Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forest has launched a fund to help rebuild Ukraine, expected to be worth $25bn (£21bn). Mr Forrest and his wife have already committed $500 million to the fund, which organizers say could possibly grow to $100 billion.
Known as the Ukrainian Green Growth Initiative, it plans to invest in primary infrastructure such as energy and telecom networks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the news and argued that the money could be used to replace the energy infrastructure that Russia had destroyed.
He said: “We will benefit from the fact that what the Russians have destroyed can be easily replaced with the latest state-of-the-art green and digital infrastructure.”
According to the fund, there had been collaboration with Larry Fink, the chairman of investment giant BlackRock.
There was also hope that support could be obtained from sovereign wealth funds and other professional investors.
Forrest said he began working on the plan in early March and had discussed it with US President Joe Biden, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Forrest said Mr Zelensky saw it as an opportunity to replace Soviet-era energy infrastructure with new green technology and end Ukraine’s dependence on nuclear energy.
He said, “The chairman [Zelensky] sees this as an opportunity to completely replace old coal-fired ones [and] nuclear power stations with brand new green electricity.
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Large parts of the Ukrainian infrastructure were destroyed or damaged during the war.
Recent Russian missile strikes have targeted Ukraine’s energy network, including power plants.
Earlier this week, the Kremlin rejected international calls for reparations to Ukraine for the damage it caused.