Sayenko Kharenko is acting as Ukrainian legal counsel to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in connection with a EUR 32 million financing package for the City of Kharkiv, comprising a EUR 15 million loan from EBRD and a EUR 17 million investment grant from the European Union under the Ukraine Investment Framework. The financing, signed during the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2026 in Gdansk, will enable the acquisition of new distributed, resilient heat- and electricity-generating assets to help restore heat supply following critical wartime damage sustained by the city’s largest combined heat and power plant.
The EBRD loan is supported by a partial first-loss guarantee from the European Union under the Ukraine Investment Framework. The project includes the installation of up to 22 modular boiler houses with cogeneration units and five additional cogeneration units at existing boiler houses. The new infrastructure is expected to provide reliable heat supply to approximately 99,300 residents, including around 16,500 internally displaced persons, as well as 23 educational institutions and seven healthcare facilities, while strengthening the resilience of the city’s energy infrastructure.
EBRD is Ukraine’s largest institutional investor, having substantially increased its investment in the country since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022. Since the start of the war, EBRD has deployed EUR 10.5 billion to support the real economy, with a particular focus on energy security, private-sector resilience and critical infrastructure.
Sayenko Kharenko’s team included Igor Lozenko, Oles Trachuk and Karina Zadorozhna.