The private sector is both optimistic and realistic about Ukraine's economic future, according to U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Economic Recovery Penny Pritzker.

"I brought the private sector here, our CEOs, because our private sector has confidence in Ukraine's economic resilience, in your people, in the potential, and in the long-term prospects," she said at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday.

This is true, Pritzker said, even though the United States and Ukraine's other international partners acknowledge the difficulties the country faces due to Russian attacks on energy infrastructure and outages.

"I think the private sector is both optimistic and realistic about Ukraine's economic future. It's going to be hard, but their optimism is grounded in facts and what I've seen personally over the past several months," the special representative said.

She said despite the war with Russia, Ukraine's GDP grew by 5% last year and by 4.1% in the first half of this year.

"There's no doubt that the attack on energy is slowing the economy, but it's hard to not pay attention to the fact that there's been a 17 percent increase in investment, tax revenues have surged 25%, 37,000 new businesses created last year, which is more than in 2021, and half of those businesses created by women," Pritzker said. 

Pritzker arrived in Ukraine with three U.S. executives – John Heller, CEO of Amentum, Bob Clark, executive chairman and founder of Clayco, and Patrick Fragman, president and CEO of Westinghouse.

The special representative said that she and the executives held a series of government meetings and then went to the Okhmatdyt hospital, which was damaged by Russian shelling.