Zelensky urges reconstruction conference to cover $38 bn deficit, says Russia destroyed over a third of energy sector

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday asked the international community to cover an expected budget deficit of $38 billion next year for his war-torn country.

"At this very conference we need to make a decision on assistance to cover next year's budget deficit for Ukraine," Zelensky said via video-link at a reconstruction conference in Berlin. "It's a very significant amount of money, a $38 billion deficit," he added.

Zelensky told the conference that Russian rockets and Iran-made drones had destroyed more than a third of his country's energy sector.

He also told the conference in Berlin via video link that Ukraine had yet to receive "a single cent" towards a fast recovery plan worth a total $17 billion.

"Russia is destroying everything so that it is harder for us to get through the winter," Zelenskiy told the conference, which was attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, and other senior politicians and officials.