The transaction establishing the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund has been shortlisted for the 2025 CEE Deal of the Year in Ukraine by CEE Legal Matters. The shortlist recognition underscores both the strategic importance and the legal novelty and highest complexity of this first-of-its-kind investment framework intended to mobilize public and private capital into Ukraine, including during wartime and post-war recovery.
Redcliffe Partners advised the U.S. Department of the Treasury and U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) as Ukrainian law counsel on all aspects of this landmark transaction, widely known as the US-Ukraine “Minerals Deal”.
Our team was co-led by Olexiy Soshenko, Managing Partner, and Albert Sych, Partner, with notable support from Natalia Pakhomovska, Of Counsel.
“This Fund is about investing in Ukraine when it matters most, during the war and throughout recovery. The fact that it’s already moved into the project proposal stage within an unprecedentedly short time from the transaction signing is exactly the point: turning strategic agreement into deployable capital,” said Olexiy Soshenko, Managing Partner at Redcliffe Partners.
The Fund’s investment strategy focuses on five priority sectors critical to Ukraine’s resilience and rebuilding: critical minerals and other natural resources, energy, information & communication technology, transportation & logistics, and strategic & emerging technology.
The structure of the deal combines: (i) an international treaty setting out the partnership’s framework (ratified by Ukraine’s Parliament on 8 May 2025), and (ii) a commercial implementation agreement establishing the Fund as a partnership. Among others, the transaction spanned across energy and mining, infrastructure, corporate, contract, regulatory, tax, budget and public finance, and currency control areas.
“It was absolutely about treading new ground, but on terrain we know exceptionally well, since all the relevant legal areas and industries are core specialties at Redcliffe Partners. Delivering the transaction required bespoke solutions and highly complex advice across multiple spheres of Ukrainian law to support a legally novel structure combining international treaty arrangements with a private contractual implementation framework,” said Albert Sych, Partner at Redcliffe Partners.
The Fund has now been actively attracting and collecting project proposals, positioning itself for first investments in 2026. Reported seed capital totals USD 150 million, with the Fund expected to mobilize much more significant resources over time.