Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has estimated that the reconstruction of Ukraine is expected to cost $750 billion, insisting that seized Russian assets should be used to pay for the recovery of the war-torn country. 

Speaking to the Ukraine Recovery Conference in southern Switzerland, Shmyhal said Ukraine’s recovery “is already estimated at $750bn. We believe that the key source of recovery should be the confiscated assets of Russia and Russian oligarchs.”

The war in Ukraine is now in its fifth month with Luhansk governor saying that Russia will shift the focus of the fight in trying to seize all of the Donetsk region after capturing Luhansk.

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Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has pledged to retake lost territory, including the city of Lysychansk, after Russia claimed full control of the Luhansk region.

“If the commanders of our army withdraw people from certain points at the front, where the enemy has the greatest advantage in firepower, and this also applies to Lysychansk, it means only one thing,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

“That we will return thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons.”

President Vladimir Putin congratulated Russian troops on “liberating” Luhansk, a significant milestone for Moscow in its military campaign.

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In a televised meeting with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin said the troops involved in the operation should rest but other military units should continue fighting.

The Ukrainian flag was also raised again on Snake Island in the Black Sea, a Ukrainian military spokeswoman said after Russian troops withdrew from the strategic outpost last week.

“The territory [Snake Island] has been returned to the jurisdiction of Ukraine,” Natalia Humeniuk, the spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command, told a news conference.

Meanwhile, Russian army on Sunday shelled the eastern cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, as well as the city of Kharkiv, with multiple-launch rocket systems as well as Soviet Smerch rockets.

“In Sloviansk alone, six people are on the list of dead, and about 20 are wounded. A girl died, her name was Yeva. She would have turned 10 in August this year,” Zelenskyy said in his nighttime address.

“Russia has enough Smerch, Uragan and Grad systems to destroy city after city in Ukraine. They have now accumulated their largest firepower in Donbas,” he added.