A senior Ukrainian government source told Reuters ahead of a gathering this week that Ukraine wants $40 billion to fund the first part of a “Green Marshall Plan” to reconstruct its economy.

The two-day meeting, co-hosted by Ukraine and Britain, will debate short-term assistance and long-term restoration.

Three times Ukraine’s GDP, the World Bank predicts $411 billion for rehabilitation. Ukraine has received $59 billion in foreign aid since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Rostyslav Shurma, a deputy director of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration, stated the iron and steel industry would be the first rehabilitation target, costing $40 billion.

In 2021, the sector contributed 10% of Ukrainian GDP, 30% of export revenues, and 600,000 jobs. Shurma said there was a potential to establish a renewable energy industry because it produced 15% of the nation’s carbon emissions.

“If you have to rebuild, rebuild green with new technologies… “Our goal is a 50 million-tonne green steel industry in Ukraine,” he told Reuters.

Investing in new wind, solar, nuclear, and hydropower could make the country the world’s cheapest green steel supplier and boost Europe’s decarbonization efforts.

Shurma said the country’s damaged legacy steel factories could now build closer to iron ore reserves and away from the Donbas region because they relied on coal for power.

Ukraine intends a coalition of industry, governmental, and private sector stakeholders to construct the plan and scope projects to obtain $20–$40 billion in initial finance.

Shurma added, “To be realistic, construction will start only after the war” after 1-1/2 years of preparation.

At the conference, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will urge global investors and British firms to help Ukraine, his office announced Saturday.

“Ukraine’s bravery on the battlefield must be matched by the vision of the private sector to help the country rebuild and recover,” Sunak will remark.

Funding mix
Shurma said rebuilding funding would include export credit agencies, concessional funding through the Ukrainian Development Fund, which is set up with asset manager BlackRock (BLK.N), equity of operating companies, EU transition funding, and private sector loans.

At the London conference, EBRD Managing Director Matteo Patrone stressed the necessity for private sector involvement, saying the public sector alone could not accomplish so.

On Thursday, Republican and Democratic lawmakers submitted a bill to help Ukraine fund its struggle against Russia using seized and frozen Russian assets.

JPMorgan researchers led by Ayomide Mejabi said the war-torn economy “will likely require (a) NATO security guarantee to rebuild with private sector involvement,” even though it’s more resilient than projected.