As his prime minister presented a $750 billion recovery plan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday the reconstruction of his war-battered country is a "common task" of the democratic world.
Zelenskyy, who has been on an up-and-down march toward democracy since the end of the Cold War, spoke by video message to the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Switzerland about the nation's needs as Russian forces continued their crushing advance in his country's eastern Donbas.
“The reconstruction of Ukraine is not a local project, is not a project of one nation, but a common task of the entire democratic world — all countries, all countries who can say they are civilized,” Zelenskyy told hundreds of attendees in Lugano.
Such ambitions, Zelenskyy said, will require wide-scale construction, funding and security “in all of our country which will be forced to continue living beside Russia.”
“Today, we’re all united in our defense. Tomorrow in our reconstruction,” said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shymhal, who attended in person. He presented a recovery plan that meets immediate needs — even as the war continues — followed by a “fast recovery” when it’s over, and then longer-term requirements.
4 July 2022
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