Full cost of rebuilding Ukraine impossible to quantify, says German finance minister

BERLIN, May possibly 24 (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Christian Lindner claimed on Tuesday it was unachievable to say how a great deal it would value to rebuild Ukraine as prolonged as preventing with Russia carries on, amid European Union discussions on how to fund even more aid for Kyiv.

“The Ukrainian facet won’t talk a large amount about reconstruction. The priority is stopping the war, the precedence is securing the performance of the Ukrainian condition,” Lindner said in Brussels just after the Could conference of European finance ministers.

“No one can set a quantity on how good the have to have is to rebuild the place,” he included.

Delivering reconstruction support to Kyiv was not just the responsibility of Europe, but also global bodies these types of as the Worldwide Financial Fund, the Environment Lender and the personal banking sector, additional Lindner.

He also alluded to the risk of seizing Russian condition property to aid fund reconstruction – a Ukrainian ask for which the minister stated last week was currently being regarded as by the Group of Seven (G7) nations. read much more

Past 7 days, the European Fee proposed location up a “RebuildUkraine” facility of grants and financial loans of unspecified measurement, modelled on the EU’s existing recovery fund for which the bloc jointly borrowed on the market place. examine more

It continues to be unclear how this new fund would be financed, but Lindner reiterated on Tuesday that Germany procedures out the issuance of any more joint EU financial debt and termed for a consolidation of EU funds in 2023.

Reporting by Miranda Murray and Rachel Additional Modifying by Emelia Sithole-Matarise

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