The Lugano conference was an important launch-pad for efforts to mobilise international support. The Ukrainian government presented a Recovery and Development Plan, a lengthy but still sketchy outline of possible reconstruction activity. Estimates of its cost vary from USD500bn to USD1.1tn; the plan puts the figure in the middle at USD750bn.
Similar events will follow: an EU meeting later this year and a UK conference in 2023.
Pledges of support should give Ukrainians more confidence in their future.
The plan must build in inclusive participation if Ukrainians are to buy into it rather than feel excluded from governance, as in the past.
Although private-sector involvement promises to be limited, recovery may eventually lead to more foreign investment.
