There has been a lot of talk lately about who should pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Many fingers are pointing at Russia. “There was even a resolution about it in the UN General Assembly, which narrowly passed,” says Hammelburg. “Many countries say we should first wait until the conflict is over or until research leads to clear conclusions.”
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The European Union will therefore not wait for this. Hammelburg: ‘The EU says: we see what we see and we provide material and financial support ourselves, we simply go to work ourselves with reconstruction aid. I assume the United States will follow, I don’t think it will be limited to Europe.’
Humanitarian aid
With winter approaching and Russia’s continued attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine, humanitarian aid to the country may soon be needed as well. “The government rightly warns against cold weather and power outages, and that could last until March,” Hammelburg explains. “This is why the government advises people living in liberated Kherson or Mykolaiv to leave those places, because they can’t do anything more for the restoration of those utilities there until spring.”
According to Hammelburg, residents of those cities are urged to leave for parts of the country where the government can still help them a little, free of charge. ‘The government will facilitate this for free and help them find accommodation. And the government can do it too, because it has just received 2.5 billion euros from the European Union.’
target the Russians
The British newspaper The Guardian writes that Kremlin spokesman Peskov says that the overthrow of the Ukrainian government is no longer a goal of the Russians, while that was the goal previously. “He ignores it and refers to previous speeches by Putin in which the goal is to gain control of Donbass. I think this is a confirmation from the Russians that they are simply incapable of thinking beyond the Donbass and that they recognize that this too will be a tall order.”