Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday that it secured $52.4 billion in external financing in 2025, with more than 70 percent of that total coming through the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) mechanism backed by revenues generated by frozen Russian assets.
This financing has enabled Ukraine to keep macrofacial stability despite Russia’s full-scale invasion by funding social spending, freeing up domestic resources for defense, and containing a war-driven financial shock that would otherwise spill over into Europe.
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The financing “made it possible to fully cover social and humanitarian expenditures, while all domestic financial resources were directed to the security and defense sector,” the ministry wrote in a Dec. 30 press release.
The ministry’s breakdown showed that in 2025, Ukraine’s economy received funds of:
“$52.4 billion is a substantial amount of international financial support… the funds allowed Ukraine to cover pension payments, salaries of public sector employees, particularly in education and healthcare, social protection programs, and humanitarian initiatives,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance Sergiy Marchenko said in a press release.
The final Finance Ministry figure perfectly coincides with a previous estimate by Ukraine’s central bank that Ukraine would receive $54 billion in 2025, with the remainder after mid-year tied largely to the ERA loan and the EU’s Ukraine Facility – as detailed by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) July 2025 Inflation Report.
ERA Loans and EU Ukraine Facility Dominate 2025 Funding Mix
The ministry said that 70 percent, the largest share of budget support, was delivered via the Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) Loan, which is funds repaid from revenues generated by $210 billion of immobilized sovereign Russian assets kept in Belgium’s Euroclear. The total volume of ERA Loan is $50 billion for 2025-2026.
Ukraine’s Finance Ministry reported that the EU has already fully delivered its share under ERA – €18.1 billion ($15.6 billion) – while the remaining funds will be raised in 2026 “to cover next year’s social expenditures.”
On top of ERA, the EU remained Ukraine’s largest financial donor in 2025, the ministry said, reporting $12.1 billion received under the Ukraine Facility, including $668 million in grants.
The Ukraine Facility is structured on a “money for reforms” principle – tying disbursements to reform benchmarks and deadlines, rather than providing unconditional support.
IMF Reviews Unlocked Disbursements, New Program Planned for 2026–29
The ministry also said Ukraine passed two reviews of the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program in 2025, which enabled the disbursement of $912 million, bringing total financing under the program to $10.6 billion.
Separately, Ukraine and the IMF reached a staff-level agreement on a new EFF program for 2026–2029, which the ministry said foresees $8.1 billion in financing and will be submitted to the IMF Executive Board for approval in 2026.
The World Bank financing, the ministry said, supported projects in healthcare, education, private sector development, and public finance management. Japan’s $453 million contribution was channeled through World Bank projects DRIVE ($190 million), SURGE ($183 million), and RISE ($80 million), aimed at roads and bridges resilience, public investment management, and private-sector constraints.
The ministry said Council of Europe Development Bank funding supported uninterrupted payments for internally displaced persons, including housing, food, healthcare, and children’s education.
Kyiv Built 2025 Financial Buffers Through EU, IMF, and Domestic Resources
In March this year, Kyiv Post reported that, for 2025, Ukraine had already secured enough external funding sources to cover social spending and essential government services for 2025, as officials and analysts warned that Washington’s support was not guaranteed after US President Donald Trump took office.
The same Kyiv Post reporting outlined three main stabilizers Kyiv has relied on as contingency buffers – the ERA loan tied to profits from frozen Russian assets, EU and IMF support, and domestic tax revenue and government bonds purchased inside the country.
EU Agreed €90 Billion Loan to Cover Ukraine’s 2026–27 Needs, but Reparations Loan Debate Keeps Russian Assets in Focus
In December, the European Council agreed to provide Ukraine with a €90 billion ($77.6 billion) loan for 2026–2027, aiming to secure the country’s budgetary and military financing as uncertainty persists over longer-term arrangements.
The loan will be raised through EU borrowing on capital markets and backed by EU budget headroom, Kyiv Post reported, describing it as an interim bridge while the EU finalizes the legal and technical design of a separate reparations-based loan mechanism linked to the main cash balance of immobilized Russian sovereign assets, the so-called Reparation Loan.
The EU’s proposed reparations loan stalled earlier amid resistance from several member states and concerns over potential legal and financial risks, while economists and legal experts argued Russia has limited viable legal avenues to challenge such a mechanism.
The debate over how far Europe can go beyond using profits – and toward using immobilized Russian sovereign assets more directly – remains central to Kyiv’s longer-term financing strategy as the war continues into another budget cycle.
