The EU is providing a €44 million grant to support a €180 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for Ukrainian Railways to install up to 200 MW of small-scale gas-fired power generation at sites across Ukraine.
The grant, provided under the EU’s Ukraine Investment Framework, is designed to back the EBRD loan signed in December 2024 and increase the overall financing available for the project, the European External Action Service (EEAS) announced on Tuesday.
The wider package also includes a parallel grant of £20 million — about €24 million — from the UK government to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund, which is administered through the Energy Community Secretariat.
The funding will be used to supply and install decentralised power generation — smaller units spread across multiple locations — at selected Ukrainian Railways sites, with the EBRD saying the project is intended to help address an electricity deficit and maintain energy supplies for households and businesses.
Ukraine has lost more than 10 GW of electricity generation capacity since the start of the full-scale war, while energy infrastructure has faced regular and intensifying attacks in 2025.
Training, station upgrades and accessibility
A further €3 million from the EU grant will go towards setting up an in-house training and veterans’ reintegration facility known as the UZ Academy, which is expected to train between 1,000 and 1,200 Ukrainian Railways employees each year, the organisations said.
The EBRD is also providing a separate €10 million accessibility grant for urgent upgrades at major stations in Kyiv and Lviv, including step-free access and energy-efficient lighting.
The upgrades are intended to improve access for disabled people, passengers with young children, older people and others with reduced mobility, while the new lighting is expected to improve safety around stations.
Ukrainian Railways is a government-owned national operator that runs around 20,000 km of railway network and related infrastructure.
