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U.S. DFC approves €85 million loan to DTEK for battery storage expansion in Ukraine

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has approved an €85 million (approximately $97.5 million) loan to Ukrainian energy company DTEK to expand battery energy storage systems in Ukraine. The loan is part of a broader DFC investment package of more than $8 billion covering projects in Ukraine, Jordan, and several African countries, and is the largest DFC financing in Ukraine's energy sector since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Key points

  • DFC approved an €85 million (~$97.5 million) loan to DTEK on 17 September 2026 to expand battery energy storage in Ukraine.
  • The project involves a 200 MW / 400 MWh storage system, enough to power roughly 600,000 Ukrainian households for two hours.
  • It is the largest DFC debt deal in Ukraine's energy sector since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022 and one of the largest DFC loans for Ukraine overall.
  • Six storage systems built by DTEK with U.S. firm Fluence's GridStack technology are already operating in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast; the full portfolio was commissioned in September 2025.
  • The loan is part of a DFC investment package exceeding $8 billion approved for projects in Ukraine, Jordan and African countries.
  • The same DFC package also includes financing for Vodafone Ukraine to modernize critical telecoms infrastructure, a desalination project in Jordan, and up to $155 million for digital infrastructure firm WIOCC in Africa.
  • DFC CEO Ben Black said U.S. President Donald Trump authorized the corporation to make this investment.

Why it matters

The DFC loan is the largest piece of U.S. development-finance debt for Ukraine's energy sector since Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022, and it directly funds battery storage capacity that helps stabilize a grid under regular Russian attack. By tying the investment explicitly to authorization from U.S. President Donald Trump, DFC framed the deal as high-level U.S. backing for Ukraine's energy security. The €85 million for DTEK is also one slice of a broader $8 billion-plus DFC package that spans telecoms infrastructure in Ukraine, water and digital projects in Jordan and Africa — a signal that Washington is pairing Ukrainian reconstruction with commercial-development priorities across several regions.

What happened

On 17 September 2026, the board of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) approved an €85 million (around $97.5 million) loan to Ukrainian energy company DTEK. The credit finances the expansion of battery energy storage systems in Ukraine and supports a project with a capacity of 200 MW / 400 MWh, equivalent to roughly two hours of supply for about 600,000 Ukrainian households. DTEK's CEO Maksym Tymchenko said the loan allows the company to redirect more of its own funds into additional battery storage and other projects, and that it carries an important signal of DFC's willingness to support Ukraine. DFC's CEO Ben Black said the corporation was authorized to make the investment by U.S. President Donald Trump. The credit is described as the largest DFC financing in Ukraine's energy sector since the 2022 invasion and one of the largest DFC debt deals for Ukraine overall. It sits inside a broader DFC package of more than $8 billion approved for projects in Ukraine, Jordan and African countries, which also includes financing for Vodafone Ukraine, a seawater desalination plant in Jordan, and up to $155 million in digital infrastructure firm WIOCC in Africa, as well as a $500 million trade finance mechanism run with the World Bank's International Finance Corporation.

Background

DTEK is Ukraine's largest private energy company, founded in 2005, owned by Rinat Akhmetov through SCM Holdings, led by CEO Maksym Tymchenko and headquartered in Kyiv; the group employs roughly 55,000–60,000 people. DFC is a U.S. government development finance institution created in 2019 under the BUILD Act on the basis of OPIC and the USAID Development Credit Authority, headquartered in Washington, D.C.; at the end of FY2025 its active portfolio stood at about $43.4 billion against a congressionally set exposure cap of $205 billion. The storage project uses GridStack systems manufactured by U.S. company Fluence; six storage facilities built by DTEK with this technology are already connected to the grid in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and the full portfolio was commissioned in September 2025 after six months of construction. In June 2025, DTEK and GE Vernova signed a memorandum of understanding during the Ukraine Recovery Conference URC 2026 in Gdańsk, witnessed by First Deputy Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, to build a 650 MW combined-cycle gas turbine plant at the Burshtyn power station. Separately, a U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington unanimously rejected a Russian appeal and upheld U.S. jurisdiction in a case concerning enforcement of a $300+ million arbitral award related to DTEK assets seized by Russia in occupied Crimea.