Olaf Schultz: Rebuilding Ukraine will be a 'big task'

“sAnd construction will be a big and big task. And we’ll have to invest a lot to make it work well. Ukraine cannot do it alone. The European Union cannot do this alone. Only the international community as a whole, which now supports Ukraine, can do this. “It should be like this for a long time,” the German news agency Efe quoted the German leader as saying.

Every day, Scholz noted, images of “the terrible devastation caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine in that country” reach cities, roads, railways, power lines, hospitals, schools, libraries and universities.

“And if we are still now trying to support Ukraine and its citizens to defend their independence, the integrity and sovereignty of their country, their democracy and freedom, then we are also thinking about the future: how are we going to rebuild all this? And when will the economy start growing again and everything will work?”

According to the German chancellor, the answer to all these questions is the goal of the International Conference of Reconstruction Experts, to be held next Tuesday, in Berlin, by Germany, as the country holding the rotating presidency of the Group of Seven, and by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. , in close cooperation with Ukraine.

At a regular press conference, German government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner said on Friday that the conference will bring together representatives from Europe, the Group of Seven, the Group of Twenty, international organizations, civil society and companies, and, in particular, from Ukraine.

It is scheduled to invite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to speak at the beginning of the conference, which will also be attended by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyal and several Ukrainian ministers.