Founded in 1962, it was formed out of another club from Kyiv, SKIF, which had started its basketball activities in 1945. The team finished third in the Soviet Union league in its debut season and second in 1965 and 1966, often known as Stroitel Kyiv — Budivelnyk's name in Russian. Once Tkachenko, a 2.20-meter center, and Belostenny, 2.16m, arrived to the team in 1973, the team became a reference in Soviet Union basketball, finishing second in the domestic league five times between 1977 and 1982. Volkov joined soon after that, but Tkachenko left for CSKA in 1983. Before that, Budivelnyk made its debut in European competitions, going all the way to the 1982 Saporta Cup semifinals. Despite taking a 16-point lead in the first leg, Cibona rallied to make it to the final and eventually win the title. Budivelnyk fans had to wait until 1989 to see the team lift its first Russian League trophy. Volkov and Belostenny had returned to the club and Budivelnyk lifted the trophy, downing Zalgiris in the final on a series-winning three-point shot by Volkov that was not counted initially. The game went to overtime and Zalgiris won, but Budivelnyk protested and two days later, Volkov's eight-meter triple was deemed to be made before the buzzer. Once Ukraine became an independent country, Budivelnyk dominated its new domestic competition, winning six consecutive titles from 1992 to 1997 with Grigoriy Khizhnyak, Oleksandr Okunskyy and Leonid Yaylo as its main stars. Budivelnyk reached the Saporta Cup Eighthfinals in 1997, losing against Verona. The club underwent financial problems at the turn of the millennium, but bounced back in the 2008-09, winning the Ukrainian UBL title with Derrick Zimmerman and Tomas Delininkaitis as its main stars. Last season, Budivelnyk landed Khalid El-Amin, Gerrod Henderson and RT Guinn and won the unified Ukrainian League regular season, but Azovmash ended up winning the title in a thrilling five-game series that went down to the wire. Budivelnyk now has the chance to reach the Euroleague and has the ambition, will and determination to become a reference team in Europe before long.