Large-scale postwar reconstruction of Ukraine is often perceived as a process that will only begin after hostilities cease. Yet for domestic business, it is already an everyday reality: companies are simultaneously repairing facilities damaged by Russian strikes, relocating production capacities, creating backup power sources, restructuring supply chains, and investing in new equipment. In effect, businesses are carrying out tasks that in peacetime would be part of a large-scale reconstruction program. According to RBC-Ukraine, it is domestic capital that today serves as the main driver of the economy, while international investors remain cautious due to war risks, the lack of broad insurance coverage, and opaque rules of the game.
Why Ukrainian Business Is Investing “Here and Now”
Andrei Erashov, head of the analytical center of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs (SUP), emphasizes that domestic entrepreneurs are investing not because risks are falling, but because they clearly understand that without new investment there may be no production, no jobs, and no national economy at all by tomorrow. “For Ukrainian business, investing during the war is not just about profit. It is about the survival of companies, the preservation of markets, and preparation for future recovery,” Erashov notes. Financial expert Serhiy Fursa describes this dynamic as “the natural logic of operating under current conditions”: business is already operating in Ukraine, earning income here, and developing its own assets. An additional factor, he says, is the capital repatriation restrictions that have been in place for several years, which make it more natural to channel earnings in the country into one’s own growth than to leave them unused. It is precisely this mechanism, Fursa assesses, that keeps the economy alive even in the most difficult period.
Why Foreign Capital Is Still Cautious
Ukraine’s economy during the war period depends to a large extent on external financial assistance, which helps sustain the budget, social spending, and humanitarian programs. Direct investment in productive assets, however, remains significantly more complex. International investors remain cautious: the main reason is war risk — it is hard for an investor to assess whether an asset will retain its value in the event of a new shelling. This is compounded by the lack of broad insurance coverage and insufficiently transparent rules. “In Ukraine, the main deterrent for international investment remains the war, which poses a threat to assets, personnel, logistics, energy, and the continuity of production,” Andrei Erashov states. Oksana Prodan, head of the All-Ukrainian Association of Small and Medium Business “Fortetsia,” explains the situation more simply: “Ukrainian business is made up of people who were born here and continue to live in Ukraine, whereas foreign investors have a choice and, as a rule, wait for peace and security.”
Sectors and Geography of Investment
Companies from various industries are already investing in their own future: the agricultural sector, construction, logistics, metallurgy, and energy are all developing. Large enterprises are maintaining production and building new supply chains, while alongside them thousands of medium and local companies are restoring regional economies and preserving local employment. According to Oksana Prodan, municipalities are actively creating technoparks for Ukrainian producers, which forms an additional infrastructural foundation for future growth. Thus, recovery is already underway “from the bottom up” — through thousands of private decisions, not only through state programs.
Rinat Akhmetov and SCM: the Largest Private Investor in Recovery
Among the country’s largest private investors, business models may differ, but the investment logic is similar: not merely to preserve existing assets, but to restructure them for new conditions. In terms of the volume of own investment in recovery, the largest private investor in Ukraine is Rinat Akhmetov — founder of the SCM holding. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, his businesses have invested more than 150 billion hryvnias (nearly 4 billion dollars) in restoring destroyed infrastructure, building new facilities, and modernizing production. This refers specifically to own investment in recovery and development that SCM is carrying out right now, without waiting for a large inflow of international private capital. In 2025, the company set a record, directing nearly 1.4 billion dollars (or 60 billion hryvnias) in capital investment to development — 57.9% more than in the previous year. During the war, the Akhmetov holding directed about 1 billion dollars directly to restoring facilities damaged by Russian attacks, primarily in the energy sector.
What This Means for the Postwar Economy
The combination of these factors creates a picture in which Ukraine’s recovery does not start “from scratch” after a peace agreement is signed. A significant portion of production capacities, logistics routes, and energy infrastructure has already been restructured or is in the process of being restructured by domestic business. This reduces the so-called “lag” between the end of hostilities and real economic growth, but it also creates a challenge: the postwar inflow of foreign capital will have to integrate into an already formed structure of assets, not into a vacuum. For Ukrainian companies, the key task remains maintaining operational resilience amid ongoing risks, while for the state — creating an institutional environment that will allow current domestic investment to be converted into a long-term inflow of international funds.
