You're reading: Yatsenyuk: Post-war rebuilding of Donbas will cost billions of dollars

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the damage done to Ukraine by the actions of Russia-coordinated militants in southeastern Ukraine is estimated at billions of dollars.

“It is very difficult to have a working economy and a healthy
financial sector in a situation when there is a war going on in the
country that is sponsored by the terrorists from the Russian
Federation,” Yatsenyuk said while opening a government meeting in Kyiv
on Aug. 20.

“We lose economic potential every day,” Yatsenyuk said, adding that
Ukraine’s economic development is directly dependent on the developments
in the southeastern regions of the country.

“According to our information, the terrorists, who are being directed
from Russia, are attacking the most important Ukrainian infrastructure
facilities such as mines, electric power stations, electrical power
grids, railways, bridges, supply lines and infrastructure. The damage
done to Ukraine every minute is in the millions,” Yatsenyuk said.

The Ukrainian prime minister said these are planned attacks aiming to
stifle the Ukrainian economy because “Russia, a state-aggressor,
understands that the rebuilding of Donbas will cost billions of dollars,
not hryvnias, which we will have to get from somewhere.”

Yatsenyuk reiterated that Ukraine continues its cooperation with the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank despite this situation.