A Ukrainian minister said on Monday that Russia's invasion has damaged or destroyed 30% of Ukraine's infrastructure at a cost of $100 billion, and reconstruction could be achieved in two years using frozen Russian assets to finance it.
Ukraine has not previously outlined the impact of roads and bridges on infrastructure, but officials say that the total bill for damage to everything from homes to buildings and other buildings runs to about $500 billion so far.
Infrastructure Minister Oleksander Kubrakov said that almost all of the components of our transport infrastructure have suffered in one form or another.
He said the invasion, which Russia launched in February, had affected 20 to 30% of the country's infrastructure with different degrees of damage, with different levels of destruction. More than 300 bridges on national roads had been damaged or destroyed, more than 8,000 kilometers of roads had to be repaired or rebuilt, and dozens of railway bridges had been blown up, according to Kubrakov. He put the bill at $100 billion so far.
The minister said that his ministry had begun some reconstruction in areas that are now under the control of Ukrainian troops.
If everyone works quickly, I believe that almost everything can be rebuilt in two years if we talk about roads, bridges and residential buildings.
In the first weeks of the war, Russian forces came close to Kyiv, causing widespread damage to towns and infrastructure in the region. Russian troops have pulled back from the north this month to focus the campaign on the east and south, where the besieged port city of Mariupol has been devastated.
Kubrakov said that Western nations could support the reconstruction of Ukraine, and he said that funds could be found from a range of sources to support the rebuilding effort.
There are several sources that are being considered. The Russian Federation's assets are now frozen in almost all major countries, and are one of the first to be frozen, he said.
The European Union wants to create an international fund for reconstruction, while some EU politicians have called for using Russian assets frozen by the West, including $300 billion in Russian central bank reserves.
Kubrakov said that the Ukrainian justice ministry and some of Ukraine's allies were working on ways to use frozen Russian assets. He said one option would be to raise cash by selling seized assets through a transparent mechanism. Such a mechanism has never been used, and I believe that this is fair. He said that setting up such a mechanism would require some pioneering work. There has been no precedents yet. Is there a precedent for a country in Europe to attack another in the 21st century?