Ukraine at Rome 2025: Rebuilding as a Strategy for Peace and Security
Ukraine is preparing for the 2025 Ukraine Recovery Conference, which will take place in Rome, with a clear recovery plan, offering specific projects and new cooperation models.
This time, Ukraine is going not only for support, but as a partner ready to transform reconstruction into an instrument of stability and security for Europe.
In July 2025, Rome will host the next International Conference on the Recovery of Ukraine. This meeting traditionally brings together governments, businesses, international organizations, and the expert community to seek joint solutions for the post-war recovery of Ukraine's economy, infrastructure, and social situation. But this time, the context is deeper and more tense than ever before. Ukraine is not just preparing for the next stage of reconstruction; it is coming with specific requirements, practices, projects, and, most importantly, with the feeling that time is against it.
Financing Reconstruction: Key Projects for Which Ukraine will Seek Donors
As of February 2025, the estimated damage caused by the war exceeds $500 billion. Below is a detailed list of Ukraine's losses in various sectors:
Energy infrastructure: more than 60% of large thermal and hydroelectric power plants, more than 45% of transformer substations, and thousands of kilometers of high-voltage power lines have been destroyed or damaged. The industry's losses are estimated at least $55 billion.
Housing stock: over 270,000 residential properties have been damaged or destroyed, of which more than 50,000 apartment buildings have been completely destroyed. The total area of losses exceeds 120 million square meters. The estimated cost of restoration is about $70 billion.
Education: more than 3,000 educational institutions, including schools, universities, and kindergartens, have been damaged or destroyed. The estimated cost of restoration is more than $7 billion.
Healthcare: more than 1,300 medical facilities, including hospitals, clinics, and emergency centers, have been damaged or destroyed. The damage is estimated at over $4.5 billion.
Transport and logistics: over 25,000 kilometers of roads, over 350 bridges, 18 airports, and dozens of railway stations have been destroyed. The total damage is estimated at over $60 billion.
Industry: Metallurgical enterprises, machine building, and the chemical industry suffered significant damage. The total loss of industrial capacity is at least $45 billion.
Agriculture: Storage infrastructure destroyed, crops destroyed, fields mined. Losses in the agricultural sector are estimated at over $10 billion, excluding crop losses.
Cultural heritage: Hundreds of cultural heritage sites, museums, theaters, churches, and libraries have been destroyed or damaged. Some of them have UNESCO status. Losses are estimated at over $1.5 billion.
Environment: Environmental damage includes soil contamination, deforestation, water poisoning, and incidents at chemical plants. According to estimates by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, losses amount to over $71 billion.
Social infrastructure: more than 900 administrative centers, administrative service centers, and local government buildings have been damaged. The cost of their restoration exceeds $5 billion.
Information infrastructure: communication facilities, television towers, transmitters, and backup power systems have been destroyed. The need to renew the industry is over $2 billion.
Loss of human capital: millions of Ukrainians have left the country, thousands have died or been injured. The cumulative loss of GDP due to the human factor is estimated at tens of billions of dollars.
However, recovery is not just a matter of numbers. For the first time, Ukraine is attending an international conference not with general requests, but with a clear catalog of investment projects, technical and economic justifications, and understandable financing schemes.
The priority areas remain the same: critical infrastructure, energy, logistics, medicine, and education. But now these projects are presented not as state mega-initiatives, but as a combination of state interests with the potential of private capital. For example, the modernization of Ukraine's energy system involves not only the restoration of damaged thermal power plants, but also the construction of new facilities that run on renewable energy sources, with partial financing from private companies. Another focus is the modernization of port infrastructure in Odesa, Reni, and Izmail, as well as new land logistics hubs near the border with Poland and Slovakia.
A separate block is devoted to the program of housing reconstruction in de-occupied regions — this involves the construction of not temporary, but full-fledged sustainable housing in compliance with energy efficiency standards. The government is implementing the HOPE (Housing Opportunity & Protection for Everyone) program, an initiative to support internally displaced persons and veterans. More than 94,000 families have already received compensation for housing restoration through the state platform eReconstruction. The program plans to extend the compensation mechanism to the families of the deceased, combatants, and war invalids: the state issues vouchers for the purchase of housing, mortgage payments, or compensation for repair costs from contractors.
Another important area will be support for small and medium-sized businesses. A package of incentives, including loan guarantees, partial interest rate compensation, and grant programs for Ukrainian manufacturers, will be presented in the form of the “Produce in Ukraine” platform. The governments of the G7 countries and the EU will receive a proposal to co-finance this program, taking into account the localization of production in frontline regions.
New Formats of Cooperation: Public-private Initiatives, Transparency, Governance
Ukraine is going to Rome not only with projects, but also with new approaches to their implementation. One of the key points will be the need to build an infrastructure of trust between the state, donors, and private investors. In response to allegations of corruption risks, the Ukrainian side will present a revamped architecture for managing recovery funds. In particular, it will propose the creation of an International Supervisory Board, which will include representatives of donor countries as well as independent auditors. All projects will be implemented through a digital platform that allows real-time tracking of implementation progress, payments, and changes in contractors.
Another element of the new strategy will be the expansion of public-private partnerships. There are already examples of such models in Ukraine, for example, in the medical sector (construction of hospitals in Lviv and Vinnytsia), logistics (container terminals in ports), and the agro-industry (processing complexes in southern Ukraine). The goal is to give international players not just the role of donors, but a full share in project management. In this way, Ukraine seeks to transform recovery into a multi-level modernization process involving new technologies, management standards, and a culture of responsibility.
The idea of regional trust funds is also being implemented: each region of Ukraine will have the right to create a separate recovery program based on its needs and specifics. This makes the process decentralized but transparent. For example, the Kharkiv region will focus on restoring technical education and mechanical engineering, while the Mykolaiv region will focus on creating new water treatment systems and port logistics. Coordination will be carried out by the central Recovery Office under the Cabinet of Ministers with the participation of the World Bank and USAID.
Special attention will be paid to digital solutions. Ukraine has already established itself as a leader in digital transformation in wartime, and now the government will offer a new platform — Digital Recovery Tracker. It will combine data on all projects, their status, sources of funding, technical parameters, and will allow the public and international partners to monitor the entire implementation chain. The platform will operate on open source principles and will be integrated into the national ecosystem “Diya”.
Geopolitical Context: Why Reconstruction is Needed Today
It is becoming increasingly difficult for Western partners to explain to their voters the need to finance Ukraine while the war is still raging. But that is precisely why the Ukrainian delegation in Rome will focus on conveying a simple yet strategically important message: reconstruction is not a post-war task, but an element of defense, an instrument of resilience, and therefore of European security.
Every power plant restored this year reduces vulnerability to missile attacks in winter. Every logistics hub built is a step toward diversifying exports and increasing budgetary capacity. Every factory launched means tens of thousands of jobs and reduced migration pressure on EU countries. Ukraine's argument is based on reality: the stabilization of the front and rear is already creating a window of opportunity for the rapid launch of projects, especially in the western and central regions. To delay means to lose this moment, dragging the war out for decades.
In addition, in the context of global competition for resources and labor, Ukraine is emerging as a potential manufacturing hub where a unique ecosystem can be created through investment, incentives, and access to EU markets. Plans for industrial parks, technology incubators, and the localization of production of critical materials (lithium, titanium, graphite) are becoming the basis of Ukraine's economic strategy for the coming decade. In Rome, these projects will be presented as part of a long-term partnership, not temporary assistance.
Finally, the political context will also be important. Ukraine continues on its path toward European integration, and the ability to effectively administer international funds, demonstrate transparency, and form effective institutions are arguments not only for donors but also for Brussels. The Rome conference will be a test of the maturity of Ukrainian statehood in the broadest sense: its ability to implement policies in the interests of the nation, rather than narrow interest groups.
Thus, Ukraine is not going to Rome as a beneficiary of aid. It is going as a partner that offers concrete solutions, is ready to share responsibility, and strives not only to rebuild the country after the destruction, but to make it a model for the future for the entire region. This is not a utopia — it is a strategic necessity that requires support, but above all, political will, coordination, and a sober assessment of reality.
Bohdan Popov, head of digital at the United Ukraine Think Tank, communications specialist, and public figure