Rome, 10 July 2025 (dpa/MIA) – Repairing the damage done by more than three years of war will cost more than $1 trillion over a 14-year period, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a recovery conference in Rome on Thursday.

Speaking to the conference by video link, Shmyhal said that Ukraine was looking into the creation of two funds to the amount of around $1 trillion.

One fund administered by Kiev should be financed by Russian assets seized abroad for $540 billion, and a second for $460 billion would come from private investors, he said.

Shmyhal called on the country's allies to set aside additional funds to cover the shortfall in the Ukrainian budget for the years 2026 and 2027.

Under conditions of peace and not including arms manufacture, maintaining the Ukrainian army cost around €50 billion ($58 billion) a year, he said, adding that Ukraine was banking on half of this coming from the European Union.

Ukraine has been warding off the full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022. More than half its budget is financed from abroad.

Before the war, the country was Europe's poorest country according to International Monetary Fund statistics.

Photo: EPA