2. Rationale
Reconstruction in Ukraine is a resilience mechanism, active since the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022, which aims to stabilize the life of the Ukrainian population, ensuring not only essential services, but pursuing the achievement of the standards of the European Union acquis .
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2.1. Context
Keyword: reconstruction, resilience, achieving EU standards
Despite the ongoing conflict, which has forced between a quarter and a third of the population to leave their homes, moving to different areas or emigrating from the country, the Ukrainian population, which numbers between 32 and 37 million inhabitants, continues to live and work expressing an internal market and a solid internal demand for services.
Reconstruction is thus articulated along two lines, one of short and very short term, which tends to respond to the emergencies and major critical issues caused by the armed conflict, the other which tends to a medium and long term planning of reconstruction and civil and economic relaunch, developed on the basis of the path of Ukraine's accession to the European Union. Reconstruction is guided by the principle " Build Back Better ", expressing the intent to reach a standard of quality of life and infrastructure higher than that before the armed conflict, in line with the standards of the European Union.
The first phase of Reconstruction gives priority to the reconstruction of the energy infrastructure, more than 50% of which was destroyed during the conflict, and to building reconstruction, but already in this phase the greatest challenges emerge in supporting the mechanisms of territorial and urban planning and in protecting an environment that not only suffers serious damage due to the conflict, but which was also burdened by insufficient infrastructure in the pre -war period, particularly in the management of water and waste.
While, on the one hand, the need for energy, safe drinking water, wastewater management and waste management is immediate and pressing, on the other hand, the enormous mobilization of the population has produced a serious capacity building crisis both within the Administrations and in the operational management structures, aggravated by inadequate taxation, an inadequate and frozen tariff system and a public budget committed to supporting the costs of the war effort.
In this situation, the Ukrainian Government looks to European partners as partners for reconstruction, through the mechanisms of direct investments, concessions and Public Private Partnership. Also for this reason, a reform mechanism is underway that has revised the regulations on concessions, public-private partnership projects and public procurement, in addition to the start of the integration of EU legislation into Ukrainian legislation, which has produced a number of short, medium and long-term action plans, including the one on waste launched at the beginning of 2025.
2.2. Problem analysis (areas of intervention of the Reconstruction)
Keywords: infrastructure, energy, environment, water, waste, territorial planning, capacity building, concessions, public private partnership.
With regard to the sectors of energy, environment, territorial planning, territorial regeneration and sustainability, the areas of intervention of the Reconstruction process concern
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Emergency and short-term resilience
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Energy: There is still a significant need for emergency generators, both for residential complexes and for public buildings. While the national strategy aims at a distributed generation model, in order to reduce the risks associated with war destruction, energy generation must move towards a reduction in fossil fuels and the expansion of the use of renewable sources, such as photovoltaic systems and storage systems.
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Water: The destruction caused by the conflict and the dynamics of internal migration have produced significant problems in water management systems, both in terms of access to drinking water and wastewater management. In the short term, there is a need for sanitation and potabilization systems for water intended for consumption, as well as the need to intervene with emergency systems to support or replace wastewater treatment plants.
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Waste: for the same reasons as the water emergency, the waste disposal and recovery cycle also requires emergency systems for the collection, storage and safe treatment of waste, while the medium and long-term investments envisaged by the national waste management plan 2025 – 2033 are launched.
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Territory: the impacts of the ongoing war produce environmental incidents that include forest fires, fuel depot fires, destruction of buildings and industrial sites, destruction of dams and infrastructures of various kinds, producing spills of harmful and polluting substances into the environment, accumulations of debris and real environmental disasters, such as the partial emptying of the Kakhovka dam basin, for which means, equipment and systems are needed for emergency safety, monitoring and containment of the spread of damage. A direct consequence of military operations is the need to operate the demining of large areas of territory and the blasting and removal of unexploded ordnance.
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Resilient and sustainable medium and long-term territorial planning
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Water: In the shorter term, (1) improving the quality and reliability of water service, including repair and reconstruction of critical assets, (2) preparing local (municipal/regional) strategies and action plans for infrastructure reconstruction and rehabilitation, (3) strengthening data collection and analysis capacity, (4) rehabilitating and strengthening analytical laboratories. In the longer term, (5) rebuilding existing water and wastewater treatment infrastructure and developing new infrastructure, (6) optimizing operations and operating costs of facilities and services; and (7) enhancing technological, financial management and environmental capabilities of sector personnel, (8) implementing in detail the River Basin Management Plans released by the Government of Ukraine in April 2025.
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Waste: On 27 December 2024, Ukraine adopted the National Plan for Waste Management for the period 2025 – 2033, which determines the need to review the regulatory and administrative framework, improve the licensing system, develop regional and local plans as well as at the level of enterprises, institutions and organizations, cost recovery mechanisms, planning of new infrastructure on a regional basis organized in clusters, planning of closure and safety measures of facilities and landfills and construction of new ones, including through public-private partnerships.
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Territory: the suboptimal environmental management prior to the war period and the impact of the continuation of the war have caused the contamination of several sites, both due to industrial production itself, and due to inadequate systems for the treatment of municipal and industrial wastewater, and due to the destruction of industrial sites, and due to the destruction of environmental infrastructures, such as dams and sewer systems, and due to the abandonment of waste in illegal landfills or percolation of landfills lacking safety requirements. Furthermore, the urban territory is also under pressure due to the dynamics of internal migration, with the abandonment of settlements and overcrowding of others, which impact the capacity to manage waste and network services. Local administrations are called upon to intervene in an uncertain framework, aggravated by the lack of master plans and medium and long-term sectoral plans. The lack of qualified personnel slows down the development of plans that identify the list of infrastructures to be requalified and new ones to be built, making it even more problematic to develop feasibility studies that should justify the start of tenders for the identification of private partners for concession projects. The planning and construction of new industrial parks compliant with the requirements of Law 22 of 2013, which have similar characteristics to those of the Ecologically Equipped Production Areas codified in Italy, is rapidly increasing.
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Territorial redevelopment through the creation of sustainable and resilient infrastructures
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Energy: It is estimated that around $68 billion will be needed to restore Ukraine's energy sector. Electricity generation, distribution and transmission facilities suffered losses totaling $14.8 billion, while district heating suffered losses of $2.5 billion, the oil sector of $1.7 billion and the gas sector of $1.4 billion. The Energy Strategy to 2050 outlines large investment opportunities for new energy capacities worth $383 billion. According to the strategy, these investments are distributed as follows (1) Solar energy: $62 billion, (2) Wind energy: $134 billion, (3) Hydrogen technology: $72 billion (4) Energy storage: $25 billion, (5) Nuclear energy production and transmission: $80 billion, (6) Hydropower: $4.5 billion
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Water: Access to centralized water supply before February 2022 was around 70%, while access to centralized wastewater collection and treatment services was around 50%, while 10 million people lacked access to safely managed water services. There is a large inequality between urban and rural areas in access to water supply (80% in urban areas versus 34% in rural areas), access to flushing toilets (86% versus 26%), and sewerage connections (75% versus only 2%). Total needs for reconstruction and recovery are estimated at US$11.3 billion for the decade 2025-2035. Regions with the greatest needs include those most affected by the war, as well as some with below-average service levels before February 2022.
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Waste: Today, in Ukraine there is a strong need to close existing waste treatment plants and create new ones, as landfills in settlements pose a threat to human health and the environment. As a result of the implementation of the National Plan, the following quantitative and qualitative indicators are expected to be achieved:
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increasing the level of reuse and recycling of household waste by at least 10% of its mass by 2025 and by 20% by 2030;
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increase of household waste management services coverage to 85% by 2033; implementation of a system of collection of sorted household waste in settlements with an annual increase of 10% of population coverage starting from the second year of local waste management plans;
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organization of composting of green waste from public parks and gardens by 2030 for all settlements with a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants (the target does not include any restrictions on the introduction of composting in other smaller settlements);
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creation of a national network of regional landfills for the disposal of household waste by 2033 (146 new landfills are needed);
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increase the level of preparation for reuse, recycling and other types of recovery of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste and materials to at least 70% by mass by 2033.
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Territory: Reconstruction of Ukraine will require significant financial resources, technology and expertise for the rapid reconstruction of industrial, social and residential infrastructure. The Recovery Plan is intended to raise over $750 billion for the reconstruction and development of Ukraine over the next ten years, of which $250 billion will be spent on infrastructure projects. Restoration, consolidation and expansion of logistics infrastructure is essential to ensure economic growth, it’s necessary to restore inland navigation, ports and freight terminals, airports, modernization of the railway, with the gradual transition to standard gauge and, therefore, interconnection with the European Union, as well as the expansion of the road and highway network. The construction sector plans investments of no less than $84 billion over the next 10 years, leading to the need to reimagine urban spaces and their functionality. The regeneration will also be industrial, with industrial parks designed to reduce the environmental impacts of companies, just as the exploitation of the country's mineral resources will have to take place with environmental protection criteria, while it will be necessary to design new sustainable infrastructures for the management of surface water, both in support of agriculture and hydroelectric production.
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The National Recovery Plan, launched in 2022, is based on seven guiding principles (collectively referred to as the “Lugano Declaration”), the first of which is Partnership: “ The recovery process is led by Ukraine and conducted in collaboration with its international partners. The recovery effort must be based on a robust and continuous needs assessment process, aligned priorities, joint planning for outcomes, accountability for financial flows and effective coordination. ”
The process of reconstruction is experienced by the Government and the Ukrainian community as a process of developing the quality of life and consolidating security, in which Ukrainian society itself is actively engaged, demonstrating enormous economic resilience.
The Partnership with Ukraine represents, at the same time, a security challenge and the greatest economic opportunity for Europe since the post-World War II era.
The sources of financing of the National Recovery Plan, in addition to the state budget for public procurement and the Public Private Partnership mechanism, rely heavily on international support and cooperation.
In December 2022, G7 leaders agreed to establish the "Multi- Donor Coordination Platform for Ukraine". This brings together Ukraine, the EU, G7 countries and International Financial Institutions to coordinate support for Ukraine's immediate and long-term recovery and reconstruction.
The European institutions are the largest financial contributors, with a commitment of over 96 billion Euros, of which 50 billion are channelled by the “Ukraine Facility ”, established by the EU to simplify the mechanism of financial support to Ukraine in the dual process of recovery and European integration.
Italy represents a valid model of Green Development for Ukraine, being the second most industrialized country in the European Union with environmental protection performances that place it among the most virtuous countries in the Union.
For an effective and profitable Partnership, in the sectors of energy, environment, infrastructure and territorial planning, territorial regeneration and sustainability, it is necessary to offer an integrated approach, which aggregates and coordinates in a single supply chain the private sector (composed of technological producers, public utilities, investors, engineering and services), the public sector (composed of Agencies, Institutes, Universities and Institutions) and the Third Sector (composed of trade associations, NGOs, CSOs and other non-profit organizations).