Polish official says reconstruction of Ukraine may begin in second half of 2025

The works to restore Ukraine after hostilities come to an end may begin as early as the second half of 2025, Polish government representative for Ukraine's restoration Pawel Kowal said.

Photo: wikimedia.org by Belgeu, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

A school in Ukraine

"It now seems that everyone is preparing for the reconstruction next year, that it will begin soon. In my estimation, it will begin in the second half of next year," he said.

In April 2024, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk signed a decree establishing the Council for Cooperation with Ukraine, a public body that would deal with bilateral relations and reconstruction.

Pawel Kowal, former Polish ambassador to Ukraine, was appointed the Polish government`s commissioner for Ukraine's recovery in early 2024, after Prime Minister Donald Tusk came to power.

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An ongoing refugee crisis began in Europe in late February 2022 after Russia kicked off its special military operation in Ukraine. Over 6 million refugees fleeing Ukraine are recorded across Europe, while an estimated 8 million others had been displaced within the country by late May 2022. Approximately one-quarter of the country's total population had left their homes in Ukraine by 20 March. 90% of Ukrainian refugees are women and children, while most Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 are banned from leaving the country. By 24 March, more than half of all children in Ukraine had left their homes, of whom a quarter had left the country. The invasion caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II and its aftermath, is the first of its kind in Europe since the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s, as well as the fourth largest refugee crisis in history, and is the largest refugee crisis of the 21st century, with the highest refugee flight rate globally. The vast majority of refugees initially entered neighbouring countries to the west of Ukraine (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova). Around 3 million people then moved further west to other European countries. As of 18 July 2023, according to UNHCR data, the countries in which the largest numbers of Ukrainians had applied for asylum, or other temporary protection, were Poland (1.6 million), Germany (1 million) and the Czech Republic (0.54 million). As of September 2022, Human Rights Watch documented that Ukrainian civilians were being forcibly transferred to Russia. The UN Human Rights Office stated "There have been credible allegations of forced transfers of unaccompanied children to Russian occupied territory, or to the Russian Federation itself." The United States Department of State estimated that at least 900,000 Ukrainian citizens have been forcibly relocated to Russia. More than 4.5 million Ukrainians have returned to Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion.