The plan to rebuild Ukraine: Zelensky appeals to allies for investments • FRANCE 24 English
Well, Russia has intensified attacks on Ukraine. International pressure is mounting on the Kremlin. Donald Trump said that he struck a deal with NATO for the US to send weapons to Ukraine through the alliance. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president discussed improved air defenses and intensified sanctions against Russia with two US lawmakers who are backing a bill to impose tougher punitive measures against Moscow. Here in Europe, leaders are urging the private sector to invest in rebuilding Ukraine. a 2.3 billion euro package uh announced or unveiled on Thursday. Joining me on the set is our international affairs editor, Philip Turu, Philip, this is the second day of the fourth uh Ukraine reconstruction uh conference. Tell us who’s taking part and where this money is coming from. Well, I think um I the money is hopefully coming from investment uh from banks uh from partners who are keen to come up with funds to try to rebuild Iran. Uh 15 heads of state and government including Vladimir Zalinsky who we just saw in those images. Uh Frederick Merz of Germany, Georgia Maloney who’s chairing this conference, the Italian prime minister, uh Ursula Vanderlayion the uh head of the EU foreign policy and Donald Tusk the prime minister of Poland. They’re all there taking part in this plus 40 international organizations and 2,000 companies. So, uh, a big setup and I think there is a lot of coaxing coming along from those international leaders to try to uh enthuse those participants to uh part with their money to rebuild uh Ukraine saying that there is a future for the country. Uh, it could be a vital partner. It could be a future member of the European Union and of NATO. So, it’s time to get your checkbooks out and start rebuilding the country and investing in it. Right now, uh the World Bank estimates $524 billion is going to be needed to rebuild Ukraine over the next few years. Uh you were right, the uh EU has given forward a pledge of 2.3 billion. That’s including loan guarantees up to average of about 1.8 8 billion and 580 million in grants which they say will hopefully push more investors to come into Ukraine up to about 10 billion euros worth uh over the coming year. So a lot of enthusiasm about the fact that Ukraine can be rebuilt. They just need the money and the enthusiasm and the investment for that to start uh to to kick off and to to begin. And just to push back against that idea of enthusiasm, it seems like every week we’re talking about Russia carries out the largest drone attack or missile attack since the war began. How can reconstruction efforts uh begin in Ukraine when there’s war on a daily basis? Well, there there’s a certain nuance to this uh as uh one would say in French. Uh first of all, if you look at the casualty toll uh for the month of June, you’re right. It it’s been one of the worst casualty tolls since uh the start of the war in Ukraine. 232 civilians killed. Uh 1,343 civilians wounded. That’s according to uh the UN mission. and up to 13,600 civilians killed since the start of the war uh in February 2022. So, this summit’s got a triple ambition. They know it’s pretty difficult to start rebuilding houses, offices, uh when they’re not sure that they’re not going to be bombed again the next day by Russian attacks. What they want to do is to respond to humanitarian needs, particularly refugees and displaced people up to about 4 million are believed to be displaced uh in uh Ukraine right now. They also want to undertake urgent infrastructure repairs to electricity supplies, for example, uh to plumbing and water supplies that have been damaged by uh the Russian drone attacks and to create a basis with this investment for long-term reforms and private investment in the future once and if uh a peace deal has been signed. Now there has been a call by Vladimir Zalinski at the podium saying that uh the most important thing for the west is to step up those sanctions on Russia to stop Russia from uh maintaining those drone and missile attacks on Ukraine. Uh he said we really do need faster investment in the country for that to be the case so that Ukraine can defend itself. uh saying basically that Vladimir Putin seeks to destroy life itself uh with strikes in Ukraine and that’s why the country needs this investment right now. Now these talks taking place at the same time as the UK prime minister Kier Starmer and Francis Emani Macaron met in the UK. They’re discussing the so-called coalition of the willing. What came out of those talks? Well, the coalition of the willing is looking at how it can intervene in Ukraine once a peace deal has been signed with the Russians. So, this is nothing that’s going to happen anytime soon. And all the way down the line, there have been red lines from the Russians saying, “We’re not agreeing to this. We’re not agreeing to that.” Basically, they want all four provinces uh in the east of Ukraine, no NATO membership, no EU membership, and certainly no troops on the ground. what the coalition of the willing is proposing. This is about 30 countries coming together uh to come up with a project for the future of Ukraine to provide military aid to the country to guarantee Ukraine’s territorial integrity uh to strengthen its military capacity and to deploy troops on the ground as a peacekeeping force to make sure that there is no future threat from Russian aggression. Uh as I was saying, that is a red line from the Russians right now. This is a long-term process, but there has been this meeting over the last couple of days in London between Emanuel Macron and Saki Star Dharma, which Volomir Zalinsky also took part in uh via video conference. It’s basically to show Russia that Europe is willing to stand on its own two feet and to stand up to future Russian aggression and to be ready to act if the United States pulls out of NATO or the US pulls the plug on supporting Europe in the future. I think that’s the the most important message coming out of this coalition of the willing uh meeting plus one other aspect which is nuclear cooperation between France and uh the United Kingdom where what uh has been agreed is that France has an independent nuclear deterrent. the UK’s nuclear deterrent is dependent on NATO and therefore on the United States. Uh but they are willing now to combine their different forces together. Uh so that if there is an attack for example by Russia on one European country uh then the uh attack from France and the United Kingdom will be a joint attack a joint nuclear attack if it has to be. Uh but that is the way forward as an important way of showing the Russians that uh Europe is serious about standing up for itself. All right Philip, thank you very much. Philip Churl from our international affairs staff.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US top diplomat Marco Rubio held “frank” talks on the Ukraine war during a meeting Thursday, both sides said, as Washington hit out at Moscow’s lack of “flexibility”.
#Zelensky #Ukraine #Russia
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36 comments
The western world must give this man all the money and arms that he wants no matter the sacrifice, for as long as it takes…
Ukraine is so not worth going bankrupt for. It's essentially a banana republic, economically and culturally. They're like African country in Eastern Europe.
SHAME ON YOU FRANCE. THE SAME PUTANAS AS ANY OTHER WESTENERS.
Do not conflate American support for NATO and American support support for Ukraine. Those are two completely different animals. Europe may seem to want to look at Ukraine as family but the US does not. Europe can take the , "you do you" approach when it comes to Ukraine, has nothing to do with NATO.
War just started and theyre talking of victory and rebuilding😂😂
The EU should just give access to the russian frozen assets for rebuilding Ukraine.
Once China said they won’t see Russia lose, Blackstone dipped out … exploitation will be more direct now
Ukraine will never win. It's a lost cause
Ukraine-Balance assets for sale
Rebuild?
I just woke up…did Ukraine defeated Russia?
What did I miss?
#fromthejawsofdefeat
Ukraine destruction is still going on one side … …
what "rebuilding " these people are talking …?
Any meaningful rebuilding needs Peace first …
Takking of rebuilding when the war is still on. What a joke
NOT TIL THAT LITTLE ZELEN THING IS GONE.. NOT WORTH TIME OR MONEY..⚡⚡⚡
we are so weak. Putin is laughing at us.
We have 6m that invaded Europe send them all home .
This is just a show.
this is what you get for a comedian president, investment in country in active war ??
Will that be after they surrender?
More begging so they can keep scheming
Anyone else catch that gaf?
so these aren't investments. this is more charity.
They talking about rebuild but when this war going to be ended, no body knows that about this war duration
if there is insurance cover, investing is a possibility.
Give give give. Now for "reconstruction"
Invest in a country that will sooner or later become Russia 🇷🇺 territory 😂😂
Help Ukraine upgrade to Russian statutes or help Ukraine rebuild for Russia to have new targets 😮
Why are you talking about reconstruction when the war is still going on? That bill is going up.
More cash for him to deposit in the bank
The war didn't end yet. you discuss rebuilding
Clown 🤡 here begging money from western countries in a name of rebuilding where as US big company like Black Rock pull out from this agreement where they suppose to pay huge money to clown 😂😂😂so why your channel hiding this information
How about you win the war first. EU needs to send you some soldiers since you have been begging them for the past 4 years. They have a huge military and you can't win without manpower
Why did they destroy it😮
Blackrock will be happy
They continue to steal public money from all Europeans to give it all to the Ukrainians, the new European democracy. 😅
Are Russian investors, allowed? hidden under corporations
👀
How can we give money for reconstruction when Putin will just destroy any construction being done ? This makes no sense.
Comments are closed.