The eventual restoration of Ukraine through a $ 750 billion (620 billion pound) recovery plan is the common task of the entire democratic world, the Ukrainian president said on Monday at the first detailed event to chart a physical future for the country in case it survives. as a west-facing nation after the Russian invasion.
Speaking via video link to a high-level conference in Lugano, Switzerland, which was attended by many high-level Ukrainian politicians, Volodymyr Zelenskiy admitted that the task ahead was colossal, stating that the war was a battle of perspectives in which Russia was determined to destroy the physical and physical body of its country. moral fabric.
He added that the recovery process led by a Ukrainian national recovery council would allow his country to deepen its ties with Europe.
The scale of the task is such that there is a danger that multilateral bodies will duplicate offers, as well as tensions between the plans developed by Ukraine itself and those drawn up by bodies such as the European Investment Bank. The will of the private sector to invest billions in Ukraine will depend on the security of the country and the ability of Ukraine to withstand the clutches of the oligarchs.
Denys Shmyhal, the Ukrainian prime minister, said that Ukraine’s direct infrastructure losses amounted to more than $ 100 billion, totaling more than 1,200 educational institutions, 200 hospitals and thousands of kilometers of pipelines, water networks and electricity, roads and railways that had been destroyed or damaged. .
He said ordinary Ukrainians had sent 200,000 entries to an open government electronic map documenting incidents of destruction.
He said there would be three stages of recovery that, together, could require more than $ 750 billion in investment, a third of which would come from the private sector and some from Russian repairs and asset freezes.
He said: “The Russian authorities unleashed this bloody war and caused this mass destruction, and they should be held responsible for it.”
The first stage would be an immediate implementation plan starting with emergency humanitarian aid, such as the restoration of water supplies and bridges; a medium-term framework from 2023 to 2025 to bring life back to destroyed communities through the reconstruction of schools, hospitals and housing, and finally a long-term vision of modernization from 2026 to 2032 for a Ukrainian green digital economy that finally leave behind the Soviet era. , and prepares the country for eventual EU membership.
The draft framework, which has been the subject of advice from more than 2,000 experts for six weeks, includes proposals for regional plans sponsored by overseas states and a 24-sector recovery plan aimed at ensuring that sectors such as domestic energy and agriculture can meet EU standards, and ensure 7% annual growth. But the impact of the Ukrainian economy is such that Kyiv needs another $ 30 billion to stay afloat by December.
Shmyhal insisted that Ukraine’s reform process would continue, claiming that changes implemented before the invasion, including digitalization and decentralization of government, had contributed to the country’s resilience to the Russian attack.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, outlined plans for an EU reconstruction platform to map Ukraine’s investment needs, channel resources, shape strategic options and coordinate multilateral bodies, as well as private companies. The commission is studying various ways to raise these funds, such as grants and loans, as well as joint debt, similar to the EU pandemic recovery fund.
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He repeatedly stressed the need for reform and transparency on the part of the Ukrainian government to ensure that corruption does not damage the integrity of any reconstruction program. She said, “We’ve never done this on this scale before,” and added that donors should know not only that their money serves a good cause, “but that it will be spent efficiently and effectively with maximum impact for in the people of Ukraine “.
Olena Zelenska, the president’s wife, told the conference that future spiritual reconstruction would be as important as material reconstruction.
Ukraine currently has 8 million internally displaced people, 6 million forced abroad, most of whom are children, and 22,000 teachers no longer work. He showed photos of destroyed schools and hospitals and said that in the modern world this could not be seen as someone else’s war.