Switzerland | Two days of conference to think about the reconstruction of Ukraine

(Lugano) The Lugano Conference will attempt on Monday and Tuesday to draw the contours of the future reconstruction of Ukraine, where Russia has continued to wage a destructive war for more than four months.

The “task is really colossal”, if only in the liberated territories, admitted Sunday the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose Swiss hosts hoped to come in person, but who will participate – as he is now used to – by videoconference.

And “we need to liberate 2,000 villages and towns in eastern and southern Ukraine”, he added, in a conflict whose outcome remains uncertain despite substantial military and financial aid from the allies of the Ukraine. ‘Ukraine.

Its Prime Minister Denys Schmigal arrived on the spot on Sunday – suit and tie – in the company of the speaker of parliament, Rouslan Stefantchouk – polo shirt and khaki pants – in a Swiss air force aircraft. The two men were welcomed by the President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis.

In total, the Ukrainian delegation will number around a hundred people to meet political leaders, international institutions and representatives of the private sector.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, whose country has just taken over the EU Presidency for six months, and her counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki from Poland, the country hosting far the most Ukrainian refugees will be in Lugano to draw the outline of a kind of “Marshall Plan”, named after the American economic program which had made it possible to raise Western Europe from the ruins of the Second World War.

The conference had been planned long before Russia invaded the country and was initially to discuss reforms in Ukraine and in particular the fight against endemic corruption before being reoriented towards reconstruction.

Roadmap

It will not be a donors’ conference, but rather to define the principles and priorities of a reconstruction process.

The question has arisen of the point of discussing reconstruction when there is no end in sight to the war and the figures range from tens to hundreds of billions of dollars.

For Robert Mardini, director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, while reconstruction itself will have to wait until the end of the fighting, it is vital to give “a positive perspective to civilians”, he explained to the RTS public channel.

The Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) has estimated the damage to buildings and infrastructure so far at nearly $104 billion. The country’s economy has already lost 600 billion dollars according to some estimates.

For Simon Pidoux, the Swiss ambassador in charge of the conference, it is too early to try to estimate all the needs, insisting that Lugano should instead provide “a compass” for the work ahead.

“I think the effort will last for years, even decades,” he said.

The European Investment Bank is to propose the creation of a new fund for Ukraine, which could eventually reach 100 billion euros, according to people familiar with the plan.

The United Kingdom, one of Ukraine’s most active allies, will notably support the reconstruction of the city and the region of Kyiv, at the request of President Zelensky, the British Foreign Office said on Sunday.

London also intends to work with Kyiv and its allies to host the Ukraine Recovery Conference in 2023 and will establish an office in London to help coordinate these reconstruction efforts.

Security

If Lugano is the third financial center of Switzerland and a very popular vacation spot, including many rich Russians, it is not used to receiving this type of international diplomatic meetings. But the President of the Confederation is from here and the hosts want to avoid any incident.

Under a crushing sun, the police patrolled the security perimeter around the Palais des Congrès on Sunday, which is to accommodate delegations for two days, a few steps from Lake Lugano enclosed in the setting of a majestic mountain circus . All afternoon a police launch inspected one by one the passengers of the many pedal boats, who had come to cool off on the water.