Conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction opens in Berlin
The relevant statement was made by German Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Building Klara Geywitz at the conference ‘Creating opportunities, building the moment: Ukraine’s transformative urban reconstruction’, which started in Berlin on March 7, 2024, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“We stand by your side now and will stand by your side during the recovery. It will be long and will require a lot of effort. Today we are sending a signal to Ukraine: do not lose courage, do not lose strength, we support you with all our efforts,” Geywitz said.
She mentioned that Germany had been ranked the world’s second and Europe’s first in terms of the aid provided to Ukraine so far. Meanwhile, the German society still believes that, in certain matters, that aid could have been increased and accelerated.
According to Geywitz, Germany would like to facilitate the process of rebuilding cities, which should be “quick, cheap and environmentally friendly”, as well as stable. The conference is a good platform for determining in which areas German partners can best support Ukrainian friends, Geywitz added.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration, Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development Oleksandr Kubrakov, who joined the conference via a video link, agreed with the German side that Ukraine would need “not just restoration but a reboot”.
In his words, many Ukrainian settlements will have to be restored. Following the assessment of the World Bank, which was conducted in cooperation with the Government of Ukraine, the European Commission and the United Nations, Ukraine’s direct losses had reached about $152 billion over two years since the full-scale war started. The total cost of restoration efforts is about $500 billion.
Kubrakov spoke of the Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property, which had been developed and introduced by the Government of Ukraine. As of February 2024, over 280,000 damaged objects were verified in that register, and about 50,000 Ukrainian citizens received aid for housing restoration purposes.
The Ukrainian minister emphasized that funding from government and private sources should be as transparent as possible.
“The key issue in ensuring the recovery and sustainable development of regions and communities is to establish a transparent, accountable and inclusive approach,” Kubrakov noted.
According to him, Ukraine is taking into account the best practices of Germany and Poland during their European integration process in the 1990s and the 2000s respectively.
Today’s conference is part of preparations for the Ukraine Recovery Conference, which will take place in Berlin in June 2024.