We will back you for long haul, Liz Truss tells Ukraine

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The Foreign Secretary said UK’s backing would include helping reconstruct a nation still relentlessly being pounded by Vladimir Putin’s forces. She said the total value of support from Britain to date was £1.25billion being offered through multilateral loan guarantees, and more than £100million bilateral support.

Ms Truss, addressing a special Ukraine conference in Switzerland, said: “Ukraine’s recovery from Russia’s war of aggression will be a symbol of the power of democracy over autocracy.

“It will show Putin that his attempts to destroy Ukraine have only produced a stronger, more prosperous and more united nation.

“The UK is resolute in its support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and will remain at Ukraine’s side as it emerges as a strong, thriving and cutting-edge democracy.”

Miss Truss used the event at Lugano to set out plans both for immediate support and long-term commitments.

She committed the UK Government to a Marshall Plan-style programme, echoing the one used to rebuild Europe after the Second World War.

Ms Truss pledged: “We need to be in this for the long haul. This needs to be a new Marshall Plan for Ukraine and it needs to be driven by Ukraine itself.

“We will push for immediate investment and to drive economic growth because it’s absolutely imperative we get the Ukrainian economy going.

“We need to be able to support Ukrainians to Ukraine, we need to give people hope about the future, and we need to give them the means to be able to support themselves.”

Ukraine’s reconstruction and recovery will be led by Ukraine itself.

But a range of UK measures will provide both immediate financial support and help accelerate the ambitious vision outlined in the government of Ukraine’s Reconstruction and Development Plan.

They will include immediate assistance to keep Ukraine’s economy afloat and win the war, providing economic support, alongside providing life-saving humanitarian assistance, and helping to rebuild as fast as possible the villages, towns and cities ravaged by ‘Russia’s barbarism’, including leading the recovery plan of Kyiv city and region.

Foreign Office officials said Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky has personally asked the UK to champion the recovery of the capital Kyiv and the surrounding region.

But the job is being made more challenging by ongoing Russian missile strikes and the fighting in the east of the country.

In some areas, the devastation has been absolute with cities like Mariupol and Severodonetsk all but levelled.

In the matter, more than 90 per cent of all homes in the city have been destroyed by Russian shelling.

And the UK’s pledge to help rebuild comes as a new phase begins in the war after Russia seized control of the last Ukrainian-held city in the Luhansk region – confirmed yesterday by Kyiv.

Beleaguered defending forces admit that the situation – already desperate – became impossible over the weekend after relentless pounding with shells and other artillery fire. The bombardment saw the heavily besieged city of Lysychansk finally falling, Russian forces said, who told a delighted President Vladimir Putin the entire Luhansk region has now been “liberated”.

Images shared by the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov yesterday appeared to show Lysychansk under the control of Russian and pro-Russian forces.

The footage showed the city’s streets largely deserted and its buildings badly damaged, after having been supposedly “liberated” by the invading forces.

The “liberators’” flags could also be seen being flown from buildings. And an aerial view reveals some of the damage to the city.

Russia’s next move though remains unclear, but it is hoped that with increasing western sanctions starting to bite and the cost of the war already weighing heavy on Putin’s forces, there may be scaling down of the invasion.

However, the Luhansk regional governor yesterday warned that Russia may still try to take full control of the entire Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

Serhiy Haidai said he believed Moscow would now focus its attacks on the city of Slovyansk and the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.

In his nightly address, Mr Zelenskyy acknowledged that Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from the key city of Lysychansk in the Donbas but vowed they would retake it.

And he said his forces have repelled Russian advances in Novomykhailivka, Bohorodychne, and Ivanivka.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin yesterday continued to accuse Ukraine of attacking one of its border territories, with explosions rocking the Russian city of Belgorod, 40km (25 miles) from Ukraine’s northern border.

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