The new year, Sergiy Kovalenkov posted on LinkedIn, is starting with “a new chapter” for Hempire UA, as the building that houses their office near downtown Kyiv, Ukraine was hit by a Russian rocket on January 2.

Hemp building materials were featured at the SXSW Climate Change conference March 11 in Austin, TX, and the hemp building community came together to raise money to build refugee hempcrete housing in Ukraine.

Before Russia launched its senseless and brutal war on Ukraine, builder Sergiy Kovalenkov was well into a mission to bring environmentally friendly, healthy hempcrete living spaces to Ukrainian citizens.

Sergiy Kovalenkov has built a business in Ukraine and has no intention of ceasing operations during the war. In fact, he feels strongly that this is the time to double down on is efforts to support others in the hemp industry, and to work to move the Ukrainian medical cannabis initiative forward as well.