KIEV, May 8. /TASS/. Ukraine lacks some 75 million euro to complete the construction of a shelter at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Igor Shevchenko told a briefing on Friday.
He said a sum of 615 million euro was needed to finance the construction of a shelter at the Chernobyl nuclear plant. "We have 540 million euro," he said. "So, we need 75 million euro more." The minister said he had taken part in a conference on fund raising for the shelter project. In his words, participants had agreed to allocate 350 million euro from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the rest of the sum was to be provided by donor countries.
"We have 18 months for that," Shevchenko said obviously referring to Ukraine’s efforst to find sponsors. He said the Ukrainian side expected that this sum of 75 million euro would come from donor countries. "Talks are underway with some countries, which have not yet provided a clear answer," he said.
However, in his words, the available sum of 540 million euro was enough to continue the construction for about one year.