BERLIN: The world must not squander time but help Ukrainians rebuild their country swiftly, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday, adding the EU was ready to coordinate the reconstruction measures with a secretariat.

“We have no time to waste, the scale of destruction is staggering. The World Bank puts the cost of the damage at 350 billion euros ($345 billion),” she told a reconstruction conference for Ukraine in Berlin.

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Von der Leyen said an international coordination platform for the reconstruction needed to launch “as soon as possible, preferable before the end of the year or early at the beginning of next year”, adding the EU’s executive Commission was ready to provide the secretariat to it.