Ukraine will require an estimated €500 billion to rebuild after the devastation caused by Russia’s four-year invasion, a sum nearly three times the country’s annual economic output, according to a joint report by the World Bank, the UN and the EU.
The projected total of $588bn represents a 12% increase on last year’s estimate, following a winter marked by severe attacks on energy infrastructure that left millions of Ukrainians without heat or electricity, reports RTE.
The stark assessment comes as the conflict enters its fifth year, having crippled Ukraine’s economy, reduced whole towns and cities to ruins and forced millions of people to flee their homes.
Western allies have pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in assistance since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, but Kyiv says much of that support is used simply to endure the war, finance military operations and stabilise the economy, reports RTE.
“Recovery and reconstruction needs continue to grow and are now estimated at $587.7 billion over a 10 year horizon – equivalent to almost three times Ukraine’s 2025 GDP,” the report published jointly by the World Bank, Ukrainian government, United Nations and European Commission said, reports RTE.
The estimate is based on an evaluation of destruction recorded up to the end of last December.
Since that point, Russia has carried out further large-scale assaults on Ukraine’s power grid, including successive missile and drone strikes that have completely wiped out some generating facilities, reports RTE.
According to the report, more than one in seven homes across Ukraine have been either damaged or destroyed during the war.
Rebuilding expenses are greatest in the transport sector, projected at €81bn, followed by energy and housing, each estimated at roughly €76bn, reports RTE.
An additional €24 billion will be required for debris removal and “explosives hazard management” – effectively de-mining operations.
The regions of Donetsk and Kharkiv, located near the front lines, are expected to require the largest share of investment, while the capital Kyiv will need more than €13bn for recovery, the findings indicate, reports RTE.
Data from the Germany-based Kiel Institute shows that Ukraine’s Western partners have committed over €340bn in financial, military and humanitarian aid since the invasion began.
An EU loan package worth €90bn is largely intended to cover Ukraine’s military costs, with the remainder set aside for general budgetary support, the bloc said last month, reports RTE.
Meanwhile, Russian strikes overnight killed three Ukrainians and injured several others, regional officials said.
In the south, two people died after drones struck industrial, energy and civilian sites in the Odesa region, regional governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram, reports RTE.
At least three other people were injured, he added.
In Zaporizhzhia, a drone strike targeting industrial facilities killed a 33-year-old man and wounded another person, according to regional head Ivan Fedorov, reports RTE.
The city, an important industrial centre close to the front line, has been subjected to frequent attacks as Russian forces step up pressure in Ukraine’s southeast.
Further north, a missile struck the Kholodnogirsky district of Kharkiv, mayor Igor Terekhov said, reports RTE.
He did not immediately provide casualty details as emergency crews assessed the extent of the damage.
These latest assaults followed a wave of Russian missile and drone attacks on Sunday that targeted energy facilities, railway infrastructure and residential areas across the country, with Kyiv among the worst affected, reports RTE.
One man was killed and more than a dozen people were injured in and around the capital during that earlier attack, reports RTE.
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