Ukrainian officials and AECOM have signed two agreements for the company to help structure the country’s efforts to rebuild since Russia’s invasion. The firm will serve as a delivery partner to provide infrastructure and program management advisory support, working with the battered country's Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development, both announced June 20.
AECOM will help officials manage delivery of various reconstruction projects and also advise them in creation of opportunities for public and private investors to participate in funding the reconstruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure.
“Through early engagement, a comprehensive programmatic approach, and global collaboration across governments and the private sector, we can work to restore and modernize Ukraine’s infrastructure,” Troy Rudd, CEO of AECOM, said in a statement.
Rudd is scheduled to take part in a panel discussion at the Ukraine Recovery Conference June 21 in London.
AECOM also signed a memorandum of cooperation with Ukraine’s State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure, which the country established earlier this year. Under the agreement, the company will help the country transition to international project cost estimating standards and set up procurement practices. AECOM will also provide consulting engineering services for various infrastructure projects.
The company did not disclose the value of the agreements or further details about the scope and timing of the work.
Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, millions of people have been displaced, thousands of civilians have been killed and the full cost of the damage remains unknown. A report released by the World Bank this year estimated the cost of reconstruction and recovery at $411 billion at the war’s one-year mark in February.
The war has caused an estimated $10 billion in damage to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and $35.7 billion in damage to its transportation infrastructure. Damage totaling $1.6 billion is estimated to its telecommunications infrastructure, $2.2 billion to water infrastructure—prior to the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam this month—and $2.3 billion to municipal services infrastructure, according to the World Bank assessment.
Ukraine's government has been reaching out to foreign leaders and private industry to help fund reconstruction. Officials such as Oleksandr Kubrakov, deputy prime minister for restoration and head of the infrastructure ministry, have been busy meeting with their counterparts from the U.S., European Union and other countries to secure their support.
“We are focused on implementing projects that meet the urgent needs of the population and the economy,” Kubrakov said in a statement following the release of the World Bank report.
The Financial Times reported June 19 that U.S.-based finance firms BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase are helping the Ukraine government establish a reconstruction bank to move funding toward projects. According to the National Bank of Ukraine, the country received more than $32 billion in international aid last year, including $14 billion in grants.
