There's a near constant pounding of explosions, a deep rattling thunder that won't stop. The piercing roar of jets. Air raid sirens. Traffic jams caused by fleeing vehicles.
These are the sounds of war. For Yevhen Matasar, it's the sound of his country being torn to shreds. "This is a very difficult situation," said Matasar from his car, parked in the dark outside a home in a small Ukrainian village as night fell. "You can hear the bombs and the fighter planes."
Matasar is a web developer who joined Paysera, a Lithuanian digital payments company based in Vlinius, in 2020. It's a lifetime ago for Matasar, who moved to a rural location about 20 miles from Kyiv when the Russian invasion began.
Paysera is a smaller name on the list of
Paysera in February announced it would stop processing transactions in rubles, closed accounts tied to Russian clients and restricted money transfers to and from Russian and Belarusian banks. Everywhere else — including Ukraine — it is working to keep operations running as smoothly as possible without putting its workers at greater risk.
The fintech supports mobile point of sale payments, NFC contactless cards, e-commerce connections, micropayments and other merchant services. Paysera dates to 2006, and received a payments institution license in Lithuania in 2011 and an electronic money license in 2012. It supports money transfers in more than 180 countries and 30 currencies. The company has an aggressive expansion strategy in Ukraine, where it has been recruiting staff. Both
But right now, Paysera's growth prospects are overshadowed by the toll Russia's invasion is taking on staff and family.
"Things are horrible," said Kostas Noreika, co-founder of Paysera. Noreika lives in Vilnius, but he's thinking about the dozen Paysera employees who are stuck in Ukraine and his relatives who have fled, including his cousin's family that lived in Kyiv.
"Looking out their window, they could see houses on fire. This is a real war and people are getting caught in the line of fire," Noreika said, adding that Paysera and other companies are working to find shelter for refugees. Noreika spoke of people leaving Ukraine with small amounts of currency or whatever they could carry out of the country. "One came in with a small girl," he said.
Paysera had begun a multibank integration project in Ukraine before the war started. That project was put on hold, but other duties continue. Paysera's employees have been working remotely, though some struggle to stay connected.
"Not everyone can work because of electricity and internet issues. But others can do some stuff from time to time. We are also in contact with them to see how they are doing. Thankfully everyone is alive," Noreika said.
For Matasar, the weeks since Russia's invasion began have been a dance between two lives. With one foot in the world before Feb. 24, Matasar still programs for Paysera when he can. But all the while, he's dealing with the reality of a deadly military assault nearby. "It's helpful to be able to continue to work," said Matasar, who is living with his parents and other relatives.
One of the main challenges for the staff who remain in Ukraine is obtaining food and basic supplies. Parts of the country are under siege. In Mariupol, for example, there is no electricity, and water and food supplies are running
Matasar said he's able to go to a nearby town that's a little larger than the village where he's staying to get food and other staples. The banking and payment systems are also still functional in his location. "You can pay with cash or credit cards, so it's still possible to make purchases," Matasar said.
What's not possible is leaving. Men between the ages of 18 and 60 aren't allowed to flee Ukraine, and Matasar said it's very difficult to get out of the country in general. "There are lines of cars, traffic jams. People can't get anywhere," he said.
Many global payment companies are also cutting off business with Russia, including Mastercard, Visa, American Express and PayPal. And fintechs such as Wise and Revolut have also halted transactions.
How Paysera's actions against Russia will play out is unclear, Noreika said.
"We don't know how the ban will come to an end … if troops are withdrawing and hopefully a regime change" in Russia, Noreika said. "We would be able to consider [doing] business with a country that will not be a threat to Europe."
