Ukraine’s Privatisation Push Signals a Shift From Wartime Survival to Market-Led Reconstruction

Ukraine’s privatisation agenda comes at a difficult but strategically important moment. After more than four years of war, the country faces intense pressure on public finances, damaged infrastructure, and a continuing need to attract foreign capital without relying only on grants and emergency aid. The sale of state assets can help raise money, but the deeper objective is to reduce the state’s role in sectors where private ownership and stronger governance could improve efficiency. This is especially important in banking, where the state still controls more than half of the sector, making the planned sale of Sense Bank and Ukrgasbank politically and financially significant.

The EBRD’s support matters because Ukraine’s privatisation process needs credibility as much as it needs buyers. EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso said the bank could provide financing for future privatisations depending on the buyers, which signals that international institutions may help lower risk for serious investors. This is consistent with the EBRD’s broader role in Ukraine: the bank says it has deployed more than €9.7 billion in the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and describes itself as Ukraine’s largest institutional investor.

The Chornomorsk port concession shows how privatisation is expanding beyond simple asset sales into long-term public-private partnerships. Under the proposed 40-year concession, a private investor would operate and modernise two terminals at the port in the Odesa region, despite recent Russian attacks on Black Sea port infrastructure. The EBRD and IFC are helping the government structure the concession and oversee the tender, which is important because port assets are not only commercial infrastructure but also part of Ukraine’s export capacity, logistics resilience, and post-war recovery strategy.

Ukraine is also trying to build the financial infrastructure needed for a more investable economy. Reuters reported that the EBRD is working with the National Bank of Ukraine, the securities regulator, and the Finance Ministry on reforms aimed at creating a vertically integrated stock exchange handling clearing and depository functions. If successful, this could make Ukraine’s capital markets more transparent and easier for strategic investors to access, creating a stronger platform for future listings, privatisations, and reconstruction finance.

The challenge is that investors will still price in war risk, political risk, and execution risk. Ukraine’s energy system remains a major vulnerability, which explains why the EBRD is also backing power projects, including a funding pipeline for about 700 megawatts of renewable energy and protective shelters for electricity transformers. Separate EBRD projects this year include a $45 million loan for a 106 MW solar and battery storage project and a €75 million package for Ukrhydroenergo to secure critical hydropower equipment. Together, these moves show that Ukraine’s reconstruction strategy is becoming more integrated: sell assets where private capital can improve performance, reform markets to attract investors, and harden energy infrastructure so the economy can function through wartime shocks.