PM Shmyhal: Sum of infrastructure damages has reached $104B

The sum of infrastructure damages has already reached $104 billion. At least 45 million square meters of housing, 656 hospitals, more than 1,200 educational institutions, nearly 25,000 kilometers of roads, 300 bridges, and 12 airports have been destroyed or damaged as a result of Russian strikes.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said this via video link at the British-Ukrainian Infrastructure Summit, the Government portal informs.

Next month, the Government will present Ukraine's Recovery Plan – United24 – and invites countries to join its implementation already today.

"We rely on a regional approach, which involves the care of one of the partner countries for a particular region or industry. Denmark has already agreed to take care of the reconstruction of Mykolayiv region. The Baltic states will help restore Zhytomyr region. Portugal will rebuild Ukrainian schools. And everyone in Ukraine knows that the United Kingdom, as promised by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, will take part in the reconstruction and development of Kyiv and its region," Shmyhal said.

Ukraine is developing an ambitious recovery plan and believes that British companies will play a key role in this reconstruction, the Prime Minister noted.

"Today, Britain and the British people are standing side by side with us at this difficult time in our history. And I am sure that they will do so in the future," Shmyhal underscored.

As the PM noted, international experts and the European Commission estimate the total size of the reconstruction program at EUR 500-600 billion.

"That's why we say that Ukraine's victory on the battlefield is 50% of victory. The other 50% is the restoration and reconstruction of our state, the transformation of our economy, energy and infrastructure," the Head of Government stressed.

According to the Prime Minister, Ukraine has already kicked off work on the restoration of electricity, water supply, gas supply, reconstruction of roads, bridges and housing in the liberated territories.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us. We do not want to just rebuild what was destroyed. We want to build a new country."

As reported, a large conference on post-war reconstruction of Ukraine will be held in the Swiss city of Lugano on July 4-5, where a plan to rebuild the country will be presented.

ol