A credit of trust. How EU-backed financing from UGB (Ukrgasbank) helped a farming family from Kherson Oblast restore their holding after occupation

When Kherson Oblast was de-occupied, Vladyslav and Viktoria Vovchenko returned to their holding. The sowing season lay ahead, but they could not begin it straight away.

The fields where the family had spent years growing wheat, barley, sunflowers, and rapeseed needed to be demined. Part of the production infrastructure had been damaged, machinery needed repairing, and the holding itself effectively had to be rebuilt after months of occupation. The war had changed not only the conditions of their work, but also its cost.

On top of the usual expenses for seeds, fertilisers, crop protection products, and fuel, new costs had emerged — restoring damaged property, repairing machinery, and additional logistics and security expenditure. The holding lacked sufficient working capital to deal with all of this simultaneously and get into the fields on time.

At the same time, there was no time to wait. In agriculture, a missed sowing season means far more than a single lost harvest. It means a broken production cycle, financial losses, and the risk that the holding may not be able to operate fully the following year either.

This is why the Vovchenko couple decided to seek credit financing. They approached several banks but received rejections each time. The reason was the same: the holding operates near the front line, making the risks for a lender too high. Moreover, the collateral available was insufficient to secure the required level of financing. For many entrepreneurs, such a situation would have meant yet another lost season. But this time, a solution was found.

UGB (Ukrgasbank) agreed to finance the farming holding under a guarantee from the European Investment Fund (EIF) — part of the European Investment Bank Group, which is the financial arm of the European Union. This guarantee, provided under the EU4Business initiative with financial support from the EU, allows the EIF to assume a portion of the credit risks, enabling UGB to support businesses operating in challenging conditions without sufficient collateral.

Vladyslav Vovchenko:

“When you’re turned down for the fourth time, you’re already resigned to the fact that you simply won’t be sowing your fields this season. We weren’t asking for anything extraordinary — just a chance to work on our own land. When UGB said ‘yes’, my hands were shaking slightly. It wasn’t about the money. It was about someone believing we could manage.”

For the Vovchenko family, this decision meant a return to normal work. The funds received were directed towards the sowing campaign: purchasing seeds, fertilisers, crop protection products, and fuel, meeting tax obligations, and covering other production needs. As a result, the holding completed all field work on time and sowed 340 hectares of land.

Viktoria Vovchenko:

“This field is far more than a business. It’s for the sake of this land that we came home after the occupation. When you see the first grain sprouting on land that was recently demined, you realise that all those months of struggling with paperwork and rejections were worth it. We are grateful that a bank and international partners were found who saw us not as a risk, but as people who want to work.”

The Vovchenkos’ story is just one example of the challenges businesses face today in de-occupied territories and regions that remain close to the front line. Many enterprises have the experience, land, machinery, and willingness to work, but due to war-related risks are not always able to obtain financing on standard market terms.

This is precisely why international guarantee programmes are becoming one of the most important tools for supporting the Ukrainian economy. They help banks lend to businesses that under normal circumstances might be left without access to financing, and help entrepreneurs develop their businesses even in the conditions of a full-scale war.

Rodion Morozov, Acting Chairman of the Board of UGB:

“For us, financing businesses near the front line is a deliberate strategy. As long as there is land in Ukraine that can be sown and people ready to work it, the bank is obliged to find an instrument to support them. The partnership with the European Investment Fund gives us that opportunity — to share risks with international partners where standard lending mechanisms do not work. It is important to us that de-occupied territories do not remain economically exhausted, but return to life alongside the people returning to them. Every hectare sown thanks to such financing is proof that the Ukrainian economy is moving forward even under the pressure of war.”

Marjut Falkstedt, Chief Executive of the European Investment Fund:

“Through our cooperation with Ukrainian banks, including UGB (Ukrgasbank), the EIB Group is helping small businesses and individuals receive the support they need to withstand the war and continue contributing to Ukraine’s economy, despite the extraordinary challenges they face every day. This is our way of showing the Ukrainian people that Europe stands with them.”

In Kherson Oblast alone, from the end of 2025 to July 2026, UGB financed 10 agricultural projects using international guarantees totalling more than UAH 53 million (according to Bank data). The funds were directed towards sowing and harvesting campaigns, the purchase of seeds, fertilisers, fuel, spare parts, and other production needs of farming holdings.

The Vovchenko family’s story shows that even in the most challenging conditions, businesses are ready to work and grow. Sometimes all it takes is a single timely decision. In this case, that decision was a loan that helped not just to carry out the sowing season, but to preserve the holding, give it the opportunity to plan for the next season, and continue doing what farmers do best — growing Ukrainian grain.

Source: Forbes.ua