€16 million, with EU support, will support procurement of modern trolleybuses and infrastructure improvements
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending €16 million to the City of Cherkasy in Ukraine to finance the purchase of modern trolleybuses and the upgrade of related infrastructure for the city. The investment will strengthen sustainable urban mobility and ensure uninterrupted public transport services amid the wartime challenges facing Ukraine.
The loan, fully guaranteed by the City, will be co-financed by an investment grant of up to €4 million from the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund and will benefit from partial first loss risk cover under the European Union’s Ukraine Investment Framework Municipal Infrastructure and Industrial Resilience Programme (UIF MIIR). This promotes green transition and resilience in Ukraine’s economy by supporting sustainable investments in green city infrastructure, greening logistics chains, energy efficiency and green technology transfers.
The financing will enable Cherkasyelektrotrans, the municipal public transport operator in Cherkasy, to expand its fleet with new low-floor trolleybuses, modernise depots and other infrastructure, and extend and realign three trolleybus routes.
The project forms part of the EBRD’s Resilience and Livelihoods Framework, aimed at safeguarding essential municipal services during wartime. It will improve mobility for residents, including internally displaced people, and significantly reduce polluting emissions, contributing to better air quality. Aligned with the Paris Agreement’s mitigation and adaptation goals, the project is classified as 100 per cent green finance.
It also promotes inclusion by increasing accessibility for passengers with limited mobility and supporting gender equality through a partnership with UN Women’s She Drives programme, which will train and certify women and youth as trolleybus drivers.
By investing in Cherkasy’s public transport system, the EBRD is helping to maintain vital services, strengthen resilience and advance Ukraine’s green transition during a time of unprecedented challenge.
The EBRD has substantially increased its investments in Ukraine since Russia began its full-scale war there in 2022, deploying more than €8.5 billion to support energy security, vital infrastructure, food security, trade and the private sector.
JSC Turboatom (Kharkiv) in April plans to deliver a first modernized rotor under a contract to modernize high- and medium-press cylinders of reactor two of Yuzhnoukrainsk nuclear power plant for the total amount of UAH 300 million.
According to a report on Turboatom’s website, the contract was signed on February 25 by Turboatom Director General Viktor Subotin and Director of the Atomkomplekt division of National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom Ruslan Zhmudsky.
According to Subotin, the signed agreement is the first contract to modernize the flow section of this type of turbine in Ukraine. The company has already performed similar work for customers outside the country, including at reactor five of Kozloduy NPP (Bulgaria).
“An entire program to modernize the flow sections of the reactors of Ukraine, both of our turbines and of Russian ones, is ahead,” the press service said, citing Subotin.
In turn, Zhmudsky said that the signed contract is part of the approved five-year modernization program.
“The program is designed until 2024, and in the situation that has developed now (namely, lack of funding for the construction of new reactors), the modernization of existing equipment will give us up to 10% of additional capacity,” he said.
According to Deputy Director General of Yuzhnoukrainsk NPP Andriy Petruk, the plant has been using Turboatom’s equipment for many years.
“The most important thing for us is the import substitution program, with which Turboatom helps us. The modernization, the contract for which has been signed, will increase the electric power by approximately 100 MW,” he said.
According to Turboatom General Designer Yevhen Levchenko, the five-year program provides for the modernization of seven more of the same reactors: one at Yuzhnoukrainsk NPP and six at Zaporizhia NPP.
“The next step is the modernization not of our turbines, but of the turbines manufactured by Russia’s Power Machines,” he added.
Cygnet agricultural company plans to invest $700,000 in reconstruction and modernization of its sugar refinery in Zhytomyr region in 2018.
According to a posting on the company’s website, the works are intended to increase efficiency of the sugar refinery to 2,750 tonnes a day, reduce gas, limestone, coal, raw materials consumption and boost the quality of finished products.
Overhauls and current repair would start in the first half of April.
The company also said that Cygnet sowed 59% of areas with corn, 14% with soybeans, 14% with sugar beets and 10% with winter wheat.
As reported, Cygnet in 2017 invested $2.7 million in the modernization of a sugar factory in Zhytomyr region.
The company cultivates 25,000 hectares in Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia regions, where it grows corn, soybeans, wheat, and sugar beets.
Cygnet also has a dairy business line (about 700 cows), its products are sold to local processors, and the elevator capacity is 60,000 tonnes.
