The war on Ukraine

At a critical point in Ukraine’s history, the EBRD’s support for the country is unwavering.

Our President  was the first head of a Multilateral Development Bank to visit Kyiv after the full-scale war began in 2022. The EBRD is demand-driven and acted with agility following Russia’s invasion. Our key areas of focus are trade finance, energy security, vital infrastructure, food security, and private sector resilience. 

Our investments are channelled into the real economy, giving Ukraine the capacity to resist Russia’s war of aggression. The healthier the economy remains in wartime, the less costly the country’s reconstruction will be.  

In 2023, our governors approved a resolution to increase our paid-in capital by €4 billion to help us sustain high levels of investments both during wartime and once reconstruction begins. 

Promoting stronger standards and institutions 

We have worked with Ukrainian authorities to build more efficient and accountable institutions.   

We have supported the changes in legislation on SOE corporate governance, bringing it in alignment with international standards such as the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of SOEs.  And we have supported the development of a State Ownership Policy that guides the government’s ownership of state-owned enterprises.   

One milestone we are particularly proud of is the corporate transformation of Energoatom, an important energy SOE, into a JSC  with an independent supervisory board.  

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is having a devastating impact not only on physical infrastructure but also on Ukrainian human capital. In the first year of the war, 35% of Ukraine’s pre-war population were displaced either abroad or internally. Over half of households have reported loss of livelihoods through a fall of income compared to pre-war, and the number of registered veterans is forecast to exceed five to six million by the end of the war.  

The EBRD’s response to the war on Ukraine includes significant support for client companies to sustain people’s livelihoods and enhance human capital resilience throughout the war. More than 80% of EBRD's investments in Ukraine explicitly encompass and monitor human capital impact by helping to restore livelihoods, facilitate business stabilisation and growth, expand access to finance for SMEs affected by the war, and broaden access to vital services, infrastructure, and goods, including energy, food, transport, and housing. 

Donor support will be vital across the entire lifespan of EBRD’s response to the war on Ukraine. The EBRD has managed to leverage existing donor funds and platforms, while creating new innovative structures  to channel support to Ukraine. 

Since 2022, the Bank has reached a significant milestone in its fundraising efforts by mobilising over €2.5 billion of concessional resources committed by a wide range of donors for the Resilience Package to support Ukraine. Various financial instruments, including co-investment products such as funded guarantees and capex grants, unfunded guarantees as well as technical cooperation grants for policy and expertise, have been used across several sectors to help protect Ukraine’s economy. 

Donors who committed to contribute so far are: the European Union, the United States, France, Norway, the Netherlands,  Spain, Germany,  Canada, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Sweden, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Austria,  Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania and Taipei China. 

Use of donor funds enabled EBRD to be the first MDB to take on-balance sheet risk investing in Ukraine, as donors committed to 50% risk sharing.