Davos, Switzerland
Reuters
As Ukraine’s President discussed peacekeeping forces needed to enforce any ceasefire and US President Donald Trump urged an end to three years of war, Ukrainian officials were courting private investors this week to help rebuild the country.
Oleksiy Sobolev, first deputy economy minister, described a $US500 billion reconstruction effort that would pay both strategic and financial dividends to Western investors, as Kyiv steps up privatisation plans to attract foreign capital.
The evening sun sets over the skyline near Khreshchatyk Street in Kyiv, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, on 29th March, 2024.PICTURE: Reuters/Thomas Peter/File photo.
“It’s the private sector that’s going to be doing these investments,” Sobolev said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, describing recent success with smaller privatisations.
“We’re looking at privatising more. It’s the right time right now to open the bigger companies,” he added.
US President Donald Trump told WEF attendees on Thursday that he wants to end the war in Ukraine.
“Our efforts to secure a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine are now, hopefully underway. It’s so important to get that done,” Trump said in an address from Washington.
Trump’s fledgling second administration has led some to recast the bilateral relationship between the US and Ukraine in terms of narrow economic interest.
“Your country first. Win with us,” suggested the sign greeting visitors to the Ukraine House in Davos.
“The discussion about Ukraine is always about…how do we help Ukraine?” said Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to NATO, adding: “We need to look at Ukraine as part of the solution for so many of the problems that we need to deal with.”
He highlighted Ukraine’s potential as a producer of cleaner and more secure energy for Europe, and as a supplier of battle-tested weaponry on a continent where defence spending is on the rise.
KYIV SAYS TOO SOON TO TALK FOREIGN TROOP NUMBERS IN UKRAINE
Kyiv’s talks with its allies on a possible foreign troop contingent in Ukraine that would act as a security guarantee are only in their early stages and have not focused on specific numbers, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.
Ukraine is seeking security guarantees from its allies as part of any potential peace deal to end the war, nearly three years since Russia’s invasion. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday those could include at least 200,000 European peacekeepers.
In a later interview with Bloomberg, he clarified that number would depend on the size of Ukraine’s military, which he has said Kyiv does not want to cut as a part of any deal. The armed forces currently number around 800,000 personnel.
“Yes, the discussion is ongoing about…the military contingents of foreign powers, foreign nations that can be potentially deployed to Ukraine,” foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told reporters at a briefing in Kyiv.
“This discussion is in its very early stages.”
He said it was “too early to talk about exact numbers”, and that a foreign troop contingent would only be one part of broader security guarantees.
“We think that durable, reliable security guarantees for Ukraine must include both Europe and the United States. This is how we can ensure that this peace is sustainable and durable,” Tykhyi said.
Russia on Thursday rejected the idea of NATO countries sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire in the war with Russia, saying such a move would threaten to cause an “uncontrollable escalation”.
Both warring sides sought to improve their positions ahead of US President Donald Trump’s return this week to the White House. Russia says it is open to a dialogue with Trump, who has said he intends to bring a swift end to the war.
Oil price cap
Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said a key element in achieving security for Ukraine and bringing Russia to account was reducing European consumption of Russian energy, particularly oil.
“Naturally, energy resources, particularly oil, are one of the biggest keys to peace and real security,” he said. “And Europe needs to work more closely with America and other international partners, not Russia, on energy resources.”
The President’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said a firm price cap on Russian oil was “the path to global security” and stood by $US30 per barrel on Russian oil, as recommended by an international expert group he co-chairs. The cap is now $US60.
“We fully support US President Donald Trump’s aspiration to lower the price on oil,” he wrote on Telegram. “The consequence of this would be the collapse of Russia’s ability to finance the war.”
– DAN PELESCHUK and RON POPESKI, Kyiv, Ukraine/Reuters
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told leaders on Tuesday that domestic assembly lines already produced 40 per cent of the weaponry Ukrainian forces are using on the front lines.
His special adviser Oleksandr Kamyshyn told Reuters that this share has risen due in part to the “dozens” of domestic joint ventures with defence firms from Western nations already investing in Ukrainian facilities.
“That’s not only a local office [or] local factory, that’s also R&D,” Kamyshyn said in an interview. He declined to name partners, but said more than 10 are German, adding: “They are quite heavy…big names from the US side.”
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Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power sector, including strikes on coal-fired plants dating back to the 1960s and 1970s, have also created an opening for the country to pivot towards cleaner and less centralized power generation.
Danish wind turbine maker Vestas announced a $US470 million deal at Davos with DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, to expand a wind farm near the Black Sea coast.
Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen said it had been a struggle to line up funding for a project in a place that many lenders consider a war zone, dragging out a process that ordinarily takes weeks into talks that took “several quarters”.
Andersen said public funding was crucial to get the ball rolling on what would be a gargantuan reconstruction effort.
“The recovery starts before a peace deal,” he said.