Ukraine’s roads are set for a major upgrade after the European Investment Bank announced it will provide a 450 million euro loan to improve the country’s highways to better connect them with Europe’s infrastructure.
The bank said its loan is the largest yet provided to a member nation of the European Union’s Eastern Partnership.
The project will be co-financed by a further 450 million euro loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The money will be spent on improving some 350 kilometers of five sections of highways branching out from Kyiv.
The improvements will cover roads connecting Dresden in Germany with Kyiv via Katowice in Poland and Lviv, as well as the Moscow-Kyiv-Odesa route.
Ukraine’s potholed and neglected roads have in recent years improved, largely thanks to loans from international lenders, such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank.
“The current project … will upgrade Ukraine’s priority transport links with the neighboring EU member states and the adjacent Belarus and Russia.
It is also a good example of collaboration with the EBRD, our partner financial institution, in implementing important projects of mutual interest to Ukraine and the EU,” said Eva Srejber, vice president of the European Investment Bank.
Kyiv Post editor James Marson can be reached at [email protected]
