Pak Sahafat – Germany’s Minister of Development said that Russia should eventually be forced to pay “the cost of rebuilding the destruction caused by the war in Ukraine”.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency, Svenja Schulze added in an interview with Deutsche Welle news channel: They [Russia] must pay for what they destroyed, this is [based on] international law. It is obvious that they should pay these costs.
He continued: They destroyed all the infrastructure and they have to pay for it.
The Minister of Development of Germany made these statements before participating in the conference called “Reconstruction of Ukraine” in London. This conference is an international gathering with the presence of representatives of more than 60 countries, which is held with the aim of “providing funds for action towards the reconstruction of Ukraine”.
According to this report, at the end of yesterday’s conference, the financial sponsors of the participants, including the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, pledged to pay about 60 billion euros (about 65.5 billion dollars).
This is while, according to the World Bank report, the cost of reconstruction of Ukraine was estimated at 411 billion dollars until March 2023, and this figure will increase as the war continues.
The next round of this meeting will be hosted by Germany in 2024.
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American officials admit to the heavy losses of Ukraine in the attack on Russian positions
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal, who attended the conference, called for the creation of a “compensation mechanism” that would allow the use of frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine.
According to this report, the realization of this request by Ukraine is a controversial issue and it will be difficult to reach an international agreement on this matter.
Ukraine’s “eternal debt” to the West
According to the TASS news agency, the Russian Embassy in England reacted to the “Ukraine reconstruction” conference in London and announced in a statement, behind the West’s “exorbitant promises” to rebuild Ukraine, they seek to hide their intention to continue using the country and its citizens as a tool to fight Russia.
According to the statement, the conference confirms that the claims of support for Ukraine are actually a cover for the deliberate purchase of the country’s assets.
The Russian embassy adds in this statement: The new loans promised to Kyiv will be a heavy burden on the shoulders of Ukrainians and will only exacerbate the current heavy debts for the government of this country. In fact, Ukraine is being pushed to the state of “eternal debt”.
Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the United States, also said in an interview with Ryanovsti early this Friday that the United States of America, which is involved in the conflict in Ukraine, is obliged to bear the costs of the reconstruction of this country.
Stating that America is directly responsible for the events in Ukraine, Antonov added: Considering the long-term efforts of the United States to create a tense situation on Russia’s borders and turn Ukraine into a country opposed to Moscow, Washington must take all necessary measures to rebuild Ukraine.