Special Representative Pritzker’s Remarks at the Ukraine Partnership Forum

Thank you, Suzanne, Prime Minister Shmyhal, and all of you for having me here today. It is a great privilege for me to open this year’s Ukraine Partnership Forum and to speak to you about why even now—especially now—is the time to think about Ukraine’s economic future.

As we speak, we are facing a confluence of crises. Iran’s attacks on Israel. The tragedy in Gaza following the terrible attack on October 7th. China is probing our defenses from Taiwan to Tiktok. All of this against the backdrop of an election super year where more than 64 democracies, representing half the world’s population, will go to the polls. This includes the EU and our own, where everything from climate change to household purchasing power to democracy itself seems on the ballot. It’s easy to get overwhelmed.

With all of this uncertainty, the forum is a chance to re-anchor ourselves in Ukraine’s authentic right to win the war with Russia and take its place as a prosperous, independent, open country, integrated into Euro-Atlantic institutions and global markets.

Let me remind us, that despite the war, the Ukrainian economy, just like its military, remains alive, active, and resilient NOW. Ukraine’s GDP is expected to grow around 4% in 2024, after 5% growth last year. State revenue increased 25% in Jan 2024 over the previous year. 2023 saw investment up 17% with over 37,000 new businesses registered in Ukraine, more than 2021, the year prior to the full-scale invasion. More than half founded by women.

Such results don’t just happen. The United States, together with many American companies represented here, have supported Ukraine’s economic resilience. Here are just some examples:

• We pushed through a $156 million deal to provide 40 diesel locomotives for Ukraine’s national railway, UZ, and its 200K “iron people” enabled by EXIM Bank financing – the first such deal since the full-scale invasion.
• We worked with the U.S. National Academy of Sciences to create a new multimillion dollar Joint Science and Innovation Fund for Ukraine, which will commercialize cutting-edge research in the service of Ukraine’s economic development. This is similar to initiatives the National Academy of Sciences has with Israel, India, Egypt, Pakistan and Mexico. President Marcia McNutt will provide more details later today.
• We are expanding funding for Ukrainian entrepreneurs and business leaders – from farmers to tech founders – to spend time at American companies, incubators, or universities— working alongside their U.S. counterparts, expanding their network of business contacts, and building new markets in the U.S.
• We are establishing new business partnerships in the insurance and financial services sector, including two I look forward to speaking about later today at Ukraine House.
• This comes in addition to the $230 million committed to support Ukraine’s private sector including new financing for farmers, craftspeople, manufacturers, and small businesses in rural and under-banked communities. Much of which is just coming online now.

But make no mistake. Despite all of these efforts, the past months have been a tough time for Ukraine. Russia has reworked its supply chain and is attempting to reconstitute itself as a war economy helped by its allies in Iran, North Korea, and China. Since March 22^nd, Russia has pummeled Ukraine’s great cities with waves of large-scale missile and drone attacks, meant to not only degrade Ukraine’s grid but also its energy generation capacity. Nowhere has suffered more than Ukraine’s beautiful “second city,” Kharkiv.

Also, we are all aware of Ukraine’s depleted munitions stocks, loss of territory, the need to mobilize more of Ukraine’s young people to fight …and yes… uncertainty about U.S. assistance have shaken Ukraine’s morale.

Today, 784 days into Russia’s full-scale invasion, the House of Representatives is taking up the overdue debate of how to provide the crucial security, economic, and humanitarian lifeline Ukraine needs and deserves. Congressional leadership must fulfill the commitments that they themselves made to the Ukrainians, to our Allies, and most importantly, to the American people. Congressional action on the Supplemental is essential, now.

This should be an easy decision. Americans know that our security support has a double return on investment. Providing American military support to Ukraine boosts U.S. defense innovation and production at home. With the passage of the supplemental, we will not only send much needed weaponry to Ukraine, but we will also invest in 117 production lines across more than 31 states, which will replenish our stocks with fresh howitzers from Minnesota; Bradleys from Alabama; and HIMARS from New Jersey, which will modernize our American armed forces.

I don’t need to tell all of you in this room today that our economic assistance is just as central to Ukraine’s ability to prosecute this war. Not only because our support helps keep the lights on, trains moving, hospitals open, first responders saving lives, and children in school. This assistance is also specifically targeted to areas with the best return on investment in terms of stabilizing Ukraine’s balance of payments; increasing its GDP; driving essential foreign direct investment into the country; and most importantly, expanding Ukraine’s state revenue generation.

You may ask—Why am I so focused on Ukraine and its viability? It is personal for me. My family fled Ukraine to Chicago in the late 1880s because of monstrous aggression, hatred, and antisemitism by Russia.

As a person with Ukrainian heritage, deep respect for the grit and fortitude of the Ukrainian people, and also as an American businesswoman, I want to focus my remarks today on how to solidify the foundation of Ukraine’s economic future and help this country of more than 40 million become an independent, secure, sovereign, prosperous economy rooted in the EU, NATO and global markets.

These efforts include developing a security network, creating the capacity for Ukraine to prioritize and plan investable projects and infrastructure, further developing risk management tools, continuing commitment by Ukraine to enact and execute its ambitious reform agenda, developing a mechanism for the use of Russian Sovereign Assets, and intensifying private sector engagement.

Taken together, these initiatives can focus our joint efforts as we head onto the Berlin Ukraine Recovery Conference in 55 days.

Let me begin by stating the obvious. Ukraine’s security and economy are indelibly intertwined. The United States, our allies, and our democratic partners must forge air defense shields over Ukraine’s skies wherever we can. With defense canopies over Ukraine’s key economic engines, economic support and investment will light up the regions on the Ukrainian map with economic activity.

Over the weekend, Germany said it will bravely provide another Patriot Unit to Ukraine. Spain has also announced a donation of Patriot interceptors. Last week, the United States dedicated approximately $138 million in new support to maintain Ukraine’s Hawk Air Defense Systems. Other NATO allies are stepping up as well. Unlocking air defense and other security assistance, combined with a mix of economic assistance and private sector engagement, will allow Ukraine’s community-driven, economic healing to take place.

Just look at the Black Sea miracle. After Russia quit the Black Sea Grain Initiative last July, Ukrainian ingenuity came up with the humanitarian shipping corridor. Now, with the combination of greater air security to Odesa ports, marine drones, maritime demining, and new risk insurance, we have witnessed an incredible burst of economic activity. Since September, nearly 1400 ships have exported 40 million tons of goods – including life-saving grain –to 40 countries using the humanitarian corridor. It has helped to lift not just agricultural production but also steel production potential in Ukraine’s Dnipro Valley heartland as increased Ukrainian metals find their way to global markets. Creating more pockets of air defense – across Ukraine from Kyiv and Odesa to Kharkiv, Dnipro, Lviv and beyond –will open new pathways for economic activity.

Second, even as we strengthen the air defense and security conditions, we must forge the strongest planning mechanism possible for Ukraine’s economic revival. Unlike the Marshall Plan where one actor, the United States, was contributing to the reconstruction of many countries in Europe – in Ukraine today, many actors, including countries, businesses, and NGOs, are contributing to the reconstruction of one country, Ukraine.

The Multi-Agency Donor Coordination Platform, which held its first Steering Committee meeting in Kyiv under the Prime Minister’s leadership one week ago today, is a testament to what the international donor community is able to do when it collaborates. I am proud to say that, with our efforts, it is on track to launch a Business Advisory Council at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin that will provide insight to reconstruction from a diversity of sectors, countries, and interests across our democratic market economies.

Now is the time to mobilize the alliance between Ukraine, the donor community, and the private sector to develop a programmatic approach that expands the number and scale of bankable projects and operationalizes an economic recovery framework that is both community-driven and nationally-coordinated. Such an approach must fulfill seven key needs:

1. First, it must be able to authoritatively establish a system that galvanizes the “we” – governments, private sector, and the people from Ukraine, Europe, the U.S., and the democratic world – behind a common scaffolding to Ukraine’s “great rebuilding.”
2. Second, it must have a mechanism to set strategic objectives and priorities driven by the Ukrainians themselves, for the $15 billion that the World Bank sees as necessary for economic needs in 2024.
3. Third, it must be capable of identifying, sorting, and addressing resource gaps and overlaps.
4. Fourth, it must have the flexibility to rapidly respond to shifting facts on the ground;
5. Fifth, it must anticipate potential bottlenecks in areas like supply chains, export routes, financing and, in particular, absorption capacity where the lack of pre-project planning has hobbled investment.
6. Sixth, and where we need to have a sense of humility, it must assess what has had impact, and what hasn’t in terms of Ukraine’s economic performance.
7. And finally, it must be grounded in the data that Ukraine, the donor community, and the private sector have gathered.

To do this, we must move at warp speed to connect Ukrainian interagency decision-makers, local governments, and international community donors with pre-project planning capabilities and a broad network of private sector infrastructure companies, in a more integrated approach to reconstruction.

Third, Ukraine’s full-scale recovery will require the proper guardrails to manage risk. This is already happening. The U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is active and expanding its political risk insurance portfolio for Ukraine. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is leading the development of a facility to provide coverage against war-related risks. Marsh McLennan has established a Black Sea grain facility. MIGA has developed political risk insurance guarantees. And new risk management mechanisms are on the way – covering cargo, static assets, and even looking at coverage for civil aviation.

But more will be necessary. Today Ukraine’s insurance premium market stands at approximately $3 billion. Poland’s is at approximately $100 billion. We are working with Ukraine to establish the regulatory and other conditions necessary to unlock better risk management and de-risking tools that can prime the market for greater foreign direct investment.

Risk management protection is an essential pre-requisite for the private sector’s ability to invest and to operate in Ukraine. Investment and economic opportunity, in turn, will incentivize the return of Ukrainian refugees and IDPs to their homes, growing the country’s revenue base and fueling economic recovery.

At the same time, we all recognize that the biggest investment risks, aside from the war, come from the state of corruption and rule of law. Ukraine has made major progress on its reform agenda, including undertaking some admirably tough steps.

Think of the “Big Bang” of reforms that Ukraine implemented in December, that opened the path for formal EU accession negotiations. Just in March, Ukraine passed corporate governance reform that ensures that supervisory boards and CEOs of state-owned enterprises will be in line with OECD standards.

But Ukraine must maintain this momentum. When I talk to American CEOs, the first point they raise with me – after asking about Russian aggression—is always, always about fast-tracking reforms, strengthening rule of law, and eradicating corruption.

For example, Ukraine urgently needs to strengthen its ability to tackle the issue of customs evasion, and grey markets. Legislation is necessary but not sufficient. It’s about implementing the laws once they are passed. And it’s about implementing a profound culture shift – including vetting standards for personnel, accountability, and real enforcement— at agencies like the Bureau of Economic Security and the State Customs Service.

Doing so will yield both political and economic dividends. That will:

• help Ukraine collect its tax and customs revenue;
• enable it to meet its own financing needs;
• alleviate the necessity for external budget support;
• and send the right signal to the international private sector that Ukraine means business this time and is a good place to operate.

In addition to withstanding Russian aggression, getting the anti-corruption and reform agenda right will be this Ukrainian government’s legacy in history. Ultimately, transparent, accountable governance is what Ukrainian citizens want. It’s necessary for EU accession. And it will strengthen the enabling environment required to attract private sector investment and rebuild. As we like to say, it’s how Ukraine wins not just the war, but the peace that matters.

Finally, we must unlock the value of Russian sovereign assets frozen within our jurisdictions for the benefit of Ukraine. International law is clear on this point. Russia must pay for the damage it has caused in Ukraine. And it is not for Russia to decide if or when that happens. The entire G7 has agreed that Russia’s sovereign assets in our jurisdictions will remain immobilized until Russia pays for the damage its war has caused.

We welcome the EU’s recent decision to ensure that extraordinary revenues from Russia’s immobilized sovereign assets are used for Ukraine’s benefit. We will continue to work with our G7 partners to explore all possible avenues to make this happen – not only for the direct financial benefit it would provide, but also for the signal it will send to Putin.

Ukraine’s economic success – integrated into the West as a full member of the EU, NATO, and with no chance of returning to post-Soviet ways – will be the biggest punch in the gut we can deliver to Putin. We believe that dream is possible in a secure Ukraine, but it requires the engagement of the private sector.

Ukraine has a unique set of selling points: rich soil and plentiful natural assets; a highly skilled work force; a plethora of raw materials; and a thriving, dynamic tech ecosystem that is servicing both the private sector globally and the Ukrainian military domestically. Combine all that with liberalized access to the European single market, Ukraine has an authentic right to win in six critical sectors: agriculture, technology, defense production, critical minerals and steel, energy, as well as transportation and logistics.

Some of the most dynamic innovation ecosystems have developed in small, open economies facing a persistent security threat from a geopolitical rival. That existential threat can create a sense of national mission that facilitates state-supported R&D and overcomes the challenges of a small domestic market. This is the case in Taiwan, Estonia, South Korea, and Israel, all of which have developed globally competitive technology innovation ecosystems, often closely linked to their defense sector.

Investing in Ukraine has the potential to deliver significant returns and an opportunity to help the country live into its dream of building a forward-leaning economy.

Ukrainians, both at home and around the world, stand ready to roll up their sleeves and build tomorrow’s strengthened, democratic Ukraine. I have seen it for myself, not just in Ukraine but also in Romania where 93% of Ukrainian refugees want to return home. Two weeks ago, I met with a group of women refugees in Bucharest. These brilliant women, most of them mothers, all have a dream and vision of how they can be a part of Ukraine’s economic renaissance.

I saw the same first-hand in Lviv, where the city is building a rehabilitation center which is on track to become one of the world’s best facilities focused on reconstructive surgery, orthopedics, and robotic prosthetics. The Mayor put it best when he said that: “Many of them have lost everything. Home. Family. Childhood. And yet… they remain unbroken.”

Let me end with one example. Yana Stepanenko, a 12-year-old girl from Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast, lost both her legs in a monstrous Russian missile strike in 2022. The thing about Yana is that she is a runner with hopes and dreams, and a person of courage that Vladimir Putin could only hope to be.

After Yana’s horrific injury, she received two prosthetic legs but was determined to run again and so she trained tirelessly. Incredibly, this week, Yana ran a 5K as part of the Boston Marathon. Yana refused to give in, or to give up. Indeed, Yana is Ukraine.

Like Yana, Ukrainians are fighting back— from the frontline to the factory line… and to the finish line.

Ukrainians are ready to drive their country from economic resilience to recovery to renaissance. We owe it to them—and to ourselves – for our collective democratic future, to support them. Thank you.