Ukraine, 15 heads of state and government and 2,000 companies in Rome for reconstruction

Fifteen heads of state and government and two thousand registered companies, including Italian, Ukrainian and foreign ones, four thousand participants: these are some of the 'record-breaking' numbers of the international conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine to be held in Rome on Thursday and Friday. An event that it was hoped would take place in a different context, against the backdrop of a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev, which still does not exist and is unlikely to arrive by the end of the year, as repeatedly reiterated in recent days by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. After Lugano, London and Berlin, Rome marks a new, important stage in the support for the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine, a goal for which, according to the latest estimates of the World Bank, 500 billion euro will be needed - three times the Marshall Plan - and which is unlikely to be achieved without the mobilisation of the private sector.

At the end of the two days at the Nuvola, the conference venue, Italy expects to be able to announce new financial and monetary commitments amounting to €14-14.5 billion, with the signing of a hundred or so agreements that should cover the reconstruction and protection of energy infrastructures, mine clearance, the rehabilitation of destroyed areas, where it is possible, and modernisation and investment in those less affected by the war. Welcoming the leaders on Thursday will be Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who will speak at the opening session - immediately after Tajani's introduction - together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. For the US there will be Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg, who is expected to have a bilateral with Zelensky, following Donald Trump's announcement about sending new weapons to Kiev.

And the Ukrainian president - who will be received today at the Quirinale by Sergio Mattarella - will join Meloni, Merz and Tusk, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, who are visiting London, at a meeting of the coalition of the 'willing'. An 'overlap' desired by Italy to give more strength to the conference, with the first day of work to be closed by a greeting from the head of state to the participants.