Oleg Chykyda is a Ukrainian entrepreneur and philanthropist, co-owner and CEO of the ZPEK group of companies. He considers infrastructure, logistics, and strategic investment to be among the key drivers of Ukraine’s economic development. He regularly takes part in industry conferences and forums, where he raises issues of infrastructure development in the fuel market, logistics solutions, and long-term investment in real assets.
Oleg Chykyda closely follows global trends in energy and infrastructure, shares expert insights with industry representatives, and supports open dialogue between business and the state on the strategic development of markets.
Short-Term Profit or a Long-Term Position
Most entrepreneurs think in terms of current profit. Oleg Chykyda thinks in terms of long-term assets. This approach was shaped not in theory but through years of work in industries where an infrastructure decision made today determines a company’s competitive position for years to come.
Ukraine’s fuel market clearly illustrates this logic. Companies that invested in their own fuel tankers, railway tank cars, and logistics capacity in 2022–2023 gained more than just an operational advantage. They gained independence from external circumstances and the ability to meet their obligations even under the most difficult conditions. Those who economised on infrastructure remained dependent on other people’s decisions and other people’s capabilities.
ZPEK travelled this path from its first fuel tanker to five rail freight trains a week. But behind these figures lies a specific infrastructure logic: its own tank cars, established routes, partnerships with terminals, and well-honed customs and transport documentation. None of this came about on its own. It is the result of consistent investment decisions, each aimed not at a one-off profit but at a systematic presence in the market.
It is precisely this approach that Oleg Chykyda considers the foundation for any business that aspires to a long-term role in its industry.
What Is Oleg Chykyda’s Position on the Infrastructure of the Future?
Oleg Chykyda consistently maintains that Ukrainian entrepreneurs need to change their horizon of thinking. The war destroyed many things, but it also opened a window for those ready to build for years ahead rather than patch holes in the current operating cycle. In his view, after victory Ukraine will have a colossal need for infrastructure.
His core position: infrastructure decisions cannot be postponed until better times. Better times do not appear on their own — they are the result of decisions made at a difficult moment.
Logistics as the Foundation of Resilience
One of the key lessons Oleg Chykyda has drawn from building ZPEK is the understanding that logistics decides everything. Not the price of the product, not the terms of the contract, but the ability to physically deliver goods to the right place at the right time.
Building your own logistics chain from the import terminal to the end consumer is a long-term, capital-intensive undertaking. It does not deliver instant results and requires a willingness to invest in assets that will not pay off tomorrow. Yet it is precisely this willingness that distinguishes the companies that shape the market from those that are merely present in it.
For Ukraine’s regions, where logistics infrastructure has traditionally remained the weak link, this approach is especially significant. Developing regional logistics is at once a business decision and a contribution to the economic connectivity of the country.
Strategic Investments and Regional Development
Oleg Chykyda grew up in Volyn and continues to connect his work with the region. For him, regional development is not an abstract thesis but practical logic: a strong region creates a stable environment for business, and business, in turn, creates jobs, infrastructure, and a tax base for the region.
This connection is clearly visible in the example of the timber-processing business, which at its peak employed more than 1,200 people, or in the example of ZPEK, which today ensures stable fuel supplies for small and medium-sized businesses across various regions of the country. Each of these projects is not only a commercial result but also an impact on the real economy of specific communities.
Strategic investment in regional infrastructure creates a multiplier effect that is hard to measure in the short term but impossible to ignore in the long term.
Oleg Chykyda – Biography
Born on 9 June 1981 in the urban-type settlement of Lyubeshiv, Volyn region, into a family of teachers. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Lesya Ukrainka Volyn State University.
He began his entrepreneurial career in the early 2000s. He progressed from retail trade, through work in large corporate structures, to independently building businesses across several industries. Among the key milestones: work in the Continuum group and on the team that managed the assets of UkrLandfarming and Avangard; his own retail network in Volyn; and a timber-processing business with more than 1,200 jobs.
Since 2022, he has been co-owner and CEO of the ZPEK group of companies, which in 2025 entered the top 10 importers of diesel fuel in Ukraine. He develops projects in the fuel and energy sector, real estate development, agriculture, and HoReCa. He is an active participant in industry forums and conferences and an advocate of open dialogue between business and the state on the regulation of strategic markets.