European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Oct. 25 that the world should not waste time and must help Ukrainians rebuild the country.
“We have no time to waste, the scale of destruction is staggering. The World Bank puts the cost of the damage at 350 billion euros,” she stated at the international conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction in Berlin.
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Von der Leyen also added that the European Union would allocate 1.5 billion euros monthly to Ukraine to finance its state budget deficit. According to her, Ukraine has already received more than 19 billion euros of financial aid from the EU since the beginning of 2022, not including military supplies, but this is not enough.
“I believe the European Union should take its fair share, so I am working with member states to ensure that the EU supports Ukraine with up to 1.5 billion euros monthly during the war, for a total of around 18 billion euros in 2023,” von der Leyen said.
She added that the European Commission was ready to coordinate the reconstruction measures with a secretariat.
“Every euro, every dollar, every pound, every yen that we will spend is an investment not only in Ukraine but also in democratic values around the world,” she added.
According to the chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine, Ukraine’s total financial needs for the following year amounted to $38 billion. The International Monetary Fund has assessed that Ukraine needs roughly $5 billion every month to keep its economy going and cover essential services (basic public expenditure, schools, hospitals, and Ukraine’s electrical network).
On Oct. 2, according to Bloomberg, the United States was ready to provide Ukraine with $1.5 billion monthly to finance its budget by the war’s end and expected the EU to provide commensurate amounts.
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