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LONDON — Ukraine's Western allies on Wednesday promised to make Russia pay for its invasion, as governments and private investors met to fund the country's reconstruction from the ravages of war.

The World Bank has put an estimate of $14 billion on Ukraine's immediate needs to repair the damage caused by the bitter fighting.

But a recent study by the World Bank, the UN, the European Union and the Ukrainian government said the wider recovery of the economy would cost $411 billion.

Delegates, from Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmygal to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said the Kremlin would ultimately foot the bill.

"Let's be clear: Russia is causing Ukraine's destruction," Blinken told delegates at a London conference.

"And Russia will eventually bear the cost of Ukraine's reconstruction."

Sunak promised to keep tough sanctions in place "until Russia pays up", and to use seized assets to get Ukraine back on its feet — something the European Union said it would also look at.

In an indication of the sheer scale of the reconstruction needed, Shmygal said the destruction of the Russian-held Kakhovka dam earlier this month caused an estimated $1.5 billion in environmental damage.

But that did not include losses in agriculture, infrastructure and housing, let alone how much it would cost to rebuild the plant.

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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is overseeing a military fight-back using Western-supplied heavy weaponry to regain territory lost to Russian forces since last year.

“Every day of Russian aggression brings new ruins, thousands and thousands of destroyed houses, devastated industries, burnt lives,” Zelensky told the conference by video link.

In Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on Wednesday, AFP saw locals rebuilding homes after a deadly Russian missile attack.

“Everything is destroyed,” said local volunteer Bogdan. “If we’re talking about restoring houses so you can shelter from the rain and live, I think the work here will take a week.

“If we’re talking about a full recovery, then a year, two, three... I don’t know.”

Zelensky set out his stall for future investment, saying that despite the devastation, Ukraine was ripe for development in sectors from technology and green agriculture to clean energy.

Leaders and representatives from more than 60 countries are attending the International Ukraine Recovery Conference 2023 — the second to be held since the Russian invasion in February last year.

The first, in Lugano, Switzerland, last July saw allies commit to supporting Ukraine through what is expected to be an eye-wateringly expensive and decades-long recovery.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told reporters he was “completely confident” the world would find the funds.

But African countries have voiced concern that by pumping aid to Ukraine, the West is backing off from pledges to help the continent with development and fight climate change.

Sunak told delegates Kyiv’s allies would support Ukraine “on the battlefield and beyond” for as long as it takes.

Zelensky underscored the need for long-term support.

“Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now,” he told the BBC in a separate interview.

“It’s not. What’s at stake is people’s lives,” he added, calling Russia’s Vladimir Putin “the second king of antisemitism after Hitler”.

Putin last week said Zelensky, who lost relatives in the Holocaust, was “a disgrace” to the Jewish people.

Private sector 

Sunak has announced UK backing for Ukraine to the tune of $3 billion so it can unlock vital World Bank loans to help bolster public services, including schools and hospitals.

The guarantee will run over the next three years, he said. He also announced an extra £240 million ($306 million) in development aid funding for humanitarian projects.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recapped the EU executive’s support package for Ukraine of 50 billion euros ($55 billion) over the next four years.

Germany will provide 381 million euros in humanitarian assistance this year and France 40 million euros.

The United States will provide more than $1.3 billion in additional aid.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced it is joining forces with the Ukrainian government to mobilise 600 million euros in loans and grants from international donors to ensure the country’s energy security.

A third of that money will go to Ukrhydroenergo, the hydropower entity which has been hit by the destruction of the huge Kakhovka dam on June 6.

As well as government and institutional support, it is hoped more private-sector firms will join the reconstruction effort.

Delegates include captains of industry from major multinationals and corporations, many of whom have signed up to a new Ukraine Business Compact.

It encourages trade, investment and expertise-sharing to Ukraine on the back of promises from Zelensky to tackle barriers such as corruption and financial and legal transparency.

More than 400 companies from 38 countries, with a combined market capitalisation of $4.9 trillion, have already promised to back Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction, Sunak said.

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni vowed to work more closely together as they met on Tuesday in Paris for talks aimed at patching up ties.

The neighbours have repeatedly clashed over immigration since Meloni's election in 2022 at the head of Italy's most right-wing coalition since World War II.

On her first visit to see Macron in Paris, Meloni told reporters that "Italy and France are two allied nations, two important nations, central, protagonists in Europe which need to talk to each other at this time when our common interests are very aligned".

“It’s essential that Rome and Paris continue to work together at both the bilateral and multinational level,” she added.

Macron called for the two allies to continue their “cooperation” on migration, which is a major domestic political concern for his and Meloni’s governments.

“Italy and France can continue to move forward usefully in the next weeks, months and years,” he added.

In November 2022, Meloni refused to allow a humanitarian ship carrying 230 migrants to dock in Italy, leading it to head to France where the government denounced Rome’s “unacceptable” decision.

Meloni was also irked when Macron invited German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, but not her, to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the eve of a European summit in February.

Outspoken French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin sparked a fresh war of words in May when he said that Meloni was “incapable of resolving the migration problems on the back of which she was elected”.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani cancelled a planned trip to Paris as a result and demanded an apology.

Meloni and Macron were also due to discuss aid for Ukraine and prepare for forthcoming EU and NATO summits this month and in July, according to a French presidential official.

Macron said the two countries needed “frank, ambitious and demanding dialogue” beyond the “controversies and disagreements”.

BERLIN — Germany's president on Monday urged Beijing and Washington to boost dialogue, as he hosted Premier Li Qiang at a time when China's policies on Russia, trade and human rights are receiving an increasingly hostile reception in the West.

Li, who was named China's prime minister in March, is on a two-nation visit which will also take him to France for a climate financing summit hosted by President Emmanuel Macron.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier stressed the importance of ties between China and the United States for "global security and cooperation", wrote his spokeswoman Cerstin Gammelin on Twitter, after the German leader hosted Li for talks.

"He called for the strengthening of communication channels between both countries," she added, after months of US-China tensions.

Li in turn said China was ready to work with Germany to contribute to "global stability and prosperity", according to state media Xinhua.

Li's European tour came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on a high-stakes trip to Beijing, where a glimpse of optimism emerged with President Xi Jinping assessing that "some progress" was made.

The United States and the European Union have cast an increasingly wary eye on China in recent months, and Li has made Germany his first stop abroad, anxious to bring the export giant onside again.

He and Chancellor Olaf Scholz will lead their Cabinets for joint talks on Tuesday, but Germany's first national security strategy, published days ago, could set the tone at the meeting.

Systemic rival 

The blueprint stridently accused China of acting against German interests, putting international security "under increasing pressure" and disregarding human rights.

But it also underlined the necessity of getting Beijing's cooperation on global issues like fighting climate change.

Beijing has bristled at being described as a "partner, competitor and systemic rival" in the text, saying such labels would only "push our world towards a vortex of division and confrontation".

Export giant Germany, by virtue of its economic might, has always enjoyed special ties with China.

Under former chancellor Angela Merkel, Berlin took a pragmatic approach of talking up economic opportunities while keeping less flattering opinions on rights and freedom behind closed doors.

That made China a key market for Germany's exporters while also allowing Berlin to take in prominent human rights activists like Liu Xia, apparently without suffering any retaliatory consequences.

But the coronavirus pandemic raised questions about relying on a far-flung partner with its own huge domestic needs for health essentials.

And Russia’s war on Ukraine turned the approach of economic rapprochement on its head.

With China refusing to distance itself from Russian President Vladimir Putin, concerns mounted in the West over its motives and reliability.

Speaking in Berlin on Monday, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg noted that many had previously thought that buying gas from Russia was “a purely commercial decision, only to learn the hard way”.

“We must not make the same mistake once again with other authoritarian regimes, not least China,” he warned.

The European Commission last week assessed that Chinese telecoms giants Huawei and ZTE posed a risk to the EU’s security and said it would stop using services that relied on the companies.

In a stark illustration of Germany’s rush to end dependency, Berlin signed a huge investment deal with US group Intel on Monday for a semiconductor chip factory worth 30 billion euros.

Inconveniently for China, the shift is happening when it is struggling economically.

Sluggish exports and domestic demand are weighing on China’s post-COVID economy.

PODGORICA, Montenegro — A Montenegro court on Monday found fugitive cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon guilty of possessing forged documents months after he was arrested at an airport in the Balkan nation with fake passports.

The Terraform founder is still awaiting trial for another charge regarding his possible extradition.

Both Seoul and Washington are seeking Kwon’s extradition for his suspected role in fraud linked to his company’s dramatic collapse last year, which wiped out about $40 billion of investors’ money and shook global crypto markets.

Kwon along with a travel companion “are guilty because they used a fake passport” from Costa Rica at the airport, said the court in a statement.

The duo were also carrying Belgium passports under different names in their luggage, according to the court.

Kwon was sentenced to four months in prison, the court said, while his attorney said there were no immediate plans to appeal the ruling.

The verdict comes days after a court extended their stay in custody by six months for the extradition charge.

Kwon, whose real name is Kwon Do-hyung, had been on the run for months after fleeing first South Korea and then Singapore ahead of the company’s crash in May last year.

In September, South Korean prosecutors asked Interpol to place him on the red notice list across the agency’s 195 member nations and revoked his passport.

Kwon’s TerraUSD was marketed as a “stablecoin”, which is typically pegged to stable assets such as the US dollar to prevent drastic fluctuations in prices.

Cryptocurrencies have come under increasing scrutiny from regulators after a string of recent controversies, including the high-profile collapse of the exchange FTX.

The digital currency sector has also been hit hard by the demise of US crypto lenders Silvergate and Signature amid a string of banking failures earlier this year that rattled global markets.

Since his arrest in Montenegro, Kwon has been a source of intrigue in the country’s divisive political scene.

During the run-up to parliamentary elections this month, controversy swirled after interim Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic and his allies accused Europe Now’s leader Milojko Spajic of fostering links with Kwon.

Political analysts have suggested the allegations might have dented Europe Now’s performance in the polls, resulting in an ongoing effort to string together a coalition after grabbing approximately a quarter of the votes cast in the contest.

ATHENS — Greece’s coastguard on Monday said it had found two bodies during a search for survivors after last week’s tragedy in which at least 78 migrants died in the Ionian Sea.

A coastguard spokeswoman said the bodies “were in a state of decomposition” and their gender could not be immediately identified.

They were found in the sea west of the Peloponnese Peninsula, the area where an overloaded trawler capsized and sank early Wednesday, she told AFP.

Coastguard vessels have not stopped looking for possible survivors. They have so far rescued 104 people from the trawler, which rescuers said was carrying “hundreds” of migrants.

Nine Egyptian men have been detained as suspected smugglers. They will be taken before a magistrate on Tuesday.

The coastguard could not confirm the two bodies belonged to victims of the shipwreck when asked by AFP.

Greece last week declared three days of mourning over the tragedy, which could turn out to be the country’s deadliest at sea, prompting political parties to temporarily suspend their campaign for Sunday’s national elections.

Over the weekend, the conservative party of former prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis removed a police unionist accused of racist remarks towards migrants from its electoral lists.

Spilios Kriketos had told Kontra Channel that “the only certain thing is that our country cannot bear any more migrants... most of them steal every day, and police stations are full [of them]”.

Asked whether the asylum seekers who drowned last week would also have gone on to do the same, he asked: “What did the previous ones, who didn’t drown, do?”

Officials say the migrants had departed from Libya towards Italy.

The survivors are mainly from Syria, Egypt and Pakistan.

The coastguard has faced questions after claiming that it did not rescue the migrants earlier because the trawler was moving at a steady speed, and because someone on board had insisted that no assistance was required.

The BBC over the weekend said that contrary to the coastguard’s report, the trawler had been immobilised for at least seven hours before it capsized.

On Monday, the coastguard insisted that the trawler had sailed for around 30 nautical miles from the time it was spotted to when it sank.

The United Nations has called for in-depth investigations into the migrant boat sinking and urgent action to prevent further tragedies.

The former conservative government of Mitsotakis, in power from 2019 to 2023 and expected to win Sunday’s elections, has followed a strict immigration policy and emphasised “security” and border lockdowns.

Greek media and NGOs have repeatedly accused Greece of carrying out “illegal” expulsions of migrants in the Aegean Sea, a charge rejected by the previous government.

BEIJING — The United States and China agreed on Sunday to expand dialogue to try to bring relations back from historic lows, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken held what officials called candid talks on soaring tensions during a rare trip to Beijing.

The highest-ranking US visitor to Beijing in nearly five years, Blinken spoke to his Chinese counterpart for seven- and- a -half hours — an hour more than expected — at an ornate state villa, including over a banquet dinner.

The two sides said Foreign Minister Qin Gang agreed to pay a return visit to Washington at a later date and that the two top diplomats would work together to expand flights between the world's two largest economies, which remain at a bare minimum since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Blinken stressed "the importance of diplomacy and maintaining open channels of communication across the full range of issues to reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation", State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, calling the talks "candid, substantive and constructive".

Blinken will hold a second day of meetings Monday and address reporters before leaving. He and Qin made no comments on their first day as they shook hands at the state guesthouse before their respective flags in front of a painting of craggy mountains and wispy clouds.

Behind closed doors, Qin told Blinken that relations between the United States and China “are at the lowest point since the establishment of diplomatic relations”, according to state-run broadcaster CCTV.

“This does not conform to the fundamental interests of the two peoples, nor does it meet the common expectations of the international community,” Qin said during the talks at the ancient Diaoyutai gardens.

But he issued a warning on Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing, which has launched live-fire military drills twice near the island since August in anger over actions by top US lawmakers.

“The Taiwan issue is the core of China’s core interests, the most important issue in China-US relations and the most prominent risk,” Qin said.

A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the discussions went beyond the usual talking points, including on Taiwan.

“This was a real conversation,” he said.

Turning page 

from showdown 

Blinken was originally scheduled to visit in February but abruptly scrapped his plans as the United States protested — and later shot down — what it said was a Chinese spy balloon flying over its soil.

US President Joe Biden played down the balloon episode as Blinken was heading to China, saying: “I don’t think the leadership knew where it was and knew what was in it and knew what was going on.”

“I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional,” Biden told reporters on Saturday.

Biden said he hoped to again meet President Xi Jinping after their lengthy and strikingly cordial meeting in November on the sidelines of a Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Bali, where they agreed on Blinken’s visit.

“I’m hoping that, over the next several months, I’ll be meeting with Xi again and talking about legitimate differences we have but also how there’s areas we can get along,” Biden said.

The two leaders are likely to attend the next G-20 summit, in September in New Delhi, and Xi is invited to travel to San Francisco in November when the United States hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Beijing has been especially irritated by Biden’s restrictions on the export of high-end semiconductors to China, with the United States fearing possible military applications and aiming to prevent the communist state from dominating next-generation technologies.

In a rising domestic priority for the United States, an aide said Blinken is expected to press China to curb precursor chemicals sent to Latin America to produce fentanyl, the powerful painkiller behind an addiction pandemic that kills tens of thousands of Americans per year.

As part of the Biden administration’s focus on keeping allies close, Blinken spoke by telephone with his counterparts from both Japan and South Korea during his 20-hour trans-Pacific journey and met in Washington before departure with Singapore’s foreign minister.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, travelled to Tokyo for separate three-way meetings involving Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.

In recent months, the United States has reached deals on troop deployments in southern Japan and the northern Philippines, both strategically close to Taiwan.

Blinken is the first top US diplomat to visit Beijing since a stop in 2018 by his predecessor Mike Pompeo, who later championed no-holds-barred confrontation with China in the final years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

The Biden administration has gone further than Trump in some areas, notably with semiconductor sanctions, but has remained open to cooperation in limited areas such as climate.

Experts say China sees more predictability with Biden than with Trump, who is running for re-election next year.

MOSCOW — South Africa's president, in Russia as part of a delegation pushing for peace between Kyiv and Moscow, told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Saturday that the fighting had to stop.

His delegation put forward a set of principles that the Kremlin deemed "very difficult to implement", a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ruled out talks with Moscow.

The delegation brought the voice of a continent that has badly suffered from repercussions of the Ukraine conflict, particularly with rising grain prices.

"This war must be settled... through negotiations and through diplomatic means," South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa said after talks in the suburbs of Saint Petersburg.

Russian authorities have effectively banned the word “war” to describe their military operation in Ukraine.

Ramaphosa added that his delegation, which has leaders and senior officials from seven African countries, “would like this war to be ended”.

Ramaphosa listed 10 principles, which included de-escalation, the recognition of countries’ sovereignty, security guarantees for all countries, unimpeded grain exports through the Black Sea and sending prisoners of war and children back to their countries of origin.

The mission included the presidents of South Africa, Senegal, Comoros and Zambia, as well as top officials from Uganda, Egypt and Congo-Brazzaville.

‘Difficult to implement’ 

“Any initiative is very difficult to implement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by the state-run agency RIA Novosti.

“But President Putin has shown interest in considering it,” Peskov said after the leaders held a meeting behind closed doors.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the plan was “not formulated on paper”.

Putin had praised the delegation’s “balanced” approach and said he was “open to a constructive dialogue with all those who want to implement peace based on the principles of justice and respect for the parties’ legitimate interests”.

Moscow has in the past repeated that any negotiations would need to take into account “new territorial realities”.

Zelensky, speaking on Friday after Ramaphosa called for de-escalation following their talks in Kyiv, repeated his position that Ukraine must recover territories lost to Russia to achieve peace.

When an air raid siren sounded in Kyiv shortly after the delegation’s arrival earlier on Friday, forcing it to take shelter, Zelensky said it showed that Putin either did not control his army or was “irrational”.

Focus on the battlefield 

African countries have been divided over their response to the fighting. While some have sided with Ukraine, others have remained neutral or gravitated towards Moscow.

Efforts to secure peace appear increasingly perilous, analysts told AFP, with both Kyiv and Moscow convinced they can win on the battlefield.

Ukraine launched a long-awaited counteroffensive earlier this month.

Russian officials — including Putin — have insisted the counteroffensive is failing despite Kyiv claiming some gains.

Kyiv said Friday evening that its units were having “tactical success” in nearly all areas where they were fighting in the south.

The Russian army, meanwhile, said it had repelled all assaults from Ukraine.

‘Negative impact’ 

on Africa 

If analysts doubted the African mission could secure a concrete peace, there had been hope it would achieve some concessions.

Securing the future viability of a deal allowing grain from Ukraine to reach the global market would be one potential goal of the delegation.

“This war is having a negative impact on the African continent and indeed on many other countries around the world,” Ramaphosa said ahead of formal talks with the Russian president.

Putin said “the crisis on the global food market is by no means a consequence” of the Ukraine conflict.

Russia accuses the West of blocking its exports of fertilisers and threatens to pull out of a deal — due to expire on July 17 — that has allowed vital Ukrainian grain exports to resume through the Black Sea.

“We do not believe that shipments of Ukrainian grain supplies can solve the problems of poverty and hunger,” Putin said during the meeting.

Zelensky had asked the African leaders to “please, let them release our political prisoners. I think this will be an important result of your mission”.

Referring to prisoners of war, Putin said on Saturday: “We are ready to continue this process.”

In Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian officials in the area devastated by flooding from the destruction of a Russian-held dam announced revised death tolls Saturday.

The toll in Russian-held areas had risen to 29, officials there said.

Kyiv said the number killed in its territory had risen to 16, with 31 still missing, and warned that the threat of air strikes “remains high across Ukraine”.

“The enemy continues to focus its main efforts on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Maryinka axes and heavy battles continue,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

In Washington, US President Joe Biden warned that the United States would not make special arrangements for Ukraine to join the NATO military alliance.

“They’ve got to meet the same standards,” he told reporters. “So we’re not going to make it easy.”

Next week, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will call on investors and businesses at a two-day summit in London to match Ukraine’s “bravery on the battlefield” with support to get the country back on its feet.