PETERKA PARTNERS Ukraine marks 20 years of continuous presence in the Ukrainian market

PETERKA PARTNERS Ukraine celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2026. Since opening its Kyiv office in 2006, the firm has maintained a continuous presence in Ukraine through the 2008 financial crisis, the Revolution of Dignity, the annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in eastern Ukraine in 2014, the COVID-19 pandemic and the full-scale invasion.

At the start of the full-scale invasion, the firm’s female colleagues temporarily relocated to Prague and Warsaw. After six months, they returned to Ukraine and to the Kyiv office. Throughout this period, the Kyiv office and the team in Ukraine kept serving clients and kept winning new mandates.

Over those two decades, the firm has advised businesses and investors entering and operating in Ukraine. Its work has spanned the first wave of investment in the 2000s, successive periods of crisis, and the decisions they face today as they operate during the war and consider Ukraine’s reconstruction.

The Kyiv office was the third office of the PETERKA PARTNERS group, after the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and became one of the pillars of the group’s later expansion. Preparations began in autumn 2005, when Monika Šimůnková Hošková, an expatriate lawyer from Prague, started the search for premises, staff and a home in Kyiv, and the registration of the local company. She moved to Kyiv in early summer 2006, and the office began providing legal services with its first client, soon followed by others.

“Ukraine kept investors moving for twenty years. We made sure they never moved alone,” said Taras Utiralov, Partner and Director of PETERKA & PARTNERS Ukraine. “Our anniversary is not about the length of our track record, but about its continuity. We were here when entering Ukraine was a bold bet, we kept working when it was hard, and when circumstances forced part of our team to step away for six months, they came back.”

“In 2006 we opened in Ukraine because we wanted to expand beyond the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We have always seen Ukraine as a European country and part of Central and Eastern Europe, and twenty years of working there, with its culture and the approach of its people, have confirmed it. Twenty years later, what stands out is a stable, strong team and a stable, strong, specialized practice, resilient during the war and ready for the time after it.” said Ondřej Peterka, Founder and Managing Partner.

“It was an amazing journey. There were plenty of surprises, lots of new experiences, and many unknowns; things often worked differently than what I was used to from my home country—but in the end, we did it and opened the third office of PETERKA PARTNERS Group,” said Monika Šimůnková Hošková, Partner, who set up the Kyiv office.

The firm will mark the anniversary through the end of 2026 with interviews, expert publications and team stories on its website and LinkedIn.