Ukraine can rely on its friends
The upcoming winter will be complicated for Ukraine and its friends, Romania's ambassador to Kyiv has said
Roxana Vasile, 28.11.2022, 13:50
Ukraine will be facing the toughest winter since the end of World War II, and both Kyiv and its friends must prepare for this challenge, Alexandru Victor Micula, Romania’s ambassador in Kyiv, has said. No one must however get intimidated by Putin’s attacks on civilian infrastructure, the Romanian diplomat added, arguing that Bucharest will get involved in the reconstruction of Ukraine by means of projects carried out at EU level, but also by means of national initiatives.
We need to understand this is a complex process. If we’re referring to the Lugano conference in early July, at the time there were some 40,000 objectives that were partially or completely destroyed and needed restoration. Before I took office, their number had already doubled, and the more Ukrainian territories are liberated, the larger the extent of the damage we notice, so the needs increase exponentially as hostilities continue. We need to recognize the efforts of Ukrainian authorities, first of all in order to have an updated list of objectives that need rebuilding. Secondly, we should praise the way they use the methodology developed by the World Bank to estimate the construction costs for each objective. And thirdly, the way they associate the objective that needs to be reconstructed with the potential donor, the country or international organization that pledges to rebuild the objective, which results in that particular objective being taken off the list of those that still need funding. Right now, jointly with the European Commission, the World Bank or the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, we are working on the fourth component, namely the mechanism for reconstruction financing. We also want to have a number of reconstruction projects where Romania can get involved, a number of national initiatives, and we are currently in the phase where we are assessing potential areas where we might implement such projects before choosing the field to specialize in.
Apart from government projects or projects held jointly with other Member States or the European Commission, there are also many other programs of local authorities in Romania or NGOs, foundations or even volunteers. Every piece of assistance provided to Ukraine is important. The needs of this country are so great, that any support given is but half a drop in an ocean, ambassador Alexandru Victor Micula also pointed out.
