The United States, Japan, and Europe's leading economies are among more than 40 countries that signed the Lugano Declaration on Tuesday, aimed at raising funds to rebuild war-torn Ukraine.
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The declaration is "the first step of a long journey," Switzerland's President Ignazio Cassis was quoted as saying by The New York Times.
Lugano, which contains a set of seven founding principles for Ukraine's reconstruction, is named after the Swiss town, where Kyiv's allies met for a two-day conference to decide on the country's recovery plan.
The declaration aims to raise hundreds of billions of dollars. Earlier on Monday, Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told participants of the conference that his country's recovery "is already estimated at $750 billion."
He added that the key source of future reconstruction should be "the confiscated assets of Russia and Russian oligarchs." According to Shmyhal, such assets frozen by foreign states as part of sanctions imposed against Moscow already amounted to $300-500 billion.
While Ukraine's allies confirmed their commitment to aid Kyiv in recovering the country's infrastructure that has been heavily destroyed by Russian bombings, they called on political and economic reforms to be made.
"The rule of law must be systematically strengthened and corruption eradicated," the declaration stated.
As Ukraine was previously ranked among the world's most corrupt countries by Transparency International, the issue of accountability is viewed among the most pressing by the states that agreed to provide considerable financial aid.
Meanwhile, foreign analysts said this week that Russia may be temporarily easing its offensive in Ukraine as the Russian military attempts to reassemble its forces for a renewed assault.
On Wednesday, Russian forces made no claimed or assessed territorial gains in Ukraine "for the first time in 133 days of war," according to the Institute for the Study of War. The Washington-based think tank institute suggested that Moscow may be taking an "operational pause" that does not entail "the complete cessation of active hostilities."
"Russian forces will likely confine themselves to relatively small-scale offensive actions as they attempt to set conditions for more significant offensive operations and rebuild the combat power needed to attempt those more ambitious undertakings," the institute said.
Shelling continued in Ukraine's east, where at least nine civilians were killed and six wounded in 24 hours, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine's presidential office said in its Thursday morning update that cities and villages in seven Ukrainian regions were shelled in the past day. Most of the civilian deaths occurred in Donetsk province, where fighting is ongoing. Seven civilians were killed there, including a child, the presidential office said.
Ten cities and villages came under shelling in Donetsk, and 35 buildings were destroyed, including a school, a vocational college, and a hospital, officials said.
Donetsk is part of the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking industrial area where Ukraine's most experienced soldiers are concentrated. Pro-Russian separatists have fought Ukrainian forces and controlled much of the Donbas for eight years. Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of two self-proclaimed republics there just before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Putin on Monday claimed victory in Luhansk, the other province constituting the Donbas, after Ukrainian forces withdrew from the last city they controlled there. The governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai, denied Wednesday that the Russians had completely captured the province.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, a boarding school was hit, but no one was injured. The Kharkiv region, which lies along the border with Russia, is under daily shelling, and two civilians were killed there over the past 24 hours.
The Ukrainian military said Thursday that Russian forces also carried out shelling and helicopter strikes in the Sumy region in the northeast.
Even as the fighting continued, the British Defense Ministry said it thinks Russia's military is "reconstituting" its forces. A ministry intelligence assessment issued Thursday said the heavy shelling along the front line in Donetsk is likely intended to secure previous Russian gains.
The British ministry noted a new law under consideration by the Russian parliament will give the government special economic powers amid the war.
The law would allow "Russia to avoid acknowledging it is engaged in a war or its failure to overcome Ukraine's military that was outnumbered and outgunned," the ministry said.
In related news, German lawmakers were poised Thursday to approve a major package of reforms aimed at boosting the production of renewable power, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned that the country has for too long relied on energy supplies from Russia.
The government unveiled its 600-page "Easter package" in April, less than two months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine escalated the simmering energy crisis between Moscow and western European neighbors, many of which were buyers of Russian fossil fuels.
Germany has sharply reduced its energy imports from Russia in recent months. The government aims to end the purchase of Russian coal and oil this year, and of natural gas by 2024.
Scholz said late Wednesday that the war was another reason for Europe's biggest economy to double down on its efforts to expand the use of renewable energy.
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"Germany has relied for too long and too unilaterally on energy supplies from Russia," he said at a renewable energy industry event in Berlin. "Today, we have to realize that Russia is using energy as a weapon. After all, no one believes that Russia is reducing its gas supplies for technical reasons alone."
Scholz's government recently pledged to rapidly accelerate the installation of sun and wind power facilities, setting a target of generating 80% of Germany's gross electricity use from renewable energy by 2030, and cutting greenhouse gas emissions from all sources to 'net zero' by 2045.
Economists have questioned whether those goals are achievable with current measures.
"If we want to keep energy affordable in the long term, if we want to reconcile supply security and climate protection, then this is only possible with renewable energies," said Scholz. "That's why we need to kick the expansion of renewables into high gear now."
