the cost of the new ‘Marshall Plan’ with which Europe wants to rebuild Ukraine

As then, the task is colossal. Especially since the cost of rebuilding Ukraine after the invasion could reach $750 billion, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal announced during the meeting. Compared, the original Marshall Plan contemplated an aid of 12,000 million dollarswhat, according to some estimateswould be the equivalent of 147,000 million in current prices.

The figure is high, there is no doubt. But so are the damages that the invasion has caused throughout the territory. According to the kyiv School of Economics (KSE) only direct infrastructure losses exceed 100,000 million dollars. A calculation that encompasses nearly 1,200 educational centers, more than 200 hospitals and thousands of kilometers of roads, bridges, gas pipelines and water networks.

Precisely, the rehabilitation of infrastructures and essential services for day to day life would be the first and most urgent phase of the three-part plan presented by the premiere ukrainian “Progress is already being made with the national budgetShmygal said.

the second phase would consist of designing reconstruction projects for schools, hospitals and homes, according to the agency Eph. While, thirdIt would be a stage aimed at transforming the country in the long term and would cover areas such as the ecological transition or a new military industrial complex.

Who will pay the recovery?

But who is going to pay for this renewal plan? Shmygal is clear: Russia. And in particular, frozen assets to the Russian oligarchs for the international sanctions on Moscow and that are estimated at between 300,000 and 500,000 million dollars.

This same idea is what the British Foreign Minister, Liz Tuss, has defended: seize frozen Russian assets to distribute them among the victims of the invasion. “We’re looking at it closely,” Tuss said before the conference. Although for this you would first have to pass a law to seize and sell the assetsas Canada has recently done.

The rest of the financing, according to kyiv, must come from international aid and the private sector. And that is where the European Union, which Ukraine asked to join a few months ago, comes into play.

[Putin vuelve a bombardear Kiev mientras el G7 renueva sus sanciones contra Rusia]

“Recovery is a common task for the entire democratic world, for all countries that can claim to be civilized,” Zelensky said during his videoconference speech. “Rebuilding Ukraine means rebuilding the principles of life, the space of liferebuild everything that makes humans human,” he added.

In this sense, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, pointed out that contributing was a “moral obligation“. A colossal effort that will be channeled through a platform to coordinate reconstruction efforts.

In the words of the leader of the European Executive, this will bring together countries, the private sector, civil society and institutions such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank. All with the aim of define investment needs and effectively allocate resources.

To this end, Von der Leyen announced that, together with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, they planned to celebrate a high-level international conference in September to bring together “the world’s brightest minds and leading reconstruction experts to ensure this commitment is done the right way.”