Wars often act as an accelerator of history. This is also true with Russia’s war of aggression against
Ukraine. As much as Russia is inflicting huge destruction, death and suffering on the Ukrainian
people, Ukrainian success against the Russian aggression also creates new opportunities for
Ukraine’s future development. Here are the main ideas we put forward.
After the war, Ukraine will have a chance to get rid of the remains of the Soviet laws and to
transform into a modern and model democracy. It will have a chance to modernize not only its
infrastructure, economy, education and healthcare systems but also to overhaul its political and
judicial systems and become a full member of the European Union.
Ukraine needs the EU and other international support in building strong institutions, reloading of
the judicial system and completion of the civil service reform. Merit-based promotion of people
to higher offices and enforcement of laws without any compromises will ensure democratic
development of Ukraine and prevent it from slipping into authoritarianism. With this in mind, we
also do not recommend any reforms that would strengthen the powers of the president and
weaken that of the parliament. We support further decentralization of decision-making powers
towards communities.
Given the cost and complexity of post-war reconstruction, which should be coupled with
European integration, we suggest establishing a EU-led reconstruction agency that will both lead
the reconstruction and prepare Ukraine for the EU accession (the agency will sunset at the date
of EU accession). This agency can also become a supplier of qualified and non-corrupt people to
Ukraine’s civil service.
The Agency should take the form of a multi-divisional organization where each operational
division is associated with a reconstruction goal. Each division should be centralized at the
national level, possibly with subdivisions in various regions. This organizational form reflects the
multiple goals of reconstruction as well as the need for speed in the implementation of
reconstruction goals.
It is very important that the Ukrainian government owns the reconstruction, i.e. that it sets the
priorities and suggests the projects for the Agency to implement. The Agency will have the veto
right over projects, while the courts will provide the final decision if the veto is challenged. It is
equally important to involve Ukrainian experts into development of the projects and use the
principle of matching funds, so that the Ukrainian public and private sector have a stake in those
projects.
To ensure quick implementation of the reconstruction projects and at the same time efficient
use of funds, we recommend: (1) ex-post audits rather than ex-ante project evaluations
(especially taking into account that complicated projects may change during the
implementation); (2) framework agreements and (3) open contracting. Certainly Ukraine must
rely on the existing procurement system ensuring transparency (ProZorro) and further digitize
not only procurement but oversight of contract implementation.
As stressed in multiple chapters of this book, judicial reform is key to reconstruction effort. It is
a necessary condition not only for the inflow of investment but also for punishing collaborators,
solving issues during the reconstruction, and (together with competition laws) for ensuring that
oligarchs do not regain their power after the war (or that new oligarchs do not emerge). To
support deoligarchisation and ensure democracy, two more reforms will be needed: political
reform that would lower barriers to entry for political parties and thus facilitate the inflow of
“fresh blood” into politics and media reform that would reduce the dependence of journalists on
oligarchs and ensure that they are producing public good (information) in a responsible way.
Today Ukraine is on the forefront of the fight against imperialist autocracies who try to destroy
life under conditions of freedom, human rights and rule of Law. Ukraine deserves full support of
democracies not only during the war, but also after the war. In this chapter we provide the ideas
that will hopefully help guide the debates to reconstruct democratic and European Ukraine.