The Ukrainian port city of Odessa has turned the page on the tensions that erupted in 2014, and is newly crowded with visitors and resurgent businesses. 

Still troubled, but not without prospects of an economic revival, can Ukraine overcome political instability and bring investors back? Yuri Bender investigates.

Lviv in western Ukraine is a tourism hub, enjoys close proximity to the EU border, is a haven for SMEs, and is less reliant upon politically connected oligarch families than its domestic peers. However, it is struggling to break the shackles imposed by central government, as Yuri Bender discovers.

A rust-belt Soviet past, a geography that makes transporting goods expensive and the ongoing conflict with Russia are all hampering eastern Ukraine’s efforts to attract FDI. But cities such as Dnipro and Zaporizhia are committed to dispelling the old perceptions and attracting foreign investment to this resource-rich region, as Yuri Bender reports. 

For Pokrovsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, life goes on despite its proximity to the conflict in the country's east. The city’s priorities include changing energy supply to save money, a move enabled by the government’s decentralisation drive. Mayor Ruslan Trebushkin tells Yuri Bender why budgetary importance is so important to the city.

As Ukraine's economy struggles in the aftermath of a bitter conflict with Russia, could the country’s start-up companies – typically run by young, tech-savvy entrepreneurs – provide a boost to its finances? Yuri Bender investigates the country’s co-working hubs, government initiatives and existing innovators to find out.

Former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko is facing what is perhaps his toughest fight as the mayor of Ukraine capital Kiev, given the uncertainty in the country as a result of the Russian annexation of Crimea. Can he succeed in his quest to turn around the city's finances and tackle corruption?

Ukraine has been dogged by bad press of late, and stories of political instability and the trials of opposition politicians are unlikely to impress would-be foreign investors. However, a state agency created to attract FDI to the country is hoping to assuage these fears and show off Ukraine's rich potential.