UK-based Amber Infrastructure and Ukraine’s Dragon Capital have been selected as the managers of the European Ukraine Recovery Fund, envisioned as a large-scale investment vehicle of approximately €1 billion. Their joint investment concept was chosen as the winner of a pan-European market selection process organized with the participation of Germany’s development bank KfW. The fund’s primary objective is to mobilize substantial capital and channel it into the recovery and modernization of Ukraine’s economy.
Following the selection of the concept, the project will move to the next stage. KfW, the European Investment Bank, and four other European development banks will conduct comprehensive due diligence of the fund’s structure, investment model, and risk management framework. Subject to a successful outcome of this process, the fund is expected to be officially launched in the summer of 2026. The initiative is being implemented with broad institutional support, involving the governments of Germany, Italy, Poland, and France, their development banks, the European Commission, and the EIB.
The European Ukraine Recovery Fund is designed to attract more than €1 billion from public development banks and private investors, with subsequent direct investments into private-sector projects across key segments of the economy. Priority areas include the restoration and development of energy infrastructure—covering wind and solar generation assets—the modernization of industrial facilities, and the expansion of digital infrastructure, including data centers.
To enhance the fund’s attractiveness for private capital, its structure предусматриває a dedicated first-loss tranche funded by KfW and other public investors. This mechanism is intended to absorb part of the risk and protect private investors from initial losses. The total size of this risk buffer could reach up to €220 million.
With the protective tranche in place, the fund expects to mobilize significant additional private capital. The target fund size for 2026 is estimated at around €800 million, while an improvement in the country’s security situation could allow total assets to exceed €1 billion as early as 2027–2028.
The fund will act as an anchor investor, providing capital to project companies and enterprises. This, in turn, will enable such projects to attract additional equity and debt financing from other investors and banks. With a fund size of around €1 billion, the overall investment multiplier effect could reach €6–7 billion, substantially increasing the resources directed toward Ukraine’s recovery.
The official launch of the European Ukraine Recovery Fund is planned to coincide with the Ukraine Recovery Conference to be held this summer in Poland, after which the fund is expected to begin investment activities immediately.
The relevance of creating such an instrument is underscored by the scale of Ukraine’s reconstruction needs. According to estimates by the World Bank, the United Nations, the European Commission, and the Government of Ukraine, as of December 31, 2024, the country’s reconstruction and recovery needs over the next ten years amount to $524 billion. This figure is nearly 2.8 times higher than Ukraine’s nominal GDP in 2024. Compared with the previous estimate of $486 billion, the needs have increased by 8%, or approximately $37 billion, reflecting the continuing growth in the scale of destruction and the need to attract long-term international capital.
