Reexamining “Winds of Change”

Conflict in Ukraine casts domestic VT market in very different light.

In early December 2021, a Russian writer submitted an article to ELEVATOR WORLD about the Ukraine vertical-transportation (VT) market that ended up with the ironic headline, “Winds of Change; Ukrainian VT Industry Foresees Sunny Days Ahead (EW, February 2022).” The headline, written by your author, referred to an emerging niche market: Kramatorsk and Odessa wind farms, which were generating work for Otis Ukraine as it has expertise in servicing, repairing and running tests on these unique elevator systems. Fast forward four months — to early March — and winds of change are certainly being felt in Ukraine, but under the opposite of sunny skies, rather, ones filled with explosions, fire, chaos and death. The morning news is difficult to watch. A recent broadcast showed a father crying over the body of his young son, which lay on a gurney covered in a blood-splattered white sheet. The same newscast also showed Ukraine residents fleeing, zeroing in on a bag of puppies being carried by a woman also holding a suitcase.

Late last year, Russian forces had already begun gathering ominously at Ukraine’s borders, with Russia President Vladimir Putin insisting his military was merely conducting routine training exercises. In the early morning hours of February 24, those exercises became anything but routine, with reports emerging of explosions around cities, including Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine and the capital Kyiv. Putin’s intention became horrifyingly clear as he continued to lie about the rationale behind the attacks: “to end genocide by the Kyiv regime” and work toward “denazification” — in a country whose beloved leader — President Volodymyr Zelensky — is Jewish. Putin’s earlier assertion that civilians would not be targeted also turned out to be a lie. In Kramatorsk, with its wind farms, Russians fired on people’s homes on March 5 and an unknown number were killed and injured. On that same day, Zelensky warned that Russian forces were preparing to bomb Odessa, a cosmopolitan, historic city on Ukraine’s southern Black Sea coast populated by Ukrainian and Russian speakers, as well as Bulgarian and Jewish residents. While Odessa’s future held promise for wind farms, its past is entrenched in leisure. In a broadcast speech, Zelensky said:

“Russians have always come to Odessa. They have always felt only warmth in Odessa. Only sincerity. And now what? Bombs against Odessa? Artillery against Odessa? Missiles against Odessa? It will be a war crime. It will be a historical crime.”

As of this writing, Odessa had not been attacked. But that, of course, could change at any moment. Locals had grown used to air raid sirens and were going on with daily life, albeit with doors locked, as much as possible. Odessa’s streets were mostly still and silent.

While learning about the Ukraine VT market, your author was especially interested in Kyiv-based elevator manufacturer Zavod EUROFORMAT Ltd., and asked the Russian writer to follow up with a spotlight on the company. He did, revealing that, despite “existing threat of military conflict with Russia,” EUROFORMAT remained filled with hope, optimism and pride. Founded in 2002 as a metalworking enterprise, EUROFORMAT began commercial production in 2008 and won its first state tender to replace outdated elevator equipment the next year. Major contracts with Ukrainian construction companies followed, and the company forged through a domestic economic crisis and the pandemic to build a 32,150-m2plant that includes the country’s only elevator test tower. EUROFORMAT saw replacing outdated, Soviet-era elevator systems in Ukraine hospitals with modern ones able to accommodate stretchers as a potential growth market. With deadly bombs raining down on Ukraine as of this writing, including one that destroyed a TV tower in Kyiv, the fate of EUROFORMAT, and its test tower, is uncertain. The Company Spotlight is on hold as a true picture of the future remains unclear. Perhaps EUROFORMAT will be involved in rebuilding a nation whose citizens stood up and successfully fought for democracy. Here’s hoping.

References

[1] Kirby, Jen, and Guyer, Jonathan. “Russia’s War on Ukraine, Explained,” Vox, March 6, 2022.

[2] Miller, Christopher, Wells, Jason, and Mack, David. “Russia Has Invaded Ukraine, Threatening the Safety of Millions,” Buzzfeed.News, February 24, 2022.

[3] “Ukraine Warns Russia to Shell Historic Port City Odessa,” NDTV, March 6, 2022.