Foreign undersecretary Benedetto Della Vedova is leading Italy's delegation to the Ukraine Recovery Conference taking place on Monday and Tuesday in Lugano, Switzerland, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The conference centres on the prospects for Ukraine's future reconstruction from an economic, infrastructure and social perspective, according to the statement.
Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and representatives of 36 countries and 13 international organisations are due to attend the conference, which is being chaired by Swiss Confederation president Ignazio Cassis.
The conference will offer an opportunity to underline the firm support of Italy and its partners for Ukraine, its resistance to Russia's more-than-three-month-old invasion, its future rebuilding and its progress towards European integration, said the statement.
The European Commission formally recommended European Union candidate status for war-ravaged Ukraine last month, delivering a huge morale boost to the war-ravaged country, which applied to join the bloc days after Russia's invasion on 24 February.
"With the bombs that continue to fall on the cities, it seems hard to talk about reconstruction. But we must now focus on Ukraine’s recovery path, which will be intertwined with its European journey," said Della Vedova.
Italy, its businesses, local authorities and tertiary sector stand ready to support Ukraine in its reconstruction, as well as its reform process, Della Vedova underlined.
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