By Angelo Amante
ROME (Reuters) -Participants in a Rome conference on the economic recovery of Ukraine have pledged over 10 billion euros ($11.7 billion) to help the war-torn country, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday.
The conference, attended by political leaders including Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is taking place against a backdrop of further intense drone and missile attacks on Kyiv.
Speaking at the opening of the conference, Zelenskiy described the attacks as “pure terrorism”.
Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz cited the recovery of their countries from the ruins of World War Two as an example of what Ukraine could achieve.
“I think we should be proud of the result we have achieved together today – nations, international organizations, financial institutions, local authorities, the business sector, and civil society,” Meloni said in her opening speech at the conference.
“Together, at today’s conference, we have made commitments totaling over 10 billion euros,” she added.
The conference Italy is hosting is the fourth such event since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022, and is mainly aimed at mobilising international support for Ukraine.
It was also announced at the Rome conference that 10 European countries, including Italy, Germany, France and Spain, had joined a recently launched export guarantee scheme designed to encourage more EU firms to trade with Ukraine.
The European Commission, meanwhile, laid out 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in support as part of a broader framework that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said was expected to mobilise up to 10 billion euros of investments in Ukraine.
She also announced the creation of a new equity fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine, backed by the European Investment Bank, France, Germany, Italy and Poland, which aims to provide another 500 million euros by 2026.
“We are literally taking a stake in Ukraine’s future,” von der Leyen said.($1 = 0.8524 euros)
(Reporting by Angelo Amante in Rome and Marc Jones in LondonWriting by Keith WeirEditing by Gavin Jones and Keith Weir)
