Ukraine's reconstruction likely to require hundreds of billions of dollars or euros - EU ambassador

MOSCOW. June 1 (Interfax) - Efforts to rebuild Ukraine will likely require hundreds of billions of dollars or euros, Head of the European Union Delegation to Ukraine Matti Maasikas said.

"The Ukrainian government is working very hard on the recovery plan. The needs will probably be in hundreds of billions of euros or dollars. Discussions at international partners' side have only started: how to raise this money, how to manage it in cooperation with Ukraine. Of course, there has to be strong Ukrainian ownership. No one wants and can decide better than you on what exactly this money will be needed," Maasikas said during a press briefing at the Ukraine Media Center on Wednesday.

More technical and financial discussions on this matter are continuing, he said, according to the Ukrainian media.

"One more political idea that is being warmly welcomed is [Ukrainian] President Volodymyr Zelensky's idea of a sort of a twinning, that a government, a municipality or even a large company from the international partners' side could pay to the [Ukrainian] fund with a specific purpose for reconstructing one particular municipality or a city. That would bring much more ownership and would help also the donors' side to understand and feel this much more directly," Maasikas said.