In the town of Khust, an azure blue container displays the French and Ukrainian flags, side by side. Coming from Normandy, it traveled 2,000 kilometers before being installed in this area of western Ukraine. Behind this modular wastewater treatment unit, designed in two months, are two French SMEs: Cohin Environnement and Beten Ingénierie International. Although Transcarpathia, the Khust region, was spared from the bombs, it still suffered the consequences of the war, welcoming many refugees. Sébastien Cohin, president of the family company, observed “an overpopulation of at least 30%. And since the water treatment facilities date from the former USSR, the networks are overloaded. This results in pollution and the emergence of infectious diseases.”
Cohin Environnement is one of a handful of French companies that are already preparing for the “aftermath” in Ukraine, where reconstruction needs were reassessed in February by the World Bank at $486 billion for the next decade. The eastern regions of the country are suffering the greatest losses. Housing, transport, industry, agriculture and energy are on the front line. Given the scale of the task, Paris committed at the end of 2022 to supplying rails, movable bridges and seeds to Ukraine worth €100 million. Energy infrastructure, regularly targeted by Russian strikes, has been a priority: the electricity distributor Enedis notably supplied four generators last March to power the Borodianka hospital in the kyiv region and 22 pumping stations for the Pavlograd water department.
“If we adopt a strategy of ‘we wait for the war to end and then we get started’, the places will be taken,” warns Bart Gruyaert, project director of the engineering company Neo-Eco in Ukraine, which recycles debris and used materials. The majority of its projects are located in the Mykolaiv region, near the Black Sea, where more than 1,300 sites have been damaged. A colossal task, a few dozen kilometers from the front line.
Rebuild, Better
Beyond emergency aid, French companies aim to work towards long-term reconstruction. “We must not oppose temporalities,” says architect Martin Duplantier, who has been in Ukraine since 2015. Irritated by seeing thousands of prefabricated containers arriving in Ukraine, he believes that empty buildings should be rehabilitated and redeveloped rather than piling up temporary housing. “It does not necessarily cost more and establishes a local economy,” he adds.
“Build back better!” sums up Alex Gittelson. “We explain to donors that reconstruction does not start with a shovel in the ground but with planning,” says the Ukraine director of Egis. This French engineering group has supervised the reconstruction of several bridges destroyed during the war. It is also working on longer-term projects, such as the rehabilitation of the Kharkiv metro and a diagnosis for reconstruction in the Chernihiv region.
This logic of combining emergency reconstruction and sustainable modernization is essential, according to the boss of Beten Ingénierie International, Jean Roche. Its water treatment units, currently used urgently, could be transferred later as part of the reconstruction of the destroyed city and village districts in the east of the country. “We can rebuild Ukraine in a way other than by reproducing the Soviet model,” he says.
Ukraine could even be at the forefront of the European city, Martin Duplantier envisions. His latest project, a sports and cultural center in the Kiev region, uses wood and straw – locally available materials. Because ecology is not a question of choice in Ukraine. “The choice of resilient materials and being energy independent are a necessity on the ground,” believes the architect. Neo-Eco has not been mistaken. The company even specifies that its recycled materials are more competitive than traditional cement.
The Ukrainian digital sector is also looking for sustainability. In April, the Infranum federation, which brings together more than 200 digital companies, was given the mission of rebuilding and modernizing the very high-speed networks, the damage to which has been estimated at more than two billion dollars. “France is renowned in telecoms, and for Ukraine, it is a key sector. In some villages, not having access to the Internet means cutting off access to the alert system,” emphasizes the president of Infranum, Philippe Le Grand, who is working to make these digital infrastructures less energy-intensive. “It is not about sending French employees but about transferring know-how, selling equipment or doing remote coordination. Our approach is to allow Ukraine to rebuild itself,” he adds.
Even Xavier Niel is doing his bit. The founder of Free announced the acquisition of Ukrainian mobile operator Lifecell in early September. “In kyiv, this acquisition is making an impression, it shows that Ukraine is a land of opportunities, despite the war,” emphasizes Pierre Heilbronn, special envoy of the President of the Republic for aid and reconstruction in Ukraine. In the longer term, kyiv is also planning energy production projects. While its thermal power plants are targeted by Russian strikes, the country is banking on nuclear power, and in particular on small modular reactors (SMRs). And while the American Westinghouse seems to be the most advanced in cooperation, EDF has indicated that discussions are underway with the nuclear operator Energoatom on the development of these SMRs.
A question of image
For several months, Business France has been calling on French stakeholders to make themselves useful. The agency published a white paper for companies in 2023 and advises them on the relevance of their projects. It is organizing a France Pavilion for the Rebuild Ukraine conference, which will be held next November in Poland.
Nevertheless, French involvement remains limited, with some companies hesitating to invest in a country at war. “On major calls for tenders, we often only see one candidate registered and he is sometimes rejected because he does not have the skills. However, the needs on the ground are enormous,” Bart Gruyaert is surprised. Beyond the security risk for their employees, companies fear for the sustainability of their investments. Added to this is the complexity of Ukraine’s decentralized structure, where decision-making power over infrastructure projects often belongs to the “oblasts”, the administrative regions. However, for the allocation of concessional loans, it is the central state that must get involved, which results in a plurality of interlocutors, confides a civil engineering company.
Another obstacle: on the France Diplomatie map, Ukraine appears entirely in red, meaning “formally not recommended”. However, “French insurance companies do not follow the projects of companies that wish to operate in areas classified as red, particularly if it involves insuring a project”, explains Mat Hauser, co-founder of the economic intelligence firm Stratéon, which specializes in Ukraine.
In search of funding
A range of financing is available to willing companies. For long-term projects, they can opt for the private sector study and aid fund (FASEP), set up by the Treasury, which allows them to carry out a feasibility study or a demonstrator. Infranum, Egis and Neo-Eco have applied for this mechanism. Then, for the construction of the work, they can choose between a buyer’s credit or a concessional loan between the French and Ukrainian governments.
In June, Emmanuel Macron also announced a “Ukraine fund” with 200 million euros. Expected by several companies on the ground since February, it is to finance the reconstruction of critical infrastructure. A success. “We received applications that represent 2.5 times the amount available. In the end, it is the Ukrainians who will decide the priorities for the allocation of funding,” explains Pierre Heilbronn.
At the same time, the Expertise France agency, a branch of the French Development Agency (AFD), is responding to urgent needs, including the restoration of the Chernihiv Regional Theatre, with its mAIDan scheme. The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are also mobilizing. But despite this plurality of tools, some companies are reporting difficulties in finding funds after the FASEP stage. Martin Duplantier, for example, says he spends half his time looking for financing.
Proud to be the leading international employer on Ukrainian soil before the war, France is facing competition in the field of reconstruction. German companies, such as Siemens, as well as Korean and Japanese companies, are present on site. The United States, the leading supplier of military aid to Ukraine, is not far behind: the construction giant Bechtel has committed to rebuilding the Kakhovka dam on the banks of the Dnieper, while the bank JP Morgan and the asset manager BlackRock are advising the Ukrainian government on financing.
Some projects have benefited from joint investment, Pierre Heilbronn says. Back from Ukraine a few days ago, he also took part in a trialogue with Polish and Ukrainian partners on the subject. But coordinating reconstruction takes time, a luxury that is difficult to afford when, on the ground, the toll of the conflict is increasing every day.
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