15,000 Branches, 34,000 Lockers: The Private Delivery Company Nova Poshta

When receiving a parcel in Ukraine, the name that often comes up is the private delivery company “Nova Poshta” (Нова пошта). According to an announcement the company made on January 27, 2026, it carried 522 million parcels and pieces of freight in 2025, up 10% from the previous year, of which 29 million were international shipments. As of early January 2026, it had 15,817 branches and 34,186 parcel lockers (поштомат) inside Ukraine.

The national postal service is handled by the state-owned joint-stock company Ukrposhta (Укрпошта). Nova Poshta is a separate, private company that, under the law, is one “postal operator” among others engaged in the postal business. Below, we look in order at the company’s origins and figures, its expansion abroad, and its legal standing. How to write and receive addresses in Ukraine is covered in the article on Ukrainian address formats, and sending mail from Japan in the article on mail to Ukraine.

A Company Registered in Poltava in 2001

According to the state register of legal entities (ЄДР), the limited liability company “Nova Poshta” (ТОВ «Нова пошта») was founded on January 19, 2001. The register’s history of changes shows that the company’s registered location moved from the city of Poltava to the city of Kyiv on June 13, 2016. Its principal line of business is classified as “other postal and courier activities.”

The same register lists the company’s owners as the Cypriot company “NP Holdings Limited” (90% of the shares) and a Ukrainian investment fund (10%). The individuals recorded as ultimate beneficial owners (the people who actually control the company) are Volodymyr Popereshniuk and Viacheslav Klymov. The state does not hold a stake.

Timeline: From a Domestic Company to One with Branches Abroad

Below are listed only the events for which the source and date of the announcement are known.

Did Moldovan Operations Begin in 2014 or 2020?

The company’s own announcements give differing accounts of its start in Moldova. The September 2024 announcement marking “10 years in Moldova” states that operations began in 2014 with three service points, which at the time doubled as sorting hubs and freight branches. The May 2020 announcement of the company group, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine, on the other hand, described opening the “first two branches” in Chișinău.

It is possible the two announcements are counting different things — the 2014 figure being points combining hub functions, and the 2020 figure being branches of the company’s standard format. However, the company does not explain this difference. Both accounts are presented here as they stand.

2025 Figures

The main figures below are drawn from the company’s January 27, 2026 announcement.

The same announcement states that most of the capital investment went toward expanding parcel lockers and branches, and toward logistics facilities: it says the company spent 492 million hryvnias to install new automated sorting lines at its sorting hubs, and 545 million hryvnias to renew its trucks and trailers. It also states that branches increased across Ukraine as a whole, including in areas close to the front line.

There are figures for 2026 as well. According to the company’s own account as reported by Interfax-Ukraine on August 4, 2026, domestic capital investment for January–June 2026 exceeded 1.5 billion hryvnias. The same article reports that the company ranks 30th in the world among parcel-and-postal operators by volume, and aims to break into the top 20 by 2030 and to carry 2 billion parcels a year. This is the company’s own outlook.

Into 16 European Countries

Overseas operations are expanding under the group’s “Nova Post” name. According to Interfax-Ukraine, 266 new service points opened in January–June 2026: 155 in Moldova, 63 in Poland, 18 in Spain, 14 in Czechia, and 11 in Germany. As of the end of June, there were 995 service points across 16 European countries and 235 cities, and deliveries from Ukraine take as little as three days.

Co-owner Klymov said in March 2026, at an event in the capital Kyiv, that the company was already profitable in 5 of its 16 markets and would double its European branch network within 2026 (Interfax-Ukraine). By the company’s own account, the first branch opened abroad was in Warsaw, Poland, in October 2022.

Under the Law, One “Postal Operator” Among Others

Ukraine’s postal law is Law No. 2722-IX “On Postal Communication” of November 3, 2022. It was published in the official government gazette on November 25, 2022, replacing the previous postal law of 2001 (No. 2759-III). The new law provides that it takes legal effect the day after promulgation and applies from six months after that.

This law refers to companies engaged in postal business, whether state-owned or private, as “postal operators” (оператор поштового зв’язку). A company starting operations must file a notification with the National Commission for State Regulation of Electronic Communications, Radio Frequency Spectrum, and Postal Services (НКЕК) and be entered in the state register of postal operators (Article 14). This is a notification-based system rather than a licensing one, and operators listed in the register must file a confirmation of their listed information each year by January 31.

“Parcel Locker” and “Courier Delivery”: Absent from the Old Law

Article 1 of the new law added “parcel locker” (поштомат) to its definitions of terms: “an automated device with a mechanism to prevent unauthorized opening and closing, used for accepting, briefly storing, delivering, and handing over postal items.” “Courier service” (кур’єрська послуга) — delivery to a home or workplace, or acceptance outside a service counter — was also defined as one of the postal services. Neither term appears in the text of the 2001 law.

Registration procedures were also revised. According to the National Commission’s own guidance, a new format for the register was set in December 2024; companies already in business had to re-file their notifications in the new format, and the old-format register has not been used since March 14, 2025.

The Difference from Ukrposhta

According to the state register of legal entities, 100% of Ukrposhta’s shares are held by the state, and the state-side owner listed is the “Ministry for Restoration, Infrastructure and Transport,” renamed in July 2026. The law grants only “designated operators” like Ukrposhta the rights to deliver domestic letters and postcards up to 50 grams, issue postage stamps, install mailboxes, and so on (Article 17). This point is also explained in the article on address formats.

Nova Poshta is not a designated operator. The division of the market is such that delivery of letters and postcards remains reserved by law for the state postal service, while parcel and document delivery is open to competition, including from private companies.