EU Chief Ursula von der Leyen has unveiled billions of euros in funding and a new equity fund to help rebuild Ukraine ahead of Thursday’s Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome.
The funding consists of €2.3 billion ($2.7 billion), comprising €1.8 billion ($2.1 billion) in loan guarantees and €580 million ($677 million) in grants, mainly from private investments, she said.
“With €2.3 billion in agreements signed, we aim to unlock up to €10 billion [$11 billion] in investments to rebuild homes, reopen hospitals, revive businesses and secure energy,” von der Leyen said in a statement, according to AFP.
In addition, the EU is creating a “European flagship fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine” with an initial capital of €220 million ($257 million).
She called it the “largest equity fund globally to support reconstruction” that would “kickstart investment in energy, transport, critical raw materials and dual use industries.”
The European Commission says the fund aims to raise €500 million ($584 million) by 2026.
The same day, Ukraine said it had received an additional €1 billion (almost $1.2 billion) tranche from the European Union under the G7-backed Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) initiative.
The funding is the sixth payment to Ukraine through the ERA, financed by interest income from frozen Russian sovereign assets.
Russia’s full-scale war has caused an estimated $170 billion in direct damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure. In 2024, this amount increased by $12.6 billion due to further missile attacks and ongoing fighting, Kyiv Post previously wrote, citing data from the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE).
In 2024, the World Bank estimated that rebuilding Ukraine could cost nearly $500 billion after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.