Rebuil­ding Ukraine: Stra­te­gic Priorities

Russia’s aggres­sion has resul­ted in signi­fi­cant human and mate­rial losses for Ukraine. In four years of full-scale war, hundreds of thou­sands of Ukrai­ni­ans have been killed or wounded, and mil­li­ons have been dis­pla­ced. Appro­xi­m­ately 6.9 million Ukrai­nian refu­gees are abroad, mainly in Europe, while another 3.7 million are intern­ally dis­pla­ced. Infra­struc­ture and housing have been sever­ely affec­ted, with appro­xi­m­ately 13 percent of all resi­den­tial buil­dings des­troyed or damaged, leaving more than 2.5 million fami­lies without a home. A joint assess­ment by the Ukrai­nian govern­ment, the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion esti­ma­tes postwar recon­s­truc­tion needs at 524 billion US dollars (almost 500 billion euros), a figure that con­ti­nues to rise due to ongoing attacks on cri­ti­cal infrastructure.

After the war, Ukraine will require the largest recon­s­truc­tion effort in Europe since World War II. Sup­port­ing Ukraine’s reco­very is both a moral respon­si­bi­lity and a stra­te­gic invest­ment in Euro­pean sta­bi­lity. A strong, eco­no­mic­ally inte­gra­ted Ukraine will streng­then the Euro­pean Union’s eastern border and con­tri­bute to coll­ec­tive secu­rity. In con­trast, failure to rebuild risks ongoing insta­bi­lity, increased migra­tion, and eco­no­mic chal­lenges that would affect Western count­ries. Assis­ting Ukraine’s recon­s­truc­tion is the­r­e­fore in the inte­rests of Germany and the EU, as it sup­ports lasting peace and pro­spe­rity across Europe.

That said, we need to move beyond res­to­ring Ukraine to its pre­vious state and instead focus on trans­forming the country. The goal should be to build a modern economy that gene­ra­tes sus­tainable income and is fully inte­gra­ted with the EU’s inter­nal market.

This policy brief ana­ly­ses the key prio­ri­ties for Ukraine’s postwar recon­s­truc­tion and for­mu­la­tes recom­men­da­ti­ons for Germany and the EU on sup­port­ing Ukraine’s recovery.