By Vanora Bennett
Top officials from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development visited Kyiv this week, on the eve of the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) in Berlin on 11-12 June, to sign a plan to offer €300 million(US$323.97million) of new funding for Ukraine’s state-owned energy sector companies and to explore further support for the energy sector.
The Berlin conference next week brings together Ukraine’s international sponsors to plan cooperation in mitigating the impact of Russia’s war there and moving towards full reconstruction. This year, it comes after months of targeted Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which have damaged more than half the country’s energy-generating capacity, causing rolling blackouts.
EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso began her trip to Kyiv by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal for an Energy Security Emergency Response Programme. This will support Ukraine’s state-owned energy sector companies, which include EBRD clients such as Ukrenergo, Ukrhydroenergo and Ukrnafta.
Under the MoU, the EBRD intends to provide further funding of more than €300 million to support the restoration of energy generation facilities and infrastructure, construct new distributed flexible generation capacities and ensure stable and uninterrupted electricity supply on the entire territory of Ukraine. The Bank will work with the government to define further priority focus areas in energy.
Accompanied by Vice-President Banking Matteo Patrone and the EBRD’s new Managing Director for Ukraine and Moldova, Arvid Tuerkner, President Renaud-Basso was in Kyiv to discuss the Bank’s agenda of bolstering Ukraine’s real economy by supporting energy security, vital infrastructure, food security, trade and the private sector.
In light of the recent energy infrastructure attacks, which threaten Ukraine with a difficult winter, the EBRD has been reworking its pipeline of future projects to make more available for investments in energy.
As well as Prime Minister Shmyhal, the EBRD delegation held talks with First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Andriy Pyshnyy and Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko, and acting Minister for Restoration Vasyl Shkurakov, along with chief executive officers of several state-owned enterprises, as well as client companies, international partners, civil society organisations and media.
At the URC, the EBRD will announce new investments in private sector energy companies. It will also enhance its cooperation on Ukraine with the European Union and other partners, make new municipal financing commitments supporting Ukraine’s cities, and reinforce its support for the private sector by offering new finance through partner banks for on-lending to small- and medium-sized enterprises.
Supporting Ukraine is a priority for the EBRD, founded after the collapse of communism in eastern Europe three decades ago to foster the private sector. The Bank maintains a presence on the ground in Kyiv and, under President Renaud-Basso, who was making her fourth visit to Ukraine in wartime, has sharply increased its financing to the country.
The EBRD has made over €4.2 billion available to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022. It recently secured shareholder agreement for a €4 billion capital increase to continue investing at these levels while the war continues, with the potential for more to come once conditions are in place for full reconstruction.
