Page 49 - bne magazine September 2023

bne September 2023 Eastern Europe I 49
year of death and destruction, with no hope for an end to the conflict in sight.
However, with the US presidential elections looming and with a return of Donald Trump a possibility, it may be Putin will wait to see what happens in the US presidential elections.
“Problem with starting talks now is that
Putin has no incentive to compromise. As [former US ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul] points out, there is zero reason for the Kremlin to make any kind of deal until they know the results of the next US Presidential election. So another 15 months of stalemate, minimum,” journalist Owen Matthews said in a tweet.
Unsightly as a frozen conflict is, they
litter the world and once established they can exist for decades: Korea’s DMZ, Turkey’s occupation of northern Cyprus, the Berlin wall, Palestine and Kashmir to name a few. Another one in Eastern Ukraine would be the second frozen conflict in Europe since the end of WWII, but would probably be soon forgotten, although the sanctions on Russia would become permanent.
Ukraine ready to build back better,
says reconstruction agency head
Dominic Culverwell in Kyiv
Atired Soviet-era office block in downtown Kyiv may not look like the most exciting place in the Ukrainian capital but inside it the future face of Ukraine is being moulded. It’s home to the Agency for Reconstruction and Development of Infrastructure, headed by former EuroMaidan revolutionary turned politician Mustafa Nayyem. He will be responsible for rebuilding Ukraine when the war comes to an end.
The reconstruction of Ukraine will be the biggest building project Europe has seen since the end of WWII. The devastation wreaked by Russia on Ukraine is catastrophic, but it also presents an unprecedented opportunity. Not since the great war has a country had to rebuild from the ground up and modernise the entire post-Soviet economy almost from scratch. Ukraine could potentially become one of the most modern and greenest countries in the world – if the money to pay for it can be found.
The former Deputy Minister of Infrastructure is in charge of leading the prodigious effort to rebuild and redesign Ukraine as well as interactions with donors to fund the immense costs of redevelopment, estimated in April to be $411bn by the World Bank in April. But as Nayyem points out, this figure is only going up, as Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine shows no sign of stopping.
“It is too early to estimate because we do not know what is going on in the occupied territories. It is obvious they will have [far] more problems than the de-occupied and liberated territories or the peace side,” Nayyem tells bne IntelliNews in an exclusive interview.
Pointing to Kherson as an example, Nayyem explains that Russian troops have destroyed everything in the occupied zones, including municipal transportation, bridges, roads and administrative buildings. All will have to be rebuilt, likely from scratch. Repairing damaged roads and bridges is one of the Agency’s key priorities and crucial
for the delivery of goods, ammunition and aid to soldiers on the front line and civilians living in affected territories.
In addition, the Agency is focusing on energy infrastructure in preparation for the heating season as well as utilities, such as water. Following the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant (HPP) last month, the Agency is building a pipeline to provide water to 1.5mn people in southern Ukraine.
Accommodation is another major issue. 8.6% of Ukraine’s total housing stock
is damaged or destroyed, amounting
to $54bn in damages, according to a
Ukraine's economy has been devastated by Russia's war of aggression, but by building back better it could emerge as one of the most modern and greenest countries in the world. / Mustafa Nayyem Twitter
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