Anticrisis Management and Business Scaling in Wartime: Strategic Implications for Ukrainian Corporations

Abstract The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has fundamentally reshaped the operating environment of Ukrainian enterprises, forcing them to adapt to extreme uncertainty, disrupted logistics, and rapid institutional change. Under these conditions, business scaling has emerged not only as a growth mechanism but also as a key component of anticrisis management, aimed at ensuring operational continuity, resilience, and access to new markets. This article examines business scaling processes in the Ukrainian postal and digital services sector during wartime, with a particular focus on the expansion of Nova Post into European markets. The study integrates qualitative and quantitative methods, drawing on interviews with managers of Nova Post’s Ukrainian and European branches, internal company data, and secondary analytical sources. The findings demonstrate that wartime scaling is closely linked to migration flows, relocation of enterprises, and shifting consumer needs, transforming scaling into a crisis-response tool rather than a traditional strategic choice. The research identifies the key drivers, risks, and benefits of international scaling during the war, including logistical resilience, support of communication infrastructure, and strengthened economic and social stability. The study concludes that Nova Post’s scaling strategy, based on startup principles, rapid experimentation, and digital transformation, enabled the company to expand to thirteen European countries despite wartime constraints. While the single-case design limits the generalizability of results, the research contributes to the literature on crisis-driven strategic behaviour and provides practical recommendations for enterprises scaling under extreme uncertainty.