Well, that didn’t take long. The vultures are already circling, with each western country vying for a piece of the lucrative postwar reconstruction pie in Ukraine.
At the western ‘rebuilding Ukraine’ conference held in Lugano Switzerland, Prime Minister Shmygal presented a new map of Ukraine – outlining which western countries would be given which reconstruction contracts. At 750 billion, this would be the largest single tranche of cash ever sloughed into a country – a near bottomless pit of easy cash.
The following shows which areas western leaders are expecting to cash in on once the war is over:
🇮🇪 Ireland – Rivne
🇩🇪 Germany – Chernihiv
🇨🇦 Canada – Sumy
🇺🇸🇹🇷 USA and Turkey – Kharkiv
🇨🇿🇫🇮🇸🇪 Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden – Lugansk
🇧🇪 Belgium – Nikolaev
🇸🇪🇳🇱 Sweden and the Netherlands – Kherson
🇨🇭Switzerland – Odessa
🇫🇷 France – Odessa city
🇳🇴 Norway – Kirovograd
🇱🇻 Latvia – Zaporozhye
🇵🇱🇮🇹 Poland and Italy – Donetsk
There’s only one slight problem with their map – it’s that Russia and the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic control most of these areas, and it’s unlikely they will ever be returned to Kiev’s control. This obvious fact makes this entire choreographed exercise look increasingly strange. Are they aware of this but are just going through the motions for the sake of propping-up Kiev’s public relations, or are these western leaders completely divorced from reality?
However, the longer the war continues, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that any of these western governments will ever get an opportunity to realize these micro-colonial ambitions.
The rhetoric is now in hyperbolic mode…
AP reports…
LUGANO, Switzerland (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday the reconstruction of his war-battered country is the “common task of the entire democratic world,” as his prime minister laid out a $750 billion recovery plan once the guns of Russia’s invaders fall silent one day.
As Russian forces continued their crushing advance in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, Zelenskyy spoke by video message to the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Switzerland about the needs of the country that has been on an up-and-down march toward democracy since the end of the Cold War and now faces widespread devastation.
“The reconstruction of Ukraine is not a local project, is not a project of one nation, but a common task of the entire democratic world — all countries, all countries who can say they are civilized,” Zelenskyy told hundreds of attendees in Lugano. ”Restoring Ukraine means restoring the principles of life, restoring the space of life, restoring everything that makes humans humans.”
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said such a recovery would require a sort of “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine to help it rebuild.
Such ambitions, Zelenskyy said, will require wide-scale construction, funding and security “in all of our country which will be forced to continue living beside Russia.”
The task, which is already under way in some areas that were liberated from Russian forces, aims to leverage outside expertise, government funds and work of Ukrainians to rebuild hospitals, schools, government buildings, homes and apartments — but also water pipes, gas lines and other battered infrastructure.
“Today, we’re all united in our defense. Tomorrow in our reconstruction,” said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who attended in person. He presented a recovery plan that meets immediate needs — even as the war continues — followed by a “fast recovery” when it’s over, and then longer-term requirements.
Shmyhal said the cost of the recovery plan is estimated at $750 billion, and insisted a key source of funding “should be the confiscated assets of Russia and Russian oligarchs.” He cited unspecified estimates that such sums total $300 billion to $500 billion now.
“The Russian authorities unleash this bloody war. They caused this massive destruction and they should be held accountable for it,” Shmyhal said.
Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president of the European Union’s executive branch, said using such confiscated Russian assets would involve criminal law, so the “legal obstacles” weren’t resolved, “but we think it’s important that according to the principle of ‘aggressor pays’ it’s also Russia’s assets which are directed to the reconstruction of Ukraine”…
READ MORE UKRAINE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Ukraine Files
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