Lugansk.Ru was a large international project launched under a cooperation agreement between the governments of Moscow and the Lugansk Region of Ukraine. Built between 2012 and 2014, it was designed as a cross-border business integration platform powered by geolocation, interactive mapping, tenders, and intent-based connectivity. The project was nearly complete — until the 2014 war made its launch impossible.
At the very end of 2012, together with my Moscow partners, we began developing a project that became one of the most ambitious systems of that period — Lugansk.Ru, built under an official cooperation agreement between the government of Moscow and the government of the Lugansk Region in Ukraine.
For almost two years — 2012 to 2014 — the project became my world.
As a team lead, developer, and business manager, I worked at the edge of my abilities every single day.
At that time, it was the most complex project I had ever built.
The goal was clear yet immense in scale:
help people and businesses find each other across regions and industries.
The platform allowed companies to register, create profiles, specify industries, select their location, and publish:
🟩 offers (what they had — coal, grain, steel, services)
🟥 requests (what they needed — sugar, metal products, logistics, partners)
Businesses in other regions could immediately see relevant posts and respond.
Everything operated through an interactive regional map — a bold vision for its time and far more intuitive than dropdowns.
Users navigated opportunities visually rather than through static forms.
The platform functioned like a massive, structured business-focused Craigslist, but with government backing and real economic intent.
The development of Lugansk.Ru exposed an important reality:
👉 Most businesses had websites — but very few actually conducted business online.
The platform aimed to bridge this gap, bringing genuine economic activity into digital space rather than merely digital presence.
It was a modest, but meaningful attempt to modernize cross-border business communication.
Even though the project never launched, many of its ideas became foundational for QRaway:
📍 Geolocation natively built into the database
🗺️ Region-based sorting and spatial filters
📊 Coordinate-level queries and mapping logic
🔗 Structured discovery patterns between business entities
But one concept became especially transformative.
Lugansk.Ru introduced a simple but powerful mechanic:
Raise a flag → show what you’re open to → let others connect.
This idea later evolved into QRaway’s Intent Signals, now used across two domains:
💬 conversation
💘 dating
🤝 partnership
🎒 travel-buddy
🎤 collaboration
🌱 something new
📦 suppliers
🚚 logistics
🎨 design help
💰 investors
📣 marketing partners
🛠️ contributors
💡 ideas welcome
The DNA of this mechanic started exactly here.
Right before the project was scheduled for presentation and approval — the 2014 war began.
In an instant, the entire political and economic landscape collapsed.
Cross-border cooperation froze.
All agreements halted.
I was told:
“Do whatever you want with it.”
And that was the end of Lugansk.Ru.
A nearly finished, massive two-year platform — gone overnight.
Lugansk.Ru never launched.
But it became a turning point.
It was the most complex project of that period, pushing my architectural, technical, and managerial skills further than anything before it.
QRaway later surpassed everything in scale — but the road to it began here.
👉 Lugansk.Ru was the peak of that era — and the foundation for what would eventually grow into QRaway.
No events found for the selected period.
