Ukraine musters help to shield and rebuild shattered cities

BERLIN - Ukraine and its allies drummed up support to protect Ukrainian cities from Russian missiles at a conference in Berlin on June 11 and urged international businesses to put their faith, and billions of dollars, into post-war reconstruction.

Kyiv hopes the conference will cement its credentials as a future member of the European Union that is worthy of huge injections of reconstruction financing – even as Russian forces continue to make slow advances in Ukraine’s east.

Switzerland will host an international conference this weekend to seek a path to peace in Ukraine, but it has been shunned by China and dismissed as a waste of time by Russia, which was not invited to attend.

Speaking alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had wiped out enough energy infrastructure to power the cities of Berlin and Munich combined.

He was hoping to come away from the conference with pledges of billions of euros for defence and agreements on building a new and more modern energy system.

“Ukraine is suffering from the most destructive form of the Russian view of energy as a weapon,” Mr Zelensky said.

Citing World Bank estimates that Ukraine could need US$500 billion (S$676 billion) over a decade, Mr Scholz said companies had to be offered a business case for investing and talked up Ukraine’s potential in sectors including renewables, IT and pharmaceuticals.

He said Germany was sending more air defence systems to bolster Ukraine’s defences against a barrage of Russian attacks on cities and critical infrastructure, more than two years after Russia launched a full-scale invasion.

“The best kind of reconstruction is the one that doesn’t have to happen at all,” he said.

A Russian campaign of aerial bombardment that began in March has inflicted such heavy damage to generating capacity that blackouts have to be scheduled in Ukraine.

Both Mr Zelensky and Mr Scholz are attending a summit of the Group of Seven major Western powers in Italy this week.

On the conference in Switzerland, which aims to build support for Kyiv’s peace proposals, Mr Zelensky said the fact it was even happening was a result, as it was becoming harder to keep countries onside as war drags on.

“It is important not to hand over (the initiative)... to Russia,” he said. “Because the Russian initiative had been demonstrated on the day of the full-scale invasion. Their vision is the occupation of our country.”

German AfD boycotts speech

Interviewed at the conference, the mayor of Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, said Western weapons and the permission to use them to strike targets just inside Russia had helped to restore calm.

Mr Zelensky also addressed the German Parliament during his visit, where his speech was boycotted by two parties including the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose support surged in European elections last weekend.

Speaking alongside Mr Scholz and Mr Zelensky, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced agreements with banks worth €1.4 billion (S$2 billion) to help attract private investment for Ukraine.

She said the EU would deliver €1.9 billion to Ukraine from its own assistance programme by the end of the month, and that Kyiv would benefit from interest income from frozen Russian assets.

“We must help Ukraine to rise from the ashes and to be the master of its own future. This means... we must provide Ukraine with the means to defend itself,” she said.

The Berlin conference was tainted this week by the resignation of a top Ukrainian reconstruction official who said “systemic obstacles” were making his job untenable.

US special envoy Penny Pritzker said commitments to rebuilding Ukraine were “predicated upon having good stewardship by those who are managing the reconstruction efforts across the Ukrainian government”. “It’s urgent to tackle the corruption, the customs evasion, the grey markets.” REUTERS