Ukraine’s government has approved the allocation of over UAH 10.5 billion in state funds for public healthcare investment projects in 2026 — rising to a total of UAH 19.1 billion (approaching half a billion US dollars) when international financial support from the World Bank group is included. The package covers 63 projects across the development and restoration of medical infrastructure, rehabilitation, oncology, mental health, maternal and child health, and the supply of modern medical equipment.
Of the 63 projects, 36 are continuations of initiatives begun in the previous year; the remaining 24 are new. Separately, around UAH 1 billion has been earmarked for centralised procurement of modern medical equipment for hospitals across the country. All projects are expected to be completed within the 2026 budget period.
Where the Money Is Coming From
The funding envelope has two distinct layers. The government has committed UAH 10.5 billion from the state budget — formalised through a Cabinet of Ministers resolution that also updated the rules governing how funds can be used, including provisions for centralised hospital equipment supply. International financial support, primarily from the World Bank group, contributes an additional UAH 8.6 billion, bringing the combined investment to UAH 19.1 billion. Ukraine’s public investment pipeline for the health sector is tracked transparently through the DREAM public investment management platform, which currently registers 38 active MoH-led projects with a combined declared budget of UAH 13.5 billion at 29.5% disbursement.
Priority Areas
The investment package reflects a clear hierarchy of clinical priorities shaped by the realities of wartime healthcare demand:
- Physical rehabilitation — the dominant priority, accounting for more than half of all listed projects. The scale reflects the volume of blast-related and combat injury requiring long-term functional recovery across the country.
- Psychiatry and mental health — expanding access to psychiatric services, which have been severely strained by population displacement, bereavement, and the psychological toll of prolonged conflict on both civilians and veterans.
- Diagnostics — equipment modernisation and capacity upgrades, including the development of nuclear medicine centres and improved oncological diagnostics infrastructure.
- Oncology — creation of a modern clinical treatment base at the National Cancer Institute and modernisation of nuclear medicine centres for oncological diagnostics.
- Interventional cardiology — targeted upgrades to specialised cardiac care facilities, including the National Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery Centre.
- Maternal and child health — the reconstruction of Ohmatdyt children’s hospital.
Project in Focus: Simulation Centre for Wartime Injury, Lviv
Among the more distinctive projects in the pipeline is the establishment of a medical simulation centre at Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University — developed in direct response to formal requests from both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Defence.
The project pursues three goals in parallel: continuing and expanding existing emergency medicine training courses at Lviv’s Centre for Emergency Medicine Education (CESU); establishing a Ukrainian University Diploma in Medical Pedagogy and Simulation modelled on the equivalent qualification from the University of Lorraine in Nancy; and building a dedicated surgical and medical simulation training facility at the university.
The initiative is a partnership between the Hôpital Virtuel de Lorraine (Nancy Medical Faculty, University of Lorraine) and HUSOME, a medical humanitarian NGO founded in 2018 by Professor Raphaël Pitti, who has been advising Ukrainian authorities on trauma care protocols since the start of the full-scale invasion.
Oleks’s (Author) Take
This is not the first time Ukraine has launched a major healthcare infrastructure push against a backdrop of serious demographic pressure. Back in the early 2010s, there was a genuine push to modernise SRH services and align obstetric and labour care with European standards. Flagship perinatal centres were built, and government top-ups for young families were introduced. But this coexisted with the mass closure of kindergartens and childcare facilities, the shocks of the 2008 financial crisis, and a failure to address the underlying conditions that actually drive birth rates. The infrastructure improved; the demographic trajectory did not.
Today’s reforms land in a comparably difficult moment. Ukraine faces severe labour market distortions — simultaneously recording labour shortages and high unemployment — a collapse in household formation driven by conscription-related separation and mass displacement, and extreme cost-of-living pressures. Healthcare workers earn around USD 500 a month. For anyone deciding today whether to enter medicine, the realistic risks on the table are facility attacks, conscription, and poverty.
Institutional upgrades matter — the rehabilitation centres, perinatal centres, and simulation programmes are real and welcome. But bricks and equipment cannot substitute for a workforce that sees a viable future in the system. Investment in infrastructure without a parallel transformation of the incentive model for healthcare workers risks building facilities that no one is willing to staff.
Sources: Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine; Ministry of Health of Ukraine; DREAM Public Investment Platform.