and got out.

“It was absolutely terrifying, so I left and went to Dnipro,” she said.

There, she has temporarily found an apartment and has been able to work, despite the internet going down and having to dash to a bomb shelter.

But she says she worries about her parents, who have stayed behind in the family’s hometown.

“They don’t know how to leave their life and they have animals to care for. They are afraid to leave,” she said.

Aleksandr, whose surname we are not publishing, was traveling from his home in Moscow to Georgia with his wife on vacation when the invasion took place and has decided to stay there indefinitely.

They spent their first few days in Tbilisi in a hotel and opened a local bank account to receive his wages as following sanctions his Russian bank cards do not work and he cannot access his savings.

The couple have now found an apartment to rent, but he says that Georgians are suspicious of Russians following Moscow’s 2008 invasion of the country, and financial institutions have started denying Russians bank accounts.

“No one likes Russians anymore. It’s really as simple as that. Ordinary Georgians just don’t like seeing Russians here, you can feel it,” the 27-year-old said.