Zelenskyy says Ukraine needs 'Marshall-like' support plan

By Ruslan Rehimov

KYIV, Ukraine (AA) - Ukraine needs “a strategic international support plan” similar to the historic Marshall Plan for rebuilding the country when the war ends, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday.

Speaking via video link at an international donors’ conference hosted by Poland and Sweden in Warsaw to raise funds for Ukraine, Zelenskyy noted that they will use the financial resources for both the society and the country's defense needs.

“It is money, technology, expertise and growth opportunities that are needed to return to a secure life, to modernization and to social development.

“It will be an investment in the stability of the whole of central and eastern Europe. So that the aggressor knows that it will not break the power of Europe and all free nations. And so that everything destroyed by the war is rebuilt at a high level,” he said

"We are already preparing an ambitious plan for the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war, and we need a strategic international support plan that will be a modern version of the historic Marshall Plan.”

The Marshall Plan was a US-sponsored program designed to rehabilitate the economies of 17 western and southern European countries after World War II.

Stating that civil and responsible states should protect Ukraine's war-torn regions and economic sectors, Zelenskyy said that "such a protection project can constitute a historical example of interaction and partnership between free and democratic world states.”

Over €6 billion ($6.3 billion) was pledged Thursday for Ukraine at the donors’ conference.

The European Union has allocated €1.5 billion ($1.58 billion) in military support to Ukraine and mobilized over €4 billion ($4.2 billion) in macro-financial assistance, humanitarian aid and support to EU countries hosting refugees from Ukraine since the war began on Feb. 24.

It has also adopted five sets of sanctions targeting individuals, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, oligarchs and military officers, as well as banning the export of luxury goods and imports of coal and excluding Russian and Belarusian banks from the SWIFT global financial messaging system.