Ukraine’s Recovery Architecture

Rebuilding Ukraine is one of the most complex reconstruction efforts Europe has seen in decades. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine has faced staggering destruction—human, economic, infrastructural. The latest Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA5) by the Government of Ukraine, the World Bank Group, the European Commission, and the United Nations estimates that, as of 31 December 2025, the total cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine stood at USD 588 billion over the next decade.

Yet the country’s resilience has been nothing short of extraordinary. Macroeconomic stability has overall been maintained, and growth, though slow – real GDP is estimated to have risen by about 2.0% in 2025 – has continued despite increasingly frequent and severe disruptions to power, water and heat supply thanks to Russian attacks.

Despite the war’s enormous toll, Ukrainian institutions have kept working – sometimes even better than before, as necessity has accelerated reforms. The government met most of the targets set out in the IMF programme (Extended Fund Facility), and it continues to make progress on reforms tied to EU integration. Ukraine successfully completed the screening process against the EU acquis in September 2025, and more quickly than any other candidate country apart from Moldova. Civil society and local communities have stepped up in countless ways.

But this resilience is being tested. The sheer magnitude of recovery needs means that even small gaps in co-ordination or capacity can create major bottlenecks.

Inside the government, one major challenge stands out: people. High staff turnover, understaffed ministries, and frequent reorganisations have eroded continuity. This makes it harder to maintain institutional memory and to co-ordinate effectively with international partners.

Another issue is fragmentation. Ukraine currently uses several overlapping aid‑tracking tools, none of which provide a single reliable view of commitments and spending. Ministries often interact with foreign partners through parallel channels, making it harder to connect the dots.

The report identifies three immediate fixes:

1. A unified, holistic aid‑tracking system
2. A bottleneck analysis focused on human capacity shortages
3. A high‑level steering body under the Prime Minister

This proposed steering body isn’t meant to micromanage recovery streams. Think of it as the central hub that ensures that everyone is rowing in the same direction. Its core tasks would be to:

• co-ordinate major recovery priorities across ministries;
• serve as the main entry point for foreign partners; and
• identify cross‑government capacity shortages and help fix them

By focusing on strategy and high‑level co-ordination- rather than project‑by‑project oversight - it could reduce fragmentation and give international partners a stronger counterpart that can connect them with relevant Ukrainian stakeholders.

Zoom out from Kyiv, and you’ll see similar issues at regional and local levels. Decentralisation since 2014 has strengthened local authorities, but the war has pushed their capacities to the limit. Many local administrations are understaffed, co-ordination mechanisms remain fragmented, and the roles of various stakeholders continue to be vague.

Building local capacities and improving both vertical (local‑to‑national) and horizontal (local‑to‑local) co-ordination will be essential. Ukrainians abroad - the “Ukrainian Global Community” - could also be tapped more systematically to bring in expertise and support.

One of the most ambitious undertakings of Ukraine’s recovery is the country’s Public Investment Management (PIM) reform, which aims to systematise how public projects are planned and funded. But again, capacity constraints and co-ordination gaps risk slowing it down. More funding is needed not only for projects themselves, but also to develop the institutional capacity needed to deliver them.

Beyond PIM, Ukraine’s funding ecosystem is becoming busier and more diverse: state development funds, international partners, investment facilities, and more. That’s great for mobilisation, but it increases the risk of overlap.

One medium‑term idea worth serious reflection is the creation of a Ukrainian Development Bank. If well designed—with a clear mandate, strong governance, and participation from international partners—it could consolidate catalytic capital, co-ordinate different financing instruments, and drive cross‑sectoral recovery.

Ukraine’s partners have stepped up in historic ways. Between January 2022 and October 2025, foreign partners committed around USD 180bn in military aid, USD 174bn in financial assistance and USD 26bn in humanitarian aid. However, with so many donors and mechanisms, we still have, four years into the war, no single, consolidated picture of foreign-funded activities.

Scaling up the Ukraine Donor Platform could help, making it the primary digital hub for tracking partner activities, funding flows, job openings, and knowledge resources.

Greater communication and interaction across foreign partner co-ordination mechanisms could also help reduce duplication and promote practical, on‑the‑ground learning.

The level of donor engagement and co-ordination in support of Ukraine since 2022 is arguably without precedent, in terms of both scale and scope. It has been critical to sustaining Ukraine through four years of war and laying the groundwork for recovery. Yet there is more to be done to ensure that Ukrainian and international actors make best use of scarce resources, both to address short-term needs like the current energy crisis and to pursue the long-term goal of helping Ukraine build a prosperous, peaceful and democratic future for its citizens.

Drawing on consultations with representatives of more than 40 organisations—including Ukrainian state bodies, bilateral donors and international financial institutions— Consolidating Ukraine’s Recovery Architecture: Where It Stands and Next Steps (2026) maps out what’s working – and what’s not – and explores how co-ordination can be strengthened both inside Ukraine and among its international partners.