Trillion-dollar Ukraine reconstruction issue back on radar

WITH Russia gaining territory in Ukraine in recent months, the potentially more-than-a-trillion-dollar issue related to Ukraine’s reconstruction had slid off the global economic and political radar.

There is increasing talk of Russia keeping a significant slice of the nation, as Peter Ricketts, a former UK ambassador and national security adviser, recently highlighted. He believes that there is a growing possibility of a Korea-style scenario with Russia keeping control of at least a fifth of pre-war Ukraine, and the remainder moving in a pro-Western direction in the years to come.

This is part of the reason why Western leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, hosted a two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in Berlin this week. The goal was to frame the leadership discussion at the G7 meeting in Italy, and also a global peace summit in Switzerland this weekend.