Russia must pay toward Ukraine reconstruction, says German minister

German Development Minister Svenja Schulze has called for a mechanism to force Russia to contribute to the costs of reconstruction in Ukraine.

“At the moment, there is no international law to make such a thing possible,’’ Schulze told German broadcaster RTL/ntv ahead of a conference on the topic in Berlin.

“I will find it very sensible if Russia were also called in.”

Schulze said that it was not yet possible to put an exact figure on how much the reconstruction would cost.

“There is now talk of unbelievable sums, but in reality, no one can yet say exactly how much money will be needed, because it will also depend on how much more is destroyed, unfortunately,’’ she said.