Signals for the future Who is behind BlackRock? The cost of Ukraine’s reconstruction In recent weeks, several events important for the economic recovery of Ukraine after its victory have taken place. The visits of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Italy and Germany, the first since the beginning of the full-scale phase of the Russian-Ukrainian war, were primarily viewed through the lens of purely security issues. For example, the media extensively discussed the agreements between Kyiv and Rome regarding the protection of Ukrainian airspace with air defense systems and Berlin’s provision of a record package of military assistance worth 2.7 billion euros. And this is absolutely understandable because today the attention of the whole world is focused on the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ major counteroffensive against Russian troops and the current assessments of what is still needed for success. However, the economic component of President Zelenskyy’s major European tour was mostly left behind the scenes. It was practically only mentioned in press service announcements from the Office of the President, and even then, with just a sentence or two, focusing on separate discussions about laying the groundwork for Italian business participation in Ukraine’s reconstruction projects or similar plans from the German government for the global post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. At the same time, as noted by Glavcom, several important events related to Ukraine’s economic development after its victory in the war with Russia took place in recent weeks. See also: “Ukraine’s losses will amount to trillions of dollars” —  economist on the consequences of the war Signals for the future The first such news arrived on April 26, precisely from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. She announced that Italy intends to host a major conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction and rebuilding of its territory in 2025, starting with energy facilities, schools, and hospitals, and including bridges and city streets. In other words, the actual implementation of reconstruction processes by Western countries on Ukrainian soil is not yet being discussed for the coming year. Everything may only start from 2025. According to Meloni, Rome is also ready to resume the operations of its export-credit agency, SACE, in Ukraine for both new projects and the restoration of old strategic projects that were halted in 2022 due to the war. However, no specific timeline for SACE’s work has been mentioned. The second important event of...