The paper analyzes the volumes, sectoral structure and geography of Ukrainian direct investments, as well as factors that significantly affect them. The author concludes that foreign investments of Ukrainian companies are present in almost all the countries of Europe and the CIS, although they have been unstable recently and do not quite correspond to the potential of the Ukrainian economy. The structure of the Ukrainian investments abroad, in countries such as Cyprus, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, is described along with large business groups in Ukraine and their role in transnationalization of the economy; a number of trends characteristic of FDI of Ukrainian companies in recent years is identified. The author notes that in 2014 the general declining trend of Ukrainian investments abroad was reinforced by an acute political crisis that crossed out Russia from the list of priority recipients of Ukrainian FDI, and at the moment the prospects of direct

investments from Ukraine are not entirely clear. It is obvious that in the near future political factor will play the decisive role, which has always been one of the main motives for withdrawal of Ukrainian capital to foreign countries.