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"This is not a regular donor conference," German Chancellor Olaf
Scholz told the conference in Berlin. "It is something more
profound... A new Marshall Plan for the 21st century," he said,
comparing the challenge to the U.S. funding of Europe's
reconstruction after World War Two.
Addressing the conference by video link, Zelenskiy said Russian
missiles and Iranian-made drones had destroyed more than a third
of the country's energy infrastructure, making it vulnerable in
the short term and delaying European integration.
"It destroys everything to make it harder for us to survive this
winter," he said. "So that you cannot integrate the Ukrainian
economic potential for as long as possible."
The conference, hosted by Scholz and European Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen, is intended to decide how to
proceed with Ukraine's reconstruction after the war, now in its
ninth month.
Ukraine says that repairing the damage caused by a war that has
cost thousands of lives and destroyed homes, hospitals, schools
and factories will cost $750 billion. The World Bank estimates
reconstruction costs at $349 billion.
Gathering national leaders, company chiefs and development
experts, Tuesday's conference is intended to draw lessons from
the failures of previous post-war reconstructions.
Zelenskiy said it was in Europe's interest to help Ukraine
recover from a war condemned by Western countries as President
Vladimir Putin's imperialist land-grab but styled by Moscow as a
special military operation to purge its neighbour of extremists.
"All of you surely know what we have to offer," he said. "It is
Ukraine that can guarantee that Russian revanchism cannot break
our European home."
In a nod to concerns, widely shared but rarely voiced in
European capitals, that reconstruction aid could be stolen or
wasted, he stressed that three-quarters of the members of a
reconstruction fund's advisory board would be from donor
countries.
"We have no time to waste: the scale of the destruction is
staggering," said von der Leyen.
(Reporting by Thomas EscrittEditing by Mark Potter and Philippa
Fletcher)
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