The cost of rebuilding Ukraine after Russia’s invasion could reach $750 billion and wealthy Russians should help foot the bill, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on Monday. (4).
“We believe that the main source of recovery should be the assets confiscated from Russia and Russian oligarchs,” he told a conference in the Swiss city of Lugano, citing estimates that frozen Russian assets are worth between $300 and $500 billion. .
“The Russian authorities unleashed this bloody war. They caused this massive destruction and they must be held accountable for it.”
Russia has said its “special military operation” in Ukraine aims to demilitarize its southern neighbor and protect Russian-speakers from what it calls nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies say this is an unfounded pretext for blatant aggression aimed at seizing territory.
Shmygal’s views on Monday were echoed by British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who said Russia needed to be held accountable for the damage caused by its “terrible war”, while Kiev also needed help to rebuild its economy. shaken.
“We are looking at options for deploying Russian assets,” Truss told Reuters during the conference.
“At the same time, we are doing what we can to restart the Ukrainian economy — pulling these grain exports out of Odesa, ensuring that we are supporting Ukrainian industry and business to continue,” she said.
Shipment insurance and adequate weaponry to protect ports that export grain were among the areas analyzed, Truss said.
Also addressing the Ukraine Recovery Conference, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union (EU) will establish a central platform to coordinate reconstruction efforts and also help consolidate Ukraine’s status as a candidate for EU membership, which the bloc agreed to last month.
“Since the beginning of the war, the European Union has mobilized around 6.2 billion euros (34.4 billion reais) in financial support,” von der Leyen said. “And… more will come. We will substantially engage in mid- and long-term reconstruction.”
The platform will map the channel’s investment needs and resources, von der Leyen said.
It will bring together countries, the private sector, civil society, as well as international organizations such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank.
The European Investment Bank, the lending arm of the European Union, is proposing a financing structure previously used during the Covid-19 pandemic to help rebuild Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the reconstruction efforts.
“Rebuilding Ukraine is about restoring the principles of life, restoring the spaces of life, restoring what makes people human,” he said via videolink.
(US$ 1 = R$ 5.32 / € 1 = R$ 5.55)
Source: CNN Brasil
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