The post-war reconstruction of Ukraine will be a "generational mission" that requires a strategy on the level of the "Marshall Plan," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have said.
They made their pitch in an essay published online Sunday by Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, a day before a German-Ukrainian business forum focussed on rebuilding efforts is held in Berlin. Scholz is to open the meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
Those talks will be followed on Tuesday by an expert conference organized by the European Commission and by Germany, the current chair of the Group of Seven (G7).
Through the Marshall Plan, the United States financed reconstruction in European countries to the tune of billions of dollars between 1948 and 1952.
Europe has a special role to play in supporting Ukraine because the country is a candidate for EU membership, Scholz and von der Leyen wrote: "The path of reconstruction is therefore also Ukraine's path to the European Union."
"Ukraine is also defending the international rules-based order, the foundation of our peaceful coexistence and prosperity worldwide. So when we support Ukraine, we are building our future and that of our common Europe," it said.
On Saturday, Scholz had said in his video podcast that the reconstruction of Ukraine would be a decades-long task for the global community.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday called on the world to resolutely resist a further escalation of the eight-month-old war.
If Moscow accuses Ukraine of wanting to drop a so-called "dirty bomb," it is preparing something dirty itself, he said in a video address.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier claimed once again, without evidence, that Kiev plans to set off a radioactive bomb in a false flag attack that would be pinned on Moscow. Such bombs are conventional explosive devices that disperse radioactive material.
Shoigu had delivered the warning in a series of telephone calls with counterparts from France, Britain, Turkey and the United States, according to Russian state media.
The Ria Novosti news agency also claimed that Kiev had effectively completed a small tactical nuclear bomb and was ready to detonate it on its own soil "in order to launch a strong anti-Russian campaign aimed at undermining confidence in Moscow."
Only Russia would deploy nuclear weapons in Europe, Zelensky said, adding that no one should swallow the Kremlin's "dirt."
"Wherever Russia goes, it leaves behind mass graves, torture camps, devastated towns and villages, mined land, destroyed infrastructure and natural disasters," the president said. Ukraine, on the other hand, is trying to restore a normal life to its people, he said. "Where Ukraine is, lives are not destroyed."
A wave of long-range missile and drone attacks over the past two weeks has taken a major toll on Ukraine's critical infrastructure, like power stations, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in the dark over the weekend.
Ukraine has lost around 90% of its wind power capacity as a result of the Russian war of aggression, while in the case of solar energy, the loss is 40 to 50% percent, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said on Ukrainian television on Sunday.
He did not specify how large the installed capacities were. However, Ukraine has greatly expanded renewable energies in recent years, he said.
The focus remained, meanwhile, on Moscow's faltering efforts to hold on to territory it occupies amid advances by Ukrainian forces.
More than 20,000 civilians in the Russian-occupied southern region of Kherson have been brought to the other side of the Dnipro river in light of Kiev's approaching troops, according to the authorities.
"We have suggested everyone who heard us today to use the opportunity and relocate to the area on the left bank [of the river] in Kherson Oblast," said the deputy head of the pro-Russian administration in the region, Kirill Stremousov, in a radio interview on Sunday.
The city of Kherson is situated on the western bank of the Dnipro River, also known as the right bank.
Kherson was taken by Russian forces quickly after the country began invading Ukraine on February 24. Moscow annexed the region of the same name, alongside three others, in a move deemed illegal by the international community.
Russia's hold on Kherson has weakened in recent weeks, however, with Ukrainian troops zooming in on Kherson city as part of their counteroffensive and systematically destroying Dnipro crossings central to supplying Russian troops.
The new commander-in-chief of Russian troops in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, recently said "difficult decisions" might have to be made about Kherson given the situation Moscow's forces found themselves in, with observers speculating over a potential withdrawal from the city.
