Ukraine has launched a new regional grouping bringing together eight countries around the Carpathian region, seeking to turn wartime trade links and security cooperation into a longer-term framework while adding another layer to Central Europe's increasingly crowded network of alliances.

The Carpathian Eight, or C8, was unveiled by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at a summit in western Ukraine on September 18. Alongside Ukraine, it brings together Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia, with the European Union closely involved.

The grouping overlaps substantially with existing Central European organisations but differs in its geographical logic and political purpose. Unlike the four-country Visegrad Group, it includes Austria, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. Unlike the Three Seas Initiative, it includes non-EU members and is centred on the Carpathian region rather than the north-south corridor linking the Baltic, Adriatic and Black seas.

It also gives Ukraine a regional platform in which it is not a partner or candidate on the outside, but one of the countries defining the agenda.

"This marks the start of a movement that should bring our countries even closer together and create another strong framework for cooperation at the EU level," Zelenskiy said at the opening of the summit, identifying energy and logistics, cross-border trade and security as priorities, according to a statement from the Ukrainian presidency. Security, he said, was a priority "right now and for the years ahead".

The first meeting brought together senior political figures including Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Romanian President Nicusor Dan and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar did not attend, according to Ukrainian and regional reports, although Hungary remains part of the C8 framework.

The economic component was prominent. Zelenskiy said 50 agreements worth more than €1bn had been signed, with more than half relating to energy, particularly solar and wind power. At a wider Carpathian Economic Forum, organisers presented an investment portfolio of 95 projects worth more than €42.5bn across energy, manufacturing, technology, transport, logistics, infrastructure, agriculture, healthcare and construction materials, the Ukrainian presidency statement said.

Zelenskiy said the Carpathians could become an energy supplier to the EU rather than merely a transit region, pointing to renewable generation, storage, electricity interconnectors and Ukraine's underground gas storage facilities. A proposed Carpathian wind cluster would have capacity of 1.5 gigawatts, he said.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine disrupted established trade and transport routes but also pushed neighbouring states to develop alternative corridors. Zelenskiy said roads, railways and ports that had allowed trade to continue during the war should now be turned into permanent infrastructure.

Romania's Dan said the countries needed to connect their road and energy networks and raise trust between companies in different countries, describing the goal as effectively creating a common regional market.

Zelenskiy described the Carpathian region as a link between the Baltic, Alpine and Danube macro-regions, with trade, energy and defence routes converging there before continuing towards southern Europe. He also stressed the involvement of local and regional authorities, with about 170 representatives of Carpathian regions attending the economic forum.

That makes the C8 different from the Visegrad Group, the oldest and most politically prominent of the smaller Central European formats.

The Visegrad Group, established in 1991, consists only of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. All four are EU members and all four are in the C8, making the V4 effectively the core of the new grouping. But the C8 adds Austria, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine, giving it a considerably wider east-west and north-south reach.

The V4 was originally created to help its members dismantle communist-era structures and integrate with European and transatlantic institutions. After all four joined the EU and Nato, it evolved into a mechanism for coordinating positions and interests within the EU. In recent years its political cohesion has fluctuated, particularly given the widely differing positions of its leaders over Russia and Ukraine.

That divergence has eased in some areas in 2026, especially after the removal of Viktor Orban from the Hungarian leadership. The four governments are now once again coordinating on energy costs, industrial competitiveness, migration and the EU's next long-term budget. But their different positions on Ukraine have limited the scope for a common foreign and security policy.

The Three Seas Initiative is a closer economic comparison. The 3SI currently comprises 13 EU countries located between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black seas, as well as four EU candidate countries that participate as associated states, while the European Commission, United States, Germany, Japan, Spain and Turkey are among its strategic partners.

Its central objective is to close infrastructure gaps along a north-south axis, particularly in transport, energy and digital infrastructure. It therefore has a larger geographical footprint than the C8 and includes all the Baltic states as well as Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Slovenia, none of which is in the new grouping.

The C8, by contrast, puts greater weight on the east-west links created by the war and on the physical integration of Ukraine with its neighbours. It also incorporates Serbia directly, something the EU-centred 3SI does not do.

The Central European Initiative is broader still. Founded in 1989, it now brings together 17 countries in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe and has the explicit strategic goals of supporting European integration and sustainable development through regional cooperation. Its membership stretches beyond the immediate Carpathian area and includes countries that are not in the C8, while Belarus's membership is currently suspended.

Other existing formats cover still more specialised areas. The Salzburg Forum, for example, comprises a group of Central and Southeast European countries and focuses primarily on internal security, police cooperation, border management and related justice and home affairs issues. Its current agenda also explicitly seeks greater coordination among members at EU level.

The European Union, meanwhile, provides the overarching political and economic framework within which most of the participants already cooperate. Six of the eight C8 countries are EU members, while Ukraine and Serbia are outside the bloc. The European Commission has signalled support for the initiative: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the economic forum that the summit was an important step towards a shared regional vision and highlighted the role of business and young people.

Kyiv is presenting the grouping as a way of making Ukraine part of the EU's practical economic and security networks before eventual membership.

"The more our regions, our businesses, communities work together here, the more Ukraine becomes part of the practical life of the European Union," Zelenskiy said.

The C8 traces a relatively specific arc through the Carpathian and adjoining Central European space: from Austria and Czechia through Slovakia, Hungary and Romania to Ukraine and Serbia, with Poland providing a major northern component.

Its success will depend on whether that geographical idea can be translated into projects and sustained political coordination. For now, the €1bn of announced agreements and a much larger pipeline of proposed investment provide an economic starting point.

For Ukraine, however, the strategic objective is wider. The country is seeking to turn the transport, energy and security connections built under wartime pressure into permanent regional infrastructure, while anchoring itself more deeply in the economic life of the EU.