The announcement at the opening of the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2026) in the Baltic port city of Gdańsk set a positive tone for the event despite renewed tensions between Warsaw and Kyiv over their troubled shared history, the Reuters news agency reported.
Svyrydenko said Ukraine expected to sign more than 160 agreements during the conference, covering areas including defence, business and regional development.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen announced the disbursement of the first EUR 3.2 billion tranche of a EUR 90 billion EU loan package aimed at supporting Ukraine.
She also said payments from a separate EUR 6 billion fund intended to boost drone production would begin in the coming days.
Von der Leyen added that an investment fund for Ukraine's reconstruction, backed by the EU, France, Germany and Poland, was "ready to go" and could mobilize around EUR 500 million this year, Reuters reported.
"The message we are sending to investors is simple," she said. "When you invest in Ukraine, you're not only investing in Ukraine's future, but also in Europe's future."
The URC 2026 conference is the leading annual international forum focused on rebuilding Ukraine following the widespread destruction caused by Russia's ongoing invasion of the country.
Reconstructing Ukraine's economy and infrastructure is expected to cost an estimated EUR 588 billion over the next decade, according to a February study by the World Bank, the United Nations, the European Commission and the Ukrainian government.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the choice of Gdańsk as the venue was symbolic because the city was rebuilt after being devastated during World War II.
Tusk has sought to ease tensions between Poland and Ukraine after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky named a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
Many Ukrainians view the UPA as a symbol of resistance against both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and as part of Ukraine's struggle for independence from Moscow.
Poland, however, holds the UPA responsible for the World War II-era Volhynia massacres, in which Polish historians estimate that around 100,000 Poles were killed by Ukrainian nationalists between 1943 and 1945.
Thousands of Ukrainians also died in retaliatory attacks, according to Reuters.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki, a political rival of Tusk, last week stripped Zelensky of a top state honour amid the dispute.
Addressing conference participants, Tusk said Ukraine's European aspirations required an honest reckoning with the past.
"Ukraine rightly wants to be part of a united Europe," he said.
"The condition for true, full unification has always been an understanding of one's own history and a genuine capacity and willingness for reconciliation," he added.
"The future can only be built on truth, mutual respect and an understanding of history," Tusk told the gathering.
The two-day conference has brought together political leaders, international financial institutions and business executives to discuss Ukraine's postwar recovery and continued support for Kyiv against Russia's ongoing invasion.
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Source: Reuters, IAR, PAP
Click on the audio player above for a report by Marcin Matuszewski.