An excavator belches out fumes as it clears earth and rubble from between the train and bus stations in the Ukrainian town of Trostianets to make way for a reimagined transport hub.An excavator belches out fumes as it clears earth and rubble from between the train and bus stations in the Ukrainian town of Trostianets to make way for a reimagined transport hub.
Badly damaged in fighting with Russian forces almost two years ago, Trostianets is one of six settlements being rebuilt with state funds in a pilot programme to develop the skills and experience needed for a far broader reconstruction drive later.
Mayor Yuriy Bova said time was running out to breathe life back into towns, or risk losing millions of Ukrainians who could help redevelop the country to permanent exile in Europe.
“We’re fighting for every person who should return; for every child who needs to return and build their future here,” he said in the town, barely 30 km from Russia.
“To walk around and see this every day, that will morally traumatise a person,” Mr. Bova said of the ruined northeastern town. “We need to restore everything, starting with cafes, libraries, factories, schools, hospitals.”
Officials in Kyiv have also signalled the urgence of rebuilding Ukraine, an effort that will require hundreds of billions of dollars and involve more than quick fixes to critical sites such as hospitals, power stations and railways.
The war, however, shows no signs of abating. Short on cash, Ukraine is defending against new Russian attacks after its own counteroffensive failed to yield significant gains. Moscow has also resumed a campaign of mass air strikes on population centres far beyond the front line.
‘Unaffordable luxury’
For Pavlo Kuzmenko, the Mayor of Okhtyrka, a town only 20 km down the road from Trostianets that also bears the scars of heavy Russian bombing at the start of the war, resurrecting town squares is a luxury Ukraine cannot afford right now.
Officials in Okhtyrka were slow to finish clearing away the rubble on the main boulevard that was once the city hall and have not yet fixed the gutted department store across the street. Most schools, however, have been repaired with new windows, roofing or bomb shelters, thanks in large part to international donors.
Mr. Kuzmenko, who publicly criticised the plans for Trostianets last year and bemoaned a lack of resources, said the focus should be on patching up homes and critical infrastructure only. Any other available funds should go to the military.
“There is plenty to rebuild,” Kuzmenko said. “Squares, and all their decorations, can be done after the war.”
Standing near the remains of the city hall, Okhtyrka resident Antonina Dmytrychenko said she agreed with her mayor: “First we need victory, then reconstruction.”
The different views in the neighbouring towns reflect a broader debate about wartime spending playing out across Ukraine. Most visibly, a growing grassroots protest movement is demanding that discretionary projects, such as sprucing up streets and public spaces, be shelved in favour of the military.
In a sign of the tension, officials in the Odesa region cancelled more than $9 million of tenders during the last three months of 2023, saying spending on things such as road repairs, the renovation of a stadium and software was “unacceptable” during wartime.
The disputes highlight the need for a clearly communicated government strategy for what recovery and, more broadly, a war-adapted economy should look like, said Orysia Lutsevych at the Chatham House think-tank in London.
She said officials must urgently unlock Ukraine’s economic potential by restoring income-generating growth opportunities that can help defeat Russia — and that meant luring people back as well as stopping more leaving the country for good.
‘Same equation’
“Militaries win battles, but economies win wars. It’s part of the same equation,” she said.
It might make sense, for example, to build more schools in the comparably safer western city of Lviv for the many Ukrainians displaced there by fighting elsewhere, so they will stay and contribute to the wartime economy, Ms. Lutsevych said.
“This is what rebuilding is: maybe it’s not fancy playgrounds, maybe it’s not new zoos,” she said. “But it must be a category of projects that fits within the wider strategy of how Ukraine will sustain this war.”
So far, more than $1.6 billion has been earmarked from the fund for reconstruction, Prime Minister Shmyhal said in October.
The pilot projects received about $86 million last year, though the 2024 budget has not yet been set, a spokesperson for the reconstruction agency said.
Overall, the World Bank has estimated that rebuilding Ukraine will cost more than $400 billion over the next decade, and Western lenders have signalled they are prepared to provide the bulk of the financing.
Published - January 19, 2024 07:23 am IST
