War-shattered Ukraine's reconstruction estimated to cost $750 billion

Kyiv: Ukraine needs $750 billion for a three-stage recovery plan in the wake of Russia's invasion, President Volodymyr Zelensky told an international conference on Monday.

Speaking at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Switzerland, Zelensky and a long line of government ministers described the massive destruction and towering needs since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24.

"Reconstruction of Ukraine is not a local task of a single nation," Zelensky said via video message.

"It is a common task of the whole democratic world," he said, insisting that "reconstruction of Ukraine is the biggest contribution to the support of global peace".

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told the conference that the recovery "is already estimated at $750 billion".

"We believe that the key source of recovery should be the confiscated assets of Russia and Russian oligarchs," he said, stressing that "the Russian authorities unleashed this bloody war. They caused this massive destruction, and they should be held accountable for it".

The two-day conference, held under tight security in the picturesque southern Swiss city of Lugano, had been planned well before the invasion and had originally been slated to discuss reforms in Ukraine before being repurposed to focus on reconstruction.

Shmyhal laid out the government's phased reconstruction plan, which focused first on the immediate needs of those affected by the war, followed by the financing of thousands of longer-term reconstruction projects aimed at making Ukraine European, green and digital.

A number of other ministers, as well as First Lady Olena Zelenska, also spoke in various sessions to describe the situation in the country, and lay out the massive reconstruction needs, as well as their vision for a new Ukraine.