Maksym Isakov, the owner of Kavka, lived in Ukraine and was working in the coffee business when Russia invaded the country in 2022. Isakov fled the country months later as he feared for his family's safety. He then opened his coffee roastery in Camden.

In Ukraine we don’t have so many resources as they have here in USA, so all people do businesses and the competition is huge: you have to pay attention on small things and you’re in a position to care about clients. There’s a said of which I’m a big fan:“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.

Saturday marks two years since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war. A new coffee roaster in Camden is providing direct aid to support those in Ukraine.

Kavka Coffee’s is a success story about a refugee coming to the States after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and starting business from the ground up. When the war came to his homeland Isakov started volunteering with his friends; for instance, he said he was delivering the vital Starlink satellite terminals from Poland. Having sold his coffee shop business in Ukraine, he decided to relocate to the US—Camden, Maine was his first choice because he visited the town in teenage years for work and travel programs.

A year after bombs fell on Maksym Isakov’s Ukrainian community, he launched his coffee roasting business on the midcoast of Maine.