The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which allocated EUR 1.7 billion in financing to Ukraine last year, has provided another EUR 1.2 billion since the beginning of this year and intends to maintain a high level of support in the future, EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the government and the Ukrainian business community during her third trip to Kyiv during the war.

"Passing this milestone reaffirms the EBRD's unwavering commitment to supporting your country. Our partnership is also a testament to the resilience and potential of Ukraine's economy, its financial and business sectors, and the courage of its entrepreneurs and people," she was quoted as saying at a meeting on Friday with the Ukrainian head of state in a bank press release.

The EBRD recalled that it has committed to deploy at least EUR 3 billion of financing in Ukraine's real economy in 2022-23 and to play a key role in future reconstruction. The EBRD's primary focus is on maintaining energy and food security, restoring infrastructure, providing trade finance and supporting the private sector.

In addition to negotiations with President Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, the EBRD leader met with First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko; Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna; Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko and Governor of the National Bank Andriy Pyshnyy.

The EBRD President also met clients and representatives of the banking and business community, as well as staff in the bank's office in Kyiv, where the EBRD has intensified its presence, including through high-level visits to support contacts with clients and authorities.

The bank recalled that while its initial crisis response focused on providing emergency liquidity to the real economy, now the bank is increasingly focusing on providing finance for emergency repairs and rebuilding of infrastructure coming under Russian attack.

To this end, the bank has focused on improving road and rail supply routes in and out of Ukraine to counter uncertainty over the main shipping routes through Black Sea ports, which have been affected by the war. The bank provided EUR 182 million to upgrade a section of road between Lviv in the western part of Ukraine and Rava-Ruska on the Polish border. This is in line with the European Solidarity Lanes initiative to boost road and rail access, in which the EBRD is also investing EUR 300 million.

Another focus has been on supporting trade and increasing access to finance for Ukrainian private companies, primarily small and medium-sized enterprises. The bank has a network of 14 partner financial institutions (PFIs) in Ukraine that facilitate the crucial flow of finance to the real economy. Through these instruments, and by providing senior credit lines, the bank has since the start of the war supported more than EUR 750 million of trade and more than EUR 800 million of new lending to private companies operating in agribusiness and other critical sectors of the Ukrainian economy.

According to the press release, at the EBRD's 2023 Annual Meeting in Samarkand, the bank's Governors recognised that additional shareholder support would be needed for the bank to sustain its work in Ukraine, in wartime and in reconstruction. EBRD management and the Board are preparing a proposal for a paid-in capital increase for final decision by the end of 2023.