Ukraine is known as the breadbasket of Europe. The country – the second largest on the continent after Russia – has also produced several notable entrepreneurs over the years.
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine puts the latter in the center of the world’s attention, here are some people from the country who have made a difference in the field of technology lately.
Jan Koum: WhatsApp, now owned by Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: FB), was founded by Jan Koum. He was born in Kyiv and grew up in Fastiv and moved to the United States at age 16.
In 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in a cash and stock deal, according to the BBC. report.
See also: How to buy Facebook (FB) shares
Max Levchin: A co-founder of Paypal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL), Max Rafailovych Levchin, was born in Kyiv. Levchin is an early Yelp investor, but has also been a founder or co-founder of Slide.com, HVF Labs and Affirm Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: AFRM).
Vlad Yatsenko: Founder and chief technology officer of Revolut, a fintech company that offers banking services, Yatsenko was born in Ukraine but is now a British citizen.
Yatsenko criticized the invasion of Ukraine in a Tweet on Thursday. “I hope that the Russian people will finally realize what a monster and a liar their President Putin is,” he said.
I hope that the Russian people will finally realize how much their President Putin is a monster and a liar! The stories he tells you are similar to what Hitler told the Germans nearly 100 years ago. There are many great Russians, Putin is not one of them.
Ukraine will be free!
— Vlad Yatsenko (@vyatsenko) February 24, 2022
Anatoly Yakovenko: Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) rival blockchain network Solana (SOL) labs was co-founded by Anatoly Yakovenko. Yakovenko grew up in Ukraine, when his parents were first-generation immigrants, according to a writing by Ebiographypost.com.
See also: “Glory to Ukraine:” Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum of Russian origin, says he is “very upset by Putin’s decision”
On Thursday, Yakovenko tweeted about the invasion of Ukraine that “the ‘sphere of influence’ is an imperial strategy.”
The “sphere of influence” is an imperial strategy. Either you are integrated and the sphere needs to expand, or your life is a shield for someone else’s existence. There is no limit to its range. Call your leaders if you don’t want to eat borscht for the rest of your life.
— Composability T◎ly, (@aeyakovenko) February 24, 2022
He warned that there was no limit to the extent of this sphere of influence. “Call your leaders if you don’t want to eat borscht for the rest of your life,” Yakovenko said.
Illia Polosukhin: the NEAR Protocol The (NEAR) co-founder attended the National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute” in Kharkiv, a city currently bearing the brunt of the Russian attack.
Polosukhin urged his followers to support Ukraine in a Tweet, saying, “Glory to Ukraine!” Separately, he tweeted that “violence is never justified”.
You can support Ukraine and its defenders via @BackAndAlive – https://t.co/rgRefXmDd4
Glory to Ukraine!
— Illia Polosukhin (root.near) (, ) (@ilblackdragon) February 24, 2022
Violence is never justified
— Illia Polosukhin (root.near) (, ) (@ilblackdragon) February 24, 2022
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Photo: Courtesy of the World Economic Forum via Flickr
