"A new Marshall Plan for the 21st century". Berlin conference on reconstruction of Ukraine

"This is not a regular donor conference," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the conference in Berlin. "It is something more profound... A new Marshall Plan for the 21st century," he said, comparing the challenge to the U.S. funding of Europe's reconstruction after World War Two.

Addressing the conference by video link, Zelenskiy said Russian missiles and Iranian-made drones had destroyed more than a third of the country's energy infrastructure.

"And this is before winter. We must all stand together against this. That is the mission of this conference as I see it. I ask you to consider all this from the point of view of security, its four elements. We need security on the ground - we work for it together, establishing defenсe cooperation. We need security in the skies - we work for it by agreeing on the supply of air defence systems," he said.

The conference, hosted by Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, is intended to decide how to proceed with Ukraine's reconstruction after the war, now in its ninth month.

Ukraine says that repairing the damage caused by a war that has cost thousands of lives and destroyed homes, hospitals, schools and factories will cost $750 billion. The World Bank estimates reconstruction costs at $349 billion.

Gathering national leaders, company chiefs and development experts, Tuesday's conference is intended to draw lessons from the failures of previous post-war reconstructions.

Zelenskiy said it was in Europe's interest to help Ukraine recover from a war condemned by Western countries as President Vladimir Putin's imperialist land-grab but styled by Moscow as a special military operation to purge its neighbour of extremists.

"All of you surely know what we have to offer," he said. "It is Ukraine that can guarantee that Russian revanchism cannot break our European home."

In a nod to concerns, widely shared but rarely voiced in European capitals, that reconstruction aid could be stolen or wasted, he stressed that three-quarters of the members of a reconstruction fund's advisory board would be from donor countries.

"Ukraine needs fast rehabilitation, right now, as we speak. Especially, as Russia is deliberately leading targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure with a very clear aim to cut off men, women and children from water, electricity and heating as the winter is approaching. These are pure acts of terror and Russia tries to paralyse Ukraine. But we will not let this happen," said EU Commission president.

"And I'm working with our member states that the union could support Ukraine with up to €1.5 billion ($1.48 billion) every month of the war, which would be in sum round about €18 billion ($17.7 billion) in 2023."

"We have no time to waste: the scale of the destruction is staggering," said von der Leyen.

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also took the floor during the event. "The war in Ukraine is not only the battlefield, the cruelties that were shown to us ... but also other fields that we sometimes forget about: like cyberspace, like Russian propaganda and fake news, or in the field of economy," he said.

Morawiecki argued that Putin "tailors his battle tactics to the opponent in question". "He could not conquer Europe militarily, if he didn't first defeat it economically. So, today, Ukraine is fighting for its independence and the protection of our borders and our security as well," he added.

He stressed that "the real struggle for European sovereignty is also taking place elsewhere, on this economic and natural resources related battlefield".

Polish PM also commented on the problem of Europe's dependence on Russian raw materials. "And indeed, Russia behaved like a drug dealer who gives his first dose for free, because he know the addict will come later on and will pay very dearly for next doses," he said.

"Today, it is not enough to talk about reconstruction of Ukraine and reconstruction of Europe. It's more than that. we have to about reshaping of Europe and European policies, like energy policy and climate policy as well," PM Morawiecki said.

"Anyone who does not support Ukraine has either betrayed the values of our civilization or has been fooled by Russia; or both."

He also said that Russia should pay Ukraine war reparations, while the frozen assets of the Russian state and oligarchs should be confiscated and spent on rebuilding Ukraine and humanitarian aid. "We must vigorously carry on working on the process of Ukraine's integration in the EU."

"For peace has its price, so it's time to stop deluding ourselves that we will remain safe without investing in defence. Poland is dedicating 3 percentage points of our GDP on defence, and we are going to increase this amount of money even further," Morawiecki said. "When it comes to military support, Poland is proportionately the second-largest donor of the Ukrainian army."

"The world only deals with strong players. Europe must prove its strenght. It is our 'to be, or not to be' moment," the prime minister stressed.