Are all Ukrainian cities today ready to raise funds through municipal bonds?

Intuitively, it seems that the largest communities have equal opportunities. Our analysis showed that this is not the case.

The EU-LEAP team assessed the financial capacity and institutional conditions of Ukraine's five largest cities — Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro, and Kharkiv — with regard to potential municipal bond issuance.

The results of the study show that the readiness of communities varies significantly:

🔹 Lviv and Odesa currently demonstrate the highest level of readiness. Lviv has practical experience issuing domestic local loan bonds worth UAH 900 million and fully redeeming them ahead of schedule in 2024-2025, which indicates quality debt management and sufficient budget liquidity. Odesa has zero direct debt, a stable budget base, and the highest credit rating among the cities analyzed, with a stable outlook.

🔹 Kyiv has significant experience working with the capital market, but needs to resolve certain debt and institutional issues.

🔹 Dnipro and Kharkiv have potential to use this instrument in the future, but their readiness is currently significantly limited by war-related risks.

At the same time, the study showed that even under conditions of full-scale war, the communities analyzed retain a sufficiently high level of financial autonomy, and their debt burden remains significantly below the legally established limits.

📄 For detailed results of the analysis, a comparative assessment of the cities' financial capacity, risk analysis, and conclusions on the prospects for using municipal bonds in Ukraine, read the full report.

The project is implemented with the support of the Askold and Dir Fund, administered by ISAR Ednannia within the framework of the project "Strong Civil Society of Ukraine – A Driver of Reforms and Democracy," funded by Norway and Sweden.

The content of this publication is the responsibility of the EU-LEAP Analytical Center and does not necessarily reflect the views of ISAR Ednannia, or the governments of Norway and Sweden.

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