(11 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
POOL
Berlin – 11 June 2024
1. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives, shakes hands with attendees and signs guest book
2. Various of Zelenskyy’s signature in guest book
STORYLINE:
Germany is hosting a conference on Tuesday to gather support for Ukraine’s recovery from the destruction wreaked by Russia’s war, sending a new signal of solidarity with Kyiv at the start of an intense diplomatic weekend.
The two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin follows up on a similar gathering in London a year ago and according to its German hosts will bring together 2,000 people from politics, business and other areas.
The conference comes before the summit in Italy of the Group of Seven advanced economies which represent Ukraine’s leading Western allies and a global peace summit in Switzerland this coming weekend.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who last week attended events marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in France, is expected at the gathering.
Zelenskyy, making his third visit to Berlin since Russia’s full-scale invasion started on Feb. 24, 2022, is also expected to make a speech to the German parliament, the Bundestag. He previously made a video address to lawmakers a few weeks after the war started.
The Ukrainian president last visited in mid-February, when he signed a bilateral security agreement with German Chancellor OIaf Scholz, one of a string of such accords that allies have reached with Kyiv to signal their long-term backing.
In London last year, Ukraine’s allies pledged several billion dollars in non-military aid to rebuild the country’s infrastructure, fight corruption and help pave Kyiv’s road to membership in the European Union.
That focus on reforms remains central this year.
Among other immediate problems Ukraine faces, sustained Russian attacks on its power grid in recent weeks have forced leaders in Kyiv to institute nationwide rolling blackouts.
On Monday, the head of the State Agency for Restoration of Ukraine, Mustafa Nayyem, announced his resignation on Facebook. He cited “systemic obstacles that prevent me from exercising my powers effectively” and accused the government of bogging his agency down in red tape.
Ukraine hasn’t had a minister dedicated to reconstruction since Oleksandr Kubrakov was dismissed in May. Nayyem complained that Ukraine’s prime minister barred him from attending the Berlin conference.
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