Ukrainian Veterans Fund: donor analysis 2026

The first VARTO competition in 2022 funded 53 veteran entrepreneurs with UAH 500,000 to 1 million each. Four years on, the Ukrainian Veterans Fund has become the main state grant-maker for veteran-owned business: in 2025 alone the state budget put UAH 380 million into its programmes, and the call now under evaluation, VARTO: KROK VPERED (A Step Forward), is the nineteenth in the series.

As of 6 November 2026 the Fund is not accepting applications. KROK VPERED took submissions from 7 to 29 September, and winners will be announced on 30 November. Below we look at how the Fund works, who can apply, the amounts and rules, how it differs from the state grants offered through Diia, and how to get ready for the next round.

What the Ukrainian Veterans Fund is

The Ukrainian Veterans Fund (UVF) is a state budget institution under the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine. It was set up by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 720 of 14 July 2021 and Ministry Order No. 164 of 22 July 2021, and was registered on 2 February 2022. It is a non-profit body with Treasury accounts, and the use of its money is governed by Cabinet Resolution No. 53 of 21 January 2025. All of this is set out in the Fund’s 2026 strategy.

The state budget is the main source of money. According to the strategy, budget funding for the Fund’s programmes reached UAH 380 million in 2025, and partners added another UAH 7 million in charitable contributions for projects. The Ministry’s 2026–2028 budget request planned UAH 304.3 million for Fund grants in 2026, covering about 185 projects selected through competitions. That is a planned figure, not a spending report.

The Fund describes itself as the first institution in Ukraine to give grants specifically for veteran entrepreneurship, starting in 2022. Beyond grants, it runs a 24/7 crisis support hotline with free legal advice, the Veteran Career job platform and research into veterans’ needs. Its 2026 strategy aims to move from being a single donor to bringing together the whole ecosystem that supports veteran businesses.

How the money flows: state budget plus business partners

All of the Fund’s calls share the VARTO name with a different subtitle each time. Winners receive a budget grant, meaning state funds subject to Treasury control rules. Some calls are run jointly with business. In 2025 the partners in joint programmes were the agricultural holding Kernel, the MHP-Hromadi charitable foundation, ISAR Ednannia and SKELAR.

Those partnerships continued in 2026. VARTO: 4 Years of Support and VARTO: Business with Character were run with the Razom z Kernel charitable foundation, and VARTO: Recipe of Care with MHP-Hromadi. For applicants the procedure stays the same: submission, scoring and reporting all go through the UVF system.

The Fund also joins programmes run by other organisations, where the grant comes from the partner. In 2025 it supported REDpreneur Women, with EUR 7,000 grants for women veterans, and a programme with the Ministry, IOM and Startup Ukraine funded by the EU, where 45 winners received EUR 6,500 each. These are announced separately, so keep an eye on the Fund’s news.

Who can get a grant and on what terms

The Law on Veteran Entrepreneurship took effect on 26 February 2026, and the 2026 calls are built on it. Under the KROK VPERED applicant instructions, only registered veteran entrepreneurs may apply:

• a war veteran registered as a sole proprietor (FOP);
• a war veteran carrying out independent professional activity and registered as self-employed;
• a private legal entity where veterans own at least 100% of the share capital, or where 100% of members are war veterans listed in the Unified State Register of War Veterans.

In practice you need veteran entrepreneur status first. Veterans whose status comes from other grounds cannot take part in these calls. NGOs and charities are not eligible applicants in the 2026 calls either; the Fund ran separate VARTO + NGO programmes for civil society groups in 2022–2023.

Amounts and duration

In the standard 2025–2026 calls a grant ranges from UAH 500,000 to 1,500,000 per project. The themed VARTO: Recipe of Care call for school catering allowed requests of up to UAH 3,000,000. Within a grant, rent is capped at UAH 100,000, and materials and repairs in rented premises at UAH 200,000. Projects last 6, 9 or 12 months, with stages matched to quarters because reporting is quarterly.

Co-financing

The call rules set no mandatory co-financing share. If you or a third party plan to add your own money, you attach a guarantee letter on the Fund’s template. All payments, including co-financing, must go through a separate account opened for the grant. The first tranche is up to 30% of the grant, or up to 60% if it is spent entirely on equipment. Further tranches arrive only after the report for the previous stage is approved.

Who cannot apply

The instructions list many exclusions. The key ones: you cannot win a second Fund grant until three years after your final report is approved, and only for a different line of activity; applicants on the Unified Register of Debtors, those who breached a previous Fund contract and those who received low-income family self-sufficiency aid in the past year are excluded. Applicants also sign a guarantee letter confirming they receive no other state financial support for the project.

Winner statistics: how many apply and how many win

The Fund’s website publishes the winners of every call with their scores, while overall figures appear in news and press releases. Here is what verified sources show:

• #VARTO, 2022: 53 veteran entrepreneurs received grants of UAH 500,000 to 1 million (Ministry of Veterans Affairs).
• VARTO: Start Your Own Business, 2024: 219 applications, a record at the time (Ministry of Veterans Affairs).
• VARTO BILSHE (More), 2025: 398 applications and 100 winners, grants of UAH 500,000 to 1.5 million, so roughly one applicant in four succeeded.
• VARTO: 4 Years of Support, 2026: 383 applications and 100 winners from 19 regions and Kyiv, almost UAH 140 million in total. Sectors included farming, processing and manufacturing, technology and energy, services and logistics, rehabilitation, medicine, sport and education.
• VARTO: Recipe of Care, 2026: a narrow school catering niche with two winners.

So the large calls see about four applications per grant. Winning scores in 4 Years of Support sat between 290 and 300, which means a strong project can miss out by a few points. You can browse funded projects in the winners catalogue on the Fund’s website.

What is open as of 6 November 2026

No call is currently accepting applications. The latest, VARTO: KROK VPERED, ran from 7 to 29 September 2026. On 26 October the Fund approved an eight-member Expert Council, and the timeline from here is:

• 28 October – 11 November: budget checks and guidance on ineligible costs;
• 12–16 November: expert recommendations to applicants and revisions;
• 17–20 and 23–24 November: open online presentations (defence) of projects;
• 30 November 2026: winners approved and announced;
• from 1 December: negotiations with winners, with projects starting between 10 and 31 December 2026.

In 2026 the Fund opened calls in late January, May, early June and September. The next window will most likely open in early 2027, once the state budget is adopted, but the Fund has not announced a date. It makes sense to prepare documents and secure veteran entrepreneur status now, since submission usually lasts only three weeks.

Separately, the UAH 20,000 microfinance programme reimburses up to UAH 20,000 for goods already bought for a veteran’s business. It is not a competition but a one-off reimbursement per person. It runs until martial law ends, and payments depend on budget allocations and are made in order of application.

How to work with this donor

Status first, application second

Without an entry in the Unified State Register of War Veterans as a veteran entrepreneur, your application will not be accepted. For a company, veterans must own the entire share capital. 4 Years of Support also required companies to be no more than a year old, so read the instructions for each call carefully.

The technical check filters out the most

The Fund lists the grounds for rejection plainly: an incomplete package, poorly prepared documents, false information, late submission and a project outside the call’s theme. The tax clearance certificate is valid for only 10 days, so get it right before you submit. Every document is signed with a qualified e-signature, and the budget is entered directly in the Fund’s CRM system. The process is described on the selection procedure page.

A budget with no ineligible costs

Grant money cannot pay for intermediaries, preparing the application, fines and penalties, debts incurred before the grant, or costs already covered by other programmes or state aid. Each line must follow directly from the project’s goal and stay within the rent and repair caps. A budget that comes back from the Fund’s finance team with comments costs you time you may not have.

The defence decides

Each project is scored by three experts. After written recommendations, the applicant takes part in an open online presentation, explaining which comments were taken on board and which were not, and why. If you cannot join live, you can send a video of up to 10 minutes. The KROK VPERED Expert Council includes specialists in business planning, finance, marketing and agribusiness, so expect questions on your project’s economics. It also helps to know the Fund’s own 2026 targets: the share of businesses whose annual profit exceeds the grant amount, and the number of new jobs at veteran enterprises. A project that shows exactly that speaks the donor’s language.

Plan for reporting

Money arrives in tranches, each depending on an approved quarterly report. Plan purchases so the first tranche covers what matters most, such as equipment. The Fund answers questions about a specific application only at uvfprojects@veteranfund.mva.gov.ua, with the call name and application number in the subject line, and staff do not give individual legal or accounting advice. Common questions are answered in the FAQ section.

The Ukrainian Veterans Fund is the main specialised state grant-maker for veteran-owned business: up to UAH 1.5 million per project, no mandatory co-financing and several calls a year. The price is a state procedure with strict requirements for documents, budgets and reporting. While KROK VPERED is in its final stage, now is the time to secure your status, cost your plan and prepare for the first call of 2027.