Ukraine hopes to reward big UK firms with post-war reconstruction deals as London and Kyiv consider trade deal

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1. The UK will play a major role in the reconstruction of Ukraine‘s towns and cities after the war and British construction firms will be “top of the list” for building contracts, Kyiv sources have told i.

   Despite ongoing Russian strikes and Ukraine’s counteroffensive, President Volodymyr Zelensky is already looking positively to the future, with UK companies well placed to win tens of billions in contracts to help in Ukraine’s recovery.

   The Ukrainian government insists cities like Kharkiv, Kherson, Odesa and the ruins of port of Mariupol will rise from the rubble and ashes and be rebuilt, better than they were before. Bombed bridges will once again span rivers, the nation’s energy and communications infrastructure will be modernised.

   So far, the World Bank estimates that that the destruction wrought on Ukraine as a result of the conflict will cost more than £320bn to repair and replace, but the war is far from over and that figure is sure to rise.

   Earlier this year, global heritage body Unesco reported that over 140 significant buildings had been damaged in the country since the Russian invasion began.

   In the capital, Kyiv, it is estimated that the bombing in 2023 alone will cost more £11bn to repair. The nation’s second city of Kharkiv has suffered around £8bn of damage since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full scale invasion on 22 February last year.

   Unlike in Iraq, where US contractors snaffled the vast majority of the country’s reconstruction contracts following the end of the war in 2011, British firms are “top of the list” when it comes to Ukraine’s post-war redevelopment, Kyiv sources said.

   The UK may have committed just £4.6bn to Ukraine’s war effort compared to around £60bn from the US and £33bn from the EU, but Kyiv views it as its first and most influential supporter.

   “The UK was the first to put its hand up to help us,” an official close to Mr Zelensky told i. “As well as this, the UK has acted first on tanks, on long range missiles and on many other things. The influence of the UK has helped others like the US and the EU to support our defeance against the warlord in the Kremlin and the Ukrainian people will never forget this.

   “This war will be over and when Ukraine is victorious we will rebuild our nation bigger and better than it was even before the war. For this we will need help from our international friends and the UK will be at the top of the list when we are looking for help with this rejuvenation.”

   Ukrainian Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal, who manages the country’s domestic and economic policy, is already understood to have held initial talks with the UK Government about establishing a procurement process for UK companies to bid for post-war contracts.

   These deals will include the reconstruction of entire cities, the rebuilding of bridges that were destroyed to halt the Russian advance, and the development of new infrastructure across the country.

   A source close to Mr Shmyhal suggests that as well as being viewed within Kyiv as Ukraine’s “greatest friend”, there is another reason why UK construction and engineering firms such as Balfour Beatty, Amey, and Mace could be the first Ukraine turns to for help in its rebirth.

   “It’s no secret Ukraine wants to be a full member of the EU,” the official said. “But for the UK that is not what its people voted for. This means we can negotiate with the UK directly and make bilateral agreements that help both our nations. These agreements can be made quickly.

   “With the UK we can pick up the phone and suggest and idea and if they like it then the deal can be done.”

   As well as tens of billions in potential development and infrastructure deals, i understands the Ukraine and UK governments have also discussed the prospect of a post-war bilateral free trade deal, to cover the right to work of each country’s citizens in both nations, UK manufacturers opening in Ukraine, food exports, consumer goods and services. In other words, potentially the most lucrative trade-deal the UK has struck since Brexit.

   Such a trade deal will build on the Digital Trade Agreement London and Kyiv signed in March, which allows guaranteed access to the financial services for reconstruction efforts through the deal’s facilitation of cross-border data flows.

   The deal also develops Ukrainian businesses to trade more efficiently and cheaply with the UK through electronic transactions, e-signatures, and e-contracts.

   While the city is one of many to have felt the full force of Russian shelling, the Norman Foster Foundation and engineering group Arup have drawn up a masterplan to redevelop it, which will initially focus on five pilot projects: heritage, rivers, industry, housing, and the science neighbourhood.

   The heritage project will focus on creating a “new architectural landmark” in Kharkiv’s city centre, which sits just 40 miles from the Russian border, while a coal plant in the city will be converted into a “clean energy and food centre” as the industry project.

   Across the city, existing housing blocks will be retrofitted as the housing project and a six-kilometre-long stretch of land between the Kharkiv and Nemyshlya rivers will be turned into an ecological and pedestrian park as the rivers scheme.

   So heavily hit has Kharkiv been that its reconstruction has an estimated cost of around £8bn, and this will rise as Russian bombs continue to fall.

   “It is the result of many months of co-operation between the Kharkiv city council, Kharkiv architects, and leading world experts,” says Kharkiv Mayor, Igor Terejov. “It will have everything.

   “A platform for the development of startups, universities, housing, a green zone, a market. All the necessary infrastructure for a comfortable life and economic development.”

   As i revealed last week, the UK is already looking at extending the right for Ukrainian refugees to stay, and now it can be revealed that this right may extend people from both nations being given a right to permanent residency post-war.

   “We want to offer our UK brothers and sisters a fastrack to residency in Ukraine,” added the source close to Mr Zelensky. “We want to thank our UK friends for their support.

   “Not only this, but we will require workers to help in rebuilding, to help in our service sector, and to help us in strengthening our economy.”

   What he means is that post-war Ukraine will have a labour shortage caused by both it’s casualties and those who escaped the bombs and never return after establishing a home elsewhere.

   The UK Government did not comment directly on the suggestion of a reciprocal residency arrangement with Ukraine, but a spokeswoman did say that more than 184,000 Ukrainians had now arrived safely in the UK under the Homes for Ukraine and Ukraine Family schemes, and that both remain “under review should an extension be required in the future”.

   Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine forum and deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, believes a bilateral trade deal between the UK and Ukraine would be beneficial to both sides.

2. My uncle used to renovate buildings in Odessa before the war, so I assume there will soon be plenty of job opportunities.