On June 11-12, 2024, at the Berlin Recovery Conference (URC 2024), Ukraine presented an investment guide, and the EU launched the Investment Program for Ukraine.

The guide provides a detailed overview of key sectors: energy, transport and logistics, agriculture, green metallurgy, pharmaceutical industry and medicine, critical materials, and IT. It also includes 95 investment projects that require approximately $27 billion in funding.

The European Union signed the first guarantee agreement for €1.4 billion under the investment component of the Ukraine Facility program. Thus, the investment program in Ukraine, which will contribute to recovery, particularly in infrastructure, has begun.

In the transport sector, 20 sectoral projects were presented, the highest number compared to other sectors.

Thanks to URC 2024, the government expects to attract $5.3 billion. The sector needs at least four times more for recovery—$19.4 billion.

Due to the war and the closed airspace, Ukraine had to change its transport model and significantly expand ground logistics. By the end of 2023, the total direct damage to the sector was estimated at $33.6 billion.

In the next ten years, $73.7 billion will be needed for restoration and reconstruction.

Among the successful existing projects are three located in the Lviv region (M10 logistics terminals, "Mostyska Dry Port," "Most Terminal"), as well as the Nibulon grain terminal in the port of Izmail and the Risoyla bilateral berth in the port of Chornomorsk.

New planned projects:

Terwin Group, led by Ruslan Shostak, plans to build logistics hubs in four regions for $703 million by 2030. To achieve this, Terwin aims to attract $242 million from investors during 2026-2027 and another $250 million over the following two years. Half of the 400,000 sq. m. of new energy-efficient hubs in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and Dnipro will be used for the corporation’s retail networks—EVA and VARUS. The group expects to lease out the rest.

Rinat Akhmetov's Lemtrans plans to attract $120 million of the required $150 million to purchase 2,000 new gondola cars. This will help Ukraine's largest private transport and forwarding company increase its fleet of gondola cars by over 22%. The company currently occupies one-fifth of the gondola car transport market. With a fleet of over 9,000 units, Akhmetov's company transported 17 million tons of cargo last year.

Agricultural company Tehahro, owned by the Zlochevsky sisters, needs $105 million to build a port terminal in the Odesa region. Overall, the construction of the deep-water sea terminal will cost Tehahro $168.4 million. By May 2024, over €20 million had been invested in the project. The terminal will be part of the company's own industrial park and will benefit from a special tax regime. It is planned to have railway and road connections. Through the terminal, Tehahro expects to handle 6 million tons of grain, about 1 million tons of oilseeds, and 500,000 tons of mineral fertilizers annually.

Transport and logistics are crucial for export-oriented development. Ukraine is moving towards implementing the EU’s Ukraine Facility program, which will stimulate broad economic growth through the development of the transport sector.

Thus, it is necessary to modernize logistics systems, integrate into the EU transport space (TEN-T network), bring the railway sector in line with EU standards, and improve port services. To achieve this, the following priority goals are set:

• Restoration and development of transport infrastructure based on a long-term strategy and meeting the needs of recovery.
• Modernization of export routes to the EU to develop Ukraine's export potential.
• Liberalization in the railway transport sector to ensure a competitive railway transport market.
• Improvement of shipping and port services, ensuring the safety of shipping, the protection of ships and ports, and the efficiency of service provision.

In the road sector, the main public investments are planned:

• Western region – $2 billion for the Zhytomyr ring road and the expansion of the Rivne-Lviv highway. Why was the concession project Lviv-Krakovets (border with Poland) forgotten?
• Southern region – $700 million for the expansion of highways to the ports of Pivdenny and Chornomorsk.
• Bridge over the Dnipro River in Kremenchuk – $325 million; the tender for construction in 2021 was won by the Turkish company Doğuş.
• Bridge over the Dniester River (Yampil, Ukraine, and Cosauti, Moldova) – $190 million; the tender for construction in 2021 was won by the Ukrainian company "Avtostrada."

The same project that the American company Bechtel was supposed to start in 2022, before the full-scale invasion.

In the port sector, a concession is planned for the ferry and container terminals in the port of Chornomorsk, with the investment volume to be determined in the feasibility study.

In the railway sector, a tender has already been announced by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank for $330 million for the supply of electric locomotives. Construction of 81 km of 1435 mm European gauge track from Mostyska II to Sknyliv (Lviv) for a $225 million USAID grant is also being prepared. Potential projects could include the restoration of the European gauge from the Polish border to Kovel for $260 million and from the Romanian border to Chernivtsi for $198 million.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) announced several support programs for Ukraine's recovery and economic development at URC 2024 in Berlin.

The EIB Group is preparing two programs for the restoration of Ukraine's housing stock. The first is a €230 million initiative focused on repairing war-damaged apartment buildings with an emphasis on energy efficiency measures.

The second is aimed at developing and financing affordable housing in Ukraine and will be financed through a €200 million loan program and significant grant resources from the European Commission.

The EIB will provide a €100 million loan for the reconstruction of Ukrainian cities and communities affected by the war, as well as for the repair and construction of schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and local transport to ensure the availability of essential public services.

Additionally, it has approved funding for the 112 emergency response system, railway reconstruction, and metro modernization in Kyiv. Among other things, the EIB is working on creating a pan-European export credit guarantee mechanism of €300 million for small and medium-sized EU companies exporting goods or services to Ukraine by the end of 2024.

Implementing the Ukraine Facility Plan and opening negotiations on joining the European Union are key to carrying out reforms and financing Ukraine's infrastructure recovery.

Therefore, Ukraine needs to put an end to political battles and appoint a new Minister of Infrastructure and Head of the Recovery Agency—there is a lot of work to be done.