Italy to host Ukraine reconstruction conference in April

LONDON

Italy will host a conference on the postwar reconstruction of Ukraine next month, the country's foreign minister said on Friday.

The conference will be held by the Italian government with the contribution of Italian firms on April 26, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Antonio Tajani, also Italy's deputy premier, announced the conference at a videoconference meeting with the G-7 foreign ministers.

"Our commitment in favor of peace and freedom for the Ukrainian people continues," he said on Twitter.

As of December 2022, some 149,300 residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's war on Feb. 24 last year, according to recent research by the Kyiv School of Economics.

The study, published in January, showed that the total amount of damage caused to Ukraine's infrastructure has increased to almost $138 billion.