This paper draws from research in Ukraine to analyze how development and humanitarianism are integral to spatial projects of migration management. As a country of origin, transit and destination for migrants that now borders four EU member countries, Ukraine’s integration with the EU has been made conditional upon its willingness to cooperate in managing migration. The EU has externalized significant aspects of migration and border management to Ukraine, making investments in the country’s capacity to selectively control—even detain—cross-border migration in line with EU security priorities. Discourses and practices of development are central to the installation, justification and management of EU externalization in transit areas of migration. In concert, the spatial practices of humanitarian institutions maintain migrants’ survival while also managing their exclusion from EU common space. This paper discusses the spatial politics of development and humanitarianism in EU externalization by addressing: (1) the humanitarian management of migrant detention in Ukraine; (2) the uses of development through the EU’s Neighbourhood Policy to outsource migration management to Ukraine; and (3) the roles of development and humanitarian discourses, programs and institutions in implementing the externalization of migration management to Ukraine.