Germanys Scholz urges investment in future EU member Ukraine [Video]

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday urged businesses to invest in war-torn Ukraine and stressed a commitment to smooth Kyiv’s path to European Union accession.

“If you invest in Ukraine today and in the coming years, you are investing in a future EU member,” Scholz said in a speech at a German-Ukrainian business forum in Berlin.

“After the war, we will see growth rates and development opportunities in Ukraine,” Scholz said. And he compared the country’s economic potential to that of the eastern European countries that joined the bloc after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

German trade with Ukraine had grown from some eight billion euros ($8.4 billion) in 2021 to almost 10 billion euros in 2023, Scholz said.

Around 2,000 German companies were active in Ukraine, with trade in defence and chemical products among other areas, he said.

In the Ukrainian energy sector, which has been relentlessly targeted …