Since the full-scale invasion, the role of international financial institutions (IFIs) shifted from developmental finance toward emergency response and resilience. They provided financial resources, policy advice, and technical assistance.
While Ukraine also receives important support from other IFIs this section focuses on four key institutions – the World Bank Group (WBG), EBRD, EIB, and KfW – and synthesizes findings from four essays on their role in Ukraine’s recovery prepared by members of the RRR4U Coalition. In the essays authors primarily concentrated at the IFIs financing to business, though with references to the public sector as well.
Across institutions, we observe a wartime shift toward sovereign and municipal projects, cautious private-sector engagement, and procedures that remain calibrated for peacetime risk and capacity. There is a mismatch between Ukraine’s emergency reality and the operating models of IFIs. Projects are delayed by heavy due diligence and fragmented procurement rules, private lending is constrained by war and currency risks, and SMEs face documentation burdens they cannot realistically meet during wartime. At the same time, temporary fast-track solutions introduced since 2022 have helped.
There is a need for a set of practical adjustments for IFIs and the EU:
- institutionalize wartime flexibilities,
- expand risk-sharing guarantees to unlock private lending,
- introduce hryvnia-denominated instruments,
- simplify SME access through lighter templates and training,
- scale defense and dual-use financing,
- unify procurement around Prozorro,
- and substantially increase transparency of selection and rejection decisions.
These changes are meant to preserve core safeguards while making access predictable and fast.
Ukraine should implement reforms to accelerate investments. Continued rule-of-law and property-rights reforms, a stable tax and business environment, and stronger tools to mitigate FX and military risks would reduce the risk premium embedded in every deal.
If both sides move in parallel, IFI support can shift from essential emergency aid to a long-term engine for private-sector renewal and critical infrastructure modernization.