Ukrainian Railways (UZ) has secured €130 million in emergency liquidity support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as Russian strikes on ports, railways and increasingly locomotives push the operator's costs up and threaten freight capacity.

EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso and Ukraine's Minister of Recovery, Infrastructure and Transport Mykola Kalashnyk signed the agreement in Berlin. The funds are earmarked to keep essential freight and passenger services running and to back UZ's financial resilience and reform programme.

The deal lands at a difficult operational moment. Speaking at InnoTrans in Berlin, UZ's CEO said Russia has increasingly been targeting locomotives — a shift that drives up the company's operating costs and compounds the damage already inflicted on ports and rail infrastructure.

What does the Romanian deal change?

In parallel with the financing, a Ukrainian delegation travelled to Constanța, Romania's Black Sea port city, for talks with Kalashnyk's counterparts on expanding the country's main safe route to the sea.

Constanța is the nearest available safe seaport for Ukraine, and Romania currently runs six daily train services connecting Ukraine to the port. Both sides agreed to maintain that frequency for now. To allow more Ukrainian trains to reach Constanța, Romania committed to accelerating repairs of port and rail infrastructure.

The agenda covered several practical measures:

• Priority customs clearance for Ukrainian goods
• A joint information tool to coordinate carriers and port operators
• Potential additional capacity at the Danube river ports of Galați and Brăila, where discussions have now been launched

For shippers and forwarders routing cargo through the Black Sea corridor, the commitments matter directly. Faster customs handling and a shared coordination platform between carriers and port operators would cut dwell times at a border crossing that has repeatedly jammed under wartime volumes. Extra Danube capacity at Galați and Brăila would open alternatives if Constanța saturates.

Why the money is needed now

The €130 million addresses a cash problem as much as a damage problem. With locomotives increasingly in Russian crosshairs, UZ must repair or replace traction assets while sustaining both freight and passenger operations. Emergency liquidity keeps wheels turning before longer-term reconstruction finance arrives.

The EBRD described its support for Ukraine as steadfast, and the new tranche sits within that broader engagement. For carriers and logistics firms depending on Ukrainian rail — including operators moving grain and bulk cargo towards Black Sea and Danube outlets — the signal is that UZ's service continuity has a lender of last resort behind it.

What comes next

The immediate watchpoints are execution: whether Romania's promised infrastructure repairs translate into more than six daily trains to Constanța, and whether the Galați and Brăila talks produce firm additional Danube capacity. Kalashnyk's meetings in Constanța suggest Kyiv wants both secured before the next wave of reconstruction freight volumes builds.