The State Statistical Service (SSS) reported that construction output decreased by 9.4% y-o-y in real terms in March, following an 8.4% drop in February, bringing the 1Q26 contraction to -4.7% y-o-y after +11% in 2025.

Ukraine’s underground gas storage (UGS) inventories increased by 5.1% m-o-m and 82% y-o-y, to 10.2 bcm by end-April, with average injections accelerating to 15 million cubic meters (mcm) per day compared to just 2 mcm per day in April 2025. Cross-border net inflows fell by 97% m-o-m and 92% y-o-y to a mere 17 mcm, bringing 4M26 net inflows to 2.1 bcm, up 2.2x y-o-y.

Ukraine’s anticorruption agencies formally served a notice of suspicion on former presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak in a case involving the laundering of UAH 460m ($10.5m) through an elite housing development near Kyiv, the National Anticorruption Bureau (NABU) said in a statement. President Volodymyr Zelensky's spokesman said it was too early to comment on the charges against Yermak, who headed the presidential office in 2020-2025, as procedural actions ⁠were ongoing.

The EU plans to release the first EUR 9bn tranche from the recently approved EUR 90bn Ukraine Support Loan (USL) no later than June, European Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari said during yesterday’s press briefing. The disbursement will consist of a EUR 5.9bn tranche under the defense component directed toward the procurement of Ukraine-made drones (out of EUR 28bn allocated for defense this year) and EUR 3.2bn in macro-financial assistance (MFA) (out of EUR 17bn allocated for 2026). According to a local media outlet, citing two anonymous EU officials, the first defense-related USL tranche will finance the procurement of 2.8 million drones. In addition, the sources said that the second tranche under the USL defense component will amount to EUR 6bn and will also be directed toward drone procurement, including deep-strike systems. The remaining EUR 16bn of this year’s defense component is expected to be allocated toward missiles, air defense systems, and ammunition, with details — including production location — yet to be finalized. Ujvari said the remaining legal and operational steps required for the disbursement include signing the memorandum of understanding underpinning the MFA, agreeing changes to the Ukraine Plan under the Ukraine Facility (another channel for budget support), and finalizing the loan agreement.

According to the minutes of the latest meeting of the NBU’s 11-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which preceded the central bank’s Apr. 30 rate decision, all committee members voted in favor of keeping the key policy rate unchanged at 15.0%. The committee agreed that the decision appropriately balanced stronger inflationary pressure fueled by spillovers from the war in the Middle East, elevated inflation expectations, and still-strong demand for hryvnia-denominated assets.

• Russia and Ukraine partially observed the weekend ceasefire announced by President Trump, refraining from long-range strikes, but fighting on the front line continued in usual mode. • The Russian army settled for another week of marginal territorial gains; the current slowdown in Russian advances seems to be the slowest since early 2024. • New estimates put Russia’s ballistic and cruise missile production at ~190 per month — enough to sustain the recent pace of mass attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.

Negotiations on a settlement of the war will remain deadlocked unless Ukraine withdraws its forces from the part of the Donetsk region that remains under its control, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said in televised comments on Sunday. “Until the Ukrainian side takes this step, we can hold several more rounds — dozens of rounds — of negotiations, but we will remain in the same place,” he added. In other remarks following Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on Saturday, Ushakov said the May 9-11 ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia brokered by US President Donald Trump will not be extended, while a Kremlin spokesman said a new round of US-Russian talks was not yet being prepared. In related remarks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that “right now [US-brokered peace efforts] have stagnated, but we always stand ready if those circumstances change.”

The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers endorsed amendments to the 2026 budget law, proposing to incorporate EUR 45bn of financing under the EU’s EUR 90bn Ukraine Support Loan (USL), including EUR 28bn under the defense component and EUR 17bn under the budget support component, alongside smaller amounts of other external support and additional income tax revenues. The proposal envisages an increase in the headline budget revenue target by UAH 2,291bn (EUR 46bn) to UAH 5,196bn, equivalent to $114bn (at the budgeted average exchange rates of UAH 45.7:USD and UAH 49.4:EUR). Headline budget expenditures are projected to rise by UAH 1,640bn (EUR 33bn) to UAH 6,447bn, or $141bn. This implies a headline budget deficit target of $27bn (12.1% of GDP), down from 18.5% envisaged under the current version of the budget law.

NGD Holdings B.V., a subsidiary of DTEK Oil & Gas Production B.V., announced that it has secured the required consents to amend the terms of its 6.75% 2026 Eurobonds (outstanding amount of $275m), with the changes taking effect May 7.

Ukraine’s headline inflation accelerated to 8.6% y-o-y in April, from 7.9% in March, as prices rose by 1.4% m-o-m following 1.7% in March. Core inflation, which excludes administratively regulated tariffs as well as raw food and energy prices, also picked up to 7.6% y-o-y from 7.1% in March, although the monthly pace slowed to 0.9% from 1.5% m-o-m.

The National Bank of Ukraine’s gross foreign reserves fell by 7.3% ($3.8bn) m-o-m in April to $48.2bn, following monthly declines of 5.0% in both February and March, bringing the YTD drop to 16%. End-April reserves were equivalent to 4.9 months of prospective goods and services imports. The pace of hryvnia depreciation against the US dollar slowed to 0.6% m-o-m in April, from 1.3% in March, with the official rate at UAH 44.1:USD. The currency has remained broadly stable against the dollar so far in May and is down 3.2% YTD.

Metinvest’s iron ore production declined by 2.5% q-o-q to 3.9 Mt in 1Q26 (+1.8% y-o-y), crude steel output fell by 20% q-o-q to 454 kt (-7% y-o-y), while finished and semi-finished steel production dropped by 4.4% q-o-q to 845 kt (+10% y-o-y).

Ukraine’s direct and guaranteed public debt totaled $211bn as of end-March, down 1.1% m-o-m and 1.2% YTD.

Ukraine’s headline current account (CA) deficit narrowed to $4.1bn in March from a record $4.7bn in February, bringing the 1Q26 gap to $9.5bn, up from $7.5bn in 1Q25. The financial and capital account (FA) surplus stood at $2.2bn in March, in line with February, bringing the 1Q26 surplus to $4.4bn, down from $5.7bn in 1Q25. The total balance stood at -$1.9bn in March and -$5.1bn in 1Q26, worsening from -$1.8bn in 1Q25.

Baseload day-ahead electricity prices in Ukraine averaged UAH 5,391 (EUR 106)/MWh in April, down 25% m-o-m but up 15% y-o-y, bringing the 4M26 average to EUR 148/MWh (+28% y-o-y). Commercial electricity imports fell by 39% m-o-m in April to 0.8 GW (still triple y-o-y), bringing 4M26 imports to 1.2 GW, up fourfold y-o-y. Exports remained close to zero.

Ukraine’s State Statistics Service reported that provisional real GDP declined by 0.5% y-o-y in 1Q26, following 2.8% growth in 4Q25. Seasonally adjusted real GDP fell 0.7% q-o-q (non-annualized), after a 0.7% increase in 4Q25.