Financing the reconstruction of Ukraine will be a good investment

Much like the post-Second World War Marshall Plan, assisting Ukraine will be good for Europe, writes Nancy Qian

Ukrainian emergency service rescuers work at the scene of a building damaged by night shelling in Mykolaiv, Ukraine,last month. Ukrainian economists estimate that restoring the country’s lost infrastructure will cost at least €194bn. Picture: Efrem Lukatsky/AP

Nine months after Russia invaded their country, Ukrainians are seizing back their territory and giving their people hope of a military victory. But when it comes to long-term peace and prosperity, a military victory would be only the end of the first phase. The next phase — reconstruction — will be much longer and harder, and it will require continued, extensive economic support from the country’s friends and allies.

The Ukrainian economy is expected to have contracted by one-third in 2022. The war has kept people from their homes and normal jobs, some 13m civilians have been displaced, and 700,000 Ukrainians (mostly young men) have left the labour force to serve in the armed forces. Factories and homes have been destroyed, and the Kyiv School of Economics estimates that Ukraine’s infrastructure losses total €111bn.