Denmark will open a diplomatic office in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv to start the "early reconstruction" of the country, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.
The diplomatic mission will cement relations with local officials preparing for the entry of Danish experts and companies to work on reconstruction of the city, which has been heavily damaged in fighting since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of last year, the ministry said.
"Early reconstruction is needed now and cannot wait for the war to end," said Danish Foreign Affairs Minister Løkke Rasmussen. "We are opening an embassy office in Mykolaiv to strengthen our presence on the ground and our dialogue with local authorities."
The ministry said the office has appointed a lead diplomat and will open as soon as it hires local staff, then start its mission to match Ukrainian needs for reconstruction with "competences and know-how of Danish civil society organizations and businesses within areas like water, energy and waste management."
More than half of the residents of the city of 500,000 have fled the fighting, leaving a population of 230,00o in Mykolaiv. The World Bank's damage and needs report published in March of this year estimated the direct damage in the Mykolaiv region, or oblast, at $5.6 billion and indirect losses at another $7.6 billion. Sporadic fighting has continued in the area since.
