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ities ; we learned a lot about how much diesel you need to have available for your generators and how many generators you need , but it has been amazing that all the banks have been operational throughout . We had zero seconds of outage even during the worst situations around November , December , January of this year . It is really a credit to the guys over there that they managed to keep it afloat and recognised the importance of keeping financial market infrastructures open . There was never any panic . That was thanks to the dedication of their people in the most stressful conditions imaginable and done with great professionalism . This will pay dividends as we enter the period of reconstruction by guaranteeing a path for both private and public external investment . Now moving forward , there ' s a lot of money that is earmarked for reconstruction from the likes of the EBRD , EIB and World Bank among others . There are various initiatives . We want to make sure through the connectivity we already have in Ukraine that whatever securitised reconstruction products come on the market , those instruments can be settled and safekept on our platform .
What was happening to cross-border volumes over that period ? For a couple of weeks , the government stopped the auctions and the local secondary markets . Within Clearstream , transactions could always take place , but it was not possible for clients to sell their positions to local banks in Ukraine . Little by little , the central bank reintroduced the possibility to interact with non-residents . First , we had the auctions of the so-called war bonds , perhaps an unfortunate name , because when you try to reach out to institutional investors , it sets off a lot of ESG alarm bells , but basically those war bonds were standard Ministry of Finance instruments meant to add to the overall budget . Three or four months after the start of the war , these war bonds were launched and could be settled in Clearstream . On those instruments , our clients could again start doing cross-border transactions with local Ukrainian counterparts . Then during the summer of last year , the entire bond market was reopened and gradually we went back to business as usual . The only restrictions at a certain moment were FX restrictions on income . It took a while before the FX market was reopened on 1 April of this year . Even today , the transaction volumes are more intense than before the war . The investors are there , the auctions take place every week . They ' re pretty successful and a lot of non-resident investors participate . You ’ re starting to see investors that are looking beyond the war and just want to take positions today in hryvna bonds . So as far as govvies are concerned , it ' s nearly , from an operational point of view , business as usual . We went through all the scares when Kyiv was attacked and they were targeting the electricity facil-
Operationally , from Clearstream ' s point of view , is there anything that you ' ve had to do that you wouldn ' t have to do in the other markets in the region ? It ’ s really the same template . We focused in the initial stages only on government bonds , thereby avoiding certain challenges such as companies that go bust or tax issues . A govvie is a govvie . It ’ s a very simple instrument . We have our custody with the National Bank of Ukraine , which is the safest possible environment . Also , having had that flexibility from the National Bank before the war to have our own safekeeping account , we were able to provide that additional level of confidence . Big credit is also due to our local partner , Citibank . They operate our accounts in Ukraine because they have people on the ground and the triangle of National Bank , Citibank Ukraine and Clearstream has been super-solid . It ' s a market where everyone knows each other and where literally you have all your partners on speed dial on the mobile . Whether it ' s a Sunday morning or a Friday evening , you ' ll always find someone to help you out there during those exceptional circumstances .
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