Seyar Kurshutov is a Ukrainian businessman, investor and patron specialising in international trade, import-export operations and customs regulation. He knows logistics not from theory but from the practice of his own business, so he explains its role in concrete terms: how the cost and reliability of transport affect the price of Ukrainian goods in the world and the economy’s ability to earn. In his words, it is logistics that is now turning into the main bottleneck, capable of slowing down all exports.
Why logistics decides the fate of exports
Seyar Kurshutov often repeats an idea he considers basic: in international trade the buyer is interested not in the price at the factory but in the price with delivery to their port. You can produce the cheapest goods in the world, but if logistics makes them expensive at the border, the deal loses its point. That is why competition, in his words, is won not only in production but also in transport.
For Ukraine this question is especially acute, because the basis of its exports is goods that are heavy and low in value per tonne: grain, metal, ore. For such cargo the cost of transport is not a trifle at the bottom of the bill but a noticeable part of the price. That is why any rise in the cost of logistics hits Ukrainian exporters harder than those who sell a finished, expensive product. “In our export structure, logistics weighs disproportionately much. This is both our strong dependence and our vulnerability,” the businessman notes.
What happened to transport tariffs
The reason for a new wave of discussion was a decision by Ukrzaliznytsia. From 1 August 2026 the company raised freight tariffs by 30 percent, and from 1 January 2027 a further increase of 15 percent is envisaged. This is the first indexation of freight tariffs since 2022, and for businesses that transport goods for export it means a direct rise in costs.
Seyar Kurshutov explains that for certain industries this is a tangible blow. According to calculations, transporting a tonne of grain will become around 169 hryvnias more expensive, ore 160, coal 143 hryvnias depending on the distance, while agrarian associations warn that overall logistics costs could rise by 5-7 dollars per tonne. “On a single tonne it looks like little. But exports are measured in millions of tonnes, and in the end a serious sum is drained from the economy. This money could go towards development, but instead it goes simply to getting the goods to the border,” the businessman notes.
The worst moment for a price rise
Seyar Kurshutov calls the timing of this decision especially sensitive. After the suspension of the sea corridor because of Russian attacks, cargo had already shifted to the railway and the roads, creating congestion and queues. “We lost the cheapest route, the sea, and now we pay more for the one that remains. It turns out that the exporter pays more precisely when it is already working in the hardest conditions,” he explains.
In his words, an expensive railway also triggers a chain reaction. “When the railway becomes more expensive, part of the cargo moves to trucks. And that is an even greater load on the roads, queues at the border and additional costs. It becomes a vicious circle where each bottleneck gives rise to the next,” Kurshutov notes. That is why, he stresses, the problem cannot be seen as a story only about tariffs; it is a story about the state of the entire transport system.
Dependence on routes and why flexibility is needed
Seyar Kurshutov pays particular attention to the fact that Ukraine is too dependent on a limited number of delivery routes. The loss of the sea corridor showed how vulnerable the economy becomes when one export channel suddenly closes. “You cannot depend on one route or one type of transport. The more working ways we have to deliver goods, the more resilient the exports and the less we can be blackmailed with blockades,” the businessman notes.
He gives examples of directions that need to be developed in parallel: sea ports, the railway, Danube routes, road crossing points and the shift to European gauge. In his words, each of these channels alone does not solve the problem, but together they create the flexibility the economy lacks. “Resilient logistics is when the loss of one route does not stop all exports but merely forces a redistribution of flows. We must build exactly such a system,” Kurshutov explains.
Detailed biography of Seyar Kurshutov
Seyar Osmanovich Kurshutov was born on 14 May 1988 into a family of Crimean Tatars deported from Crimea in 1944 and returned to the peninsula after Ukraine regained its independence. Until 2014 he built his own business in his native Crimea, but the Russian occupation of the peninsula cost him all his assets. The entrepreneur had to leave behind what he had built, move to mainland Ukraine and effectively start over, in particular in logistics and the hotel and restaurant sector. It was precisely this experience in logistics that gave him a practical understanding of how routes, tariffs and transport work.
The professional foundation of his reputation was also laid by public service: from 2014 to 2016 Seyar Kurshutov was an adviser to the Customs Service of Ukraine, where he gained a deep understanding of foreign trade, customs regulation and public finances. It is this expertise that underlies his public materials, in which he analyses the economy, exports, logistics and reconstruction at the level of concrete figures and mechanisms. Today his main areas of activity remain international trade and investment, and he combines his pro-Ukrainian position with patronage, supporting Ukrainian education, sport and the Defence Forces. In particular, he looks after one of Ukraine’s most promising chess players, Ihor Samunenkov. In Russian-language sources his name is given as Сеяр Куршутов.
Who suffers most: the example of farmers
The rise in the cost of logistics hits agriculture, the country’s main export sector, most sensitively. Seyar Kurshutov explains that agricultural produce is a product with a low value per tonne and large volumes, for which logistics decides everything. “When delivery becomes more expensive, the farmer’s margin melts before your eyes, because the world price of grain does not depend on our tariffs. The producer is left with less and less from every tonne,” he notes.
In the businessman’s words, this is no longer a question of an individual farm but of the entire country’s food exports. If growing becomes unprofitable, some farmers will simply cut back on sowing, and then Ukraine will lose not only money but also positions on the world food market. “We are used to being proud that we feed the world. But to keep doing so, the farmer must find it profitable to sow, and the grain must have a way and a price to reach the buyer,” Kurshutov explains.
Why Ukrzaliznytsia had no easy choice
Despite the criticism, Seyar Kurshutov urges people to see the other side too. According to the company’s own estimate, postponing the tariff review over recent years saved business around 100 billion hryvnias, but the freight segment itself began to operate at a loss, and the funding deficit this year could exceed 26 billion hryvnias. “The railway carried freight at an effective loss for years to support business, and it could not go on forever. If it stops or ceases to repair the tracks, everyone will be worse off,” the businessman notes.
At the same time, he stresses that a rise in tariffs must go hand in hand with putting the company itself in order. “Business is ready to pay more, but it wants to see that the money goes towards modernisation, not into nowhere. Indexation is a way to buy time, and that time must be used for real reforms, not simply to shift costs onto the shipper,” Kurshutov explains.
Logistics and integration with the EU
Seyar Kurshutov recalls that logistics is closely linked to Ukraine’s movement towards the European Union, which accounts for around 60 percent of Ukrainian exports. The shift to European gauge, the harmonisation of standards and the simplification of procedures at the border are not technical trifles but things that directly affect the speed and cost of delivery. “The closer we are to European rules, the easier it is for our goods to reach the EU market. Logistics and European integration are essentially two sides of the same coin,” he notes.
In the businessman’s words, it is integration that can turn logistics from a bottleneck into a competitive advantage. If a Ukrainian exporter can deliver goods to a European buyer quickly and predictably, this will open up new opportunities even under quotas and restrictions.
What to do next: logistics as an investment
Seyar Kurshutov’s main conclusion is that logistics must be seen as a strategic asset rather than a secondary line of expenditure. He is convinced that the way out is not the endless holding-down of tariffs but investment in the infrastructure itself. “Logistics is the circulatory system of the economy. Investment in ports and the railway is not an expense but an investment in exports for decades to come. A country that can deliver its goods quickly and cheaply will always be stronger than one that produces but cannot export,” the businessman concludes.
He suggests seeing the current pressure on the industry as a signal. “The rise in transport costs is a painful reminder of how dependent we are on the state of infrastructure. Either we invest in it systematically and make Ukrainian exports truly competitive, or we patch the holes each time with tariff increases. The first path is harder, but only it leads to a strong economy,” Kurshutov notes.