Co-owner of Nova Poshta criticized the authorities on social media and got caught in a “trap”

Co-owner of Nova Poshta Volodymyr Poperešniuk criticized the idea of raising taxes to fund insurance for businesses against the consequences of Russian attacks. However, in the comments under the post, founder of the Readeat bookstore Dmitro Feliksov reminded the businessman of the situation his company faced in cooperation with Nova Poshta. This is reported by Glavkom, citing entrepreneurs' statements.

Poperešniuk spoke out against a possible VAT increase from 20% to 21% to insure businesses against rocket-and-drone strikes. In his view, such a model effectively shifts the costs of supporting entrepreneurs onto the business itself.

“Raising taxes to support business is like putting out a fire with gasoline. Raising VAT from 20% to 21% in our time for insuring business against rocket-and-drone strikes means by your own hands killing what the rockets and drones have not yet destroyed,” wrote the co-owner of Nova Poshta.

screenshot from Fecebook

He stated that to help affected businesses the state should instead introduce tax breaks, pursue deregulation and privatization, and also reduce the number of officials and state expenditures.

In response to Poperešniuk’s statement, founder of Readeat Dmitro Feliksov reminded about the destruction by a Russian strike of the Nova Poshta terminal where the bookstore warehouse with books from hundreds of Ukrainian publishers was located.

Screenshot from Facebook

According to Feliksov, after the attack Nova Poshta announced its readiness to compensate losses. At the same time, the final mechanism of payments is still being agreed.

Meanwhile, as the entrepreneur claims, Readeat faced higher costs for Nova Poshta services and the removal of discounts that depended on the volume of cooperation with the company. “And I read this post and think: how is this economic model different from what you described?” Feliksov addressed Poperešniuk.

Feliksov drew a parallel between Poperešniuk’s critique of a possible tax model and the situation around his own business: the enterprise suffered losses due to the Russian attack and expects compensation, but at the same time its expenses for using Nova Poshta services rose.

“The business suffered losses because of the Russian strike. They tell him: we’ll help compensate the losses. But at the same time the cost of work for this very business increases. So part of the cost of the consequences of the war will ultimately be paid by the business that has not yet recovered — just through tariffs. It seems to me there is a certain dissonance,” noted Feliksov.

Dmitro Feliksov is a Ukrainian entrepreneur, founder of the Concert.ua service and Readeat bookstore, and co-founder of the music media Slukh. He launched the Readeat project in 2023 year as a combination of a physical bookstore and an online service.

In 2026 year Feliksov decided to forgo scaling the network and put two bookstores up for sale—near the Arsenalna metro station and in the Comfort Town residential complex. Buyers could not be found, so both locations ceased operation in September. According to the entrepreneur, they provided only 3% and 2% of the network’s total turnover and operated at the edge of profitability.

As a reminder, earlier co-founder of Nova Poshta Volodymyr Poperešniuk already urged the government to reduce tax and regulatory pressure on business suffering from Russian attacks. He proposed tax relief for affected companies and a moratorium on tax increases.