According to preliminary data, Ukraine’s international reserves decreased by $3.79 billion, or 7.3%, in April and stood at $48.22 billion as of May 1, 2026, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on Thursday.
“This trend was driven by the fact that the National Bank’s foreign exchange interventions and the country’s foreign currency debt payments exceeded proceeds from the placement of foreign currency government bonds and from international partners,” the regulator noted on its website.
According to the published data, net international reserves in April decreased by $3.71 billion, or 10.0%, compared to March, to $33.47 billion.
It is noted that the share of U.S. dollar-denominated assets in international reserves as of April 1, 2026, rose to 71.0% from 70.4% at the beginning of March, while the share of euro-denominated assets fell to 19.4% from 20.3%. A year ago, the share of dollar-denominated assets in reserves was 82.9%, and that of euro-denominated assets was 10.0%.
The share of gold in international reserves as of early May was 8.3%, compared to 7.7% a month earlier and 6.2% a year earlier.
As of May 1, 2026, securities accounted for 59.5% of the international reserves, cash, funds in correspondent accounts, and deposits for 32.2%, and monetary gold for 8.3%, while a month earlier these shares stood at 55.4%, 36.8%, and 7.7%, respectively, and a year ago at 60.0%, 33.7%, and 6.2%.
As noted in the report, $377.9 million was received in the government’s foreign currency accounts at the National Bank in April, including $339.4 million from the placement of foreign currency government bonds and $38.5 million through World Bank accounts.
In addition, Ukraine received a $1.01 billion loan under an agreement with the United Kingdom within the framework of the Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration for Ukraine (ERA) mechanism; however, these funds were not credited to Ukraine’s international reserves due to their restricted purpose.
At the same time, the Ukrainian government paid $716.6 million for servicing and repaying foreign-currency government debt, including $433.7 million for servicing and repaying foreign-currency government bonds, $186.7 million for servicing and repaying debt to the World Bank, $73.4 million for servicing and repaying debt to the EU, and $22.8 million for debt to other creditors.
In addition, Ukraine paid $255.3 million to the International Monetary Fund.
On Ukraine’s foreign exchange market, the National Bank sold nearly $3.58 billion in April, which is $1.18 billion less than in March.
The revaluation of financial instruments in April increased the value of reserves by $378.0 million.
“The current level of international reserves provides financing for 4.9 months of future imports,” the National Bank added.
As reported in the regulator’s April macroeconomic forecast, the forecast for international reserves in 2026 remained virtually unchanged—$64.8 billion versus $65.0 billion in the January forecast.
At the same time, for 2027, the National Bank lowered its forecast for reserves to $66.5 billion from $72.9 billion, which is $6.4 billion, or 8.8%, less than the January estimate, and for 2028—to $61.1 billion from $70.6 billion, which is $9.5 billion, or 13.5%, less.
