Yuna Potomkina spoke at the event on collaboration between startups and investors

On 12 December 2025, the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations held the event “Collaborate to innovate: startups speak the language of innovation, investors speak the language of solutions.” The event brought together startup teams, businesses and investors to discuss how to turn an innovative idea into a competitive solution, build an investor-friendly business model and achieve a balanced alignment of interests.

Asters Partner and business mediator Yuna Potomkina delivered a presentation titled “Mediation in business: the role of mediators and lawyers in building trust and preventing conflicts.” She stressed that conflicts are inevitable in partnerships and business relationships, but that it is critically important to monitor how the parties respond to them and how they manage them.

Yuna noted that most partnerships and startups begin with a high level of trust, but that in the absence of clear agreements and transparent expectations, misunderstandings and conflicts can quickly arise. Traditional court proceedings are often lengthy, resource-intensive and can seriously damage business reputation, which is particularly sensitive for young market players. Instead, she outlined several out-of-court dispute resolution mechanisms – facilitation, mediation, expert determination and review of disputes by the Business Ombudsman Council in cases involving state authorities – and focused on their key advantages and limitations.

She also referred to global statistics on the effectiveness of mediation and highlighted a steady trend toward increased use of this tool. Speaking about Ukraine, she pointed out that the legal framework for mediation was introduced only in 2021, but that demand for this mechanism is steadily growing, with national companies increasingly becoming the initiators of mediation, rather than foreign counterparties.

Asters is the largest full-service law firm in Ukraine with offices in Kyiv, Brussels, London, and Washington, D.C. The firm has access to over 125 jurisdictions through a well-developed network of partner law firms.