KYIV (Reuters) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will provide a 50-million-euro ($54 million) loan to one of Ukraine’s biggest banks, state-owned Ukreximbank, under an agreement signed on Friday.
Matteo Patrone, EBRD’s Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, said in a statement that the funding would help keep finance flowing to Ukraine’s private sector and municipalities despite Russia’s war on its neighbour.
Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 has hit the Ukrainian economy hard, devastating Ukraine’s infrastructure and denting its industrial production capacity.
“In wartime as well as during the post-war recovery it is fundamental for Ukreximbank clients in priority sectors to have access to investments, commercial funds, and war-risk coverage. New financing from the EBRD will definitely strengthen the resilience and adaptability of Ukraine’s economy,” said Oleksandr Shchur, a member of Ukreximbank’s Management Board.
The EBRD said that the financing needs of municipalities were increasing, especially in the west of Ukraine, where towns and cities hosted tens of thousands of people and many businesses which fled from frontline eastern regions.
The loan agreement was signed at the EBRD’s headquarters a day after Ukrainian officials wrapped up the Ukraine Recovery conference in London. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukraine had secured dozens of billions of dollars in direct budget support from its Western partners and several hundred private companies indicated their desire to invest in Ukraine.
“The next task is to implement agreements on war risk insurance for investors and help the first companies to enter Ukraine under these security guarantees,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.
($1 = 0.9195 euros)
(Reporting by Olena Harmash, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
