{"id":148043,"date":"2025-07-20T14:22:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T19:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/?p=148043"},"modified":"2025-07-20T14:22:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T19:22:33","slug":"blackrocks-hyped-development-fund-bombs-in-bombed-out-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/blackrocks-hyped-development-fund-bombs-in-bombed-out-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"BlackRock\u2019s hyped \u2018Development Fund\u2019 bombs in bombed-out Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/em><\/span> WorldTribune<\/strong> Staff<\/em><\/span><\/span>, July 20, 2025 <\/em>Real World News<\/span><\/a>
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2023, BlackRock launched its Ukraine Development Fund aimed at rebuilding that nation when its war with Russia ended.<\/p>\n

Two years later, with a bombed-out Ukraine set to be on the losing end of the conflict, the BlackRock fund has yet to attract any investors, an analyst wrote.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The remnants of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“It was originally envisaged as one of the most ambitious public-private finance collaborations in history, which would rival Washington\u2019s Marshall Plan that rebuilt – and heavily indebted – Western Europe in World War II\u2019s wake,” investigative journalist Kit Klarenberg wrote in a July 14 analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“With vast returns promised, initially investors were reportedly ‘ready to plow funds’ into the endeavor, due to widespread optimism Kiev\u2019s much-hyped ‘counteroffensive’ later that year ‘might end the war quickly.’ ”<\/p>\n

Ukraine suffered up to 100,000 casualties in the counteroffensive and much of its Western-supplied armor, vehicles, and weapons were destroyed. Ukraine managed to recapture just 0.25% of the territory occupied by Russia in the war\u2019s initial phases.<\/p>\n

As BlackRock vice chair Philipp Hildebrand explained, the results killed off investor exuberance, as they required \u201cthe cessation of hostilities, or at the very least a perspective for peace.\u201d Concerns about Ukraine\u2019s ever-reducing skilled workforce were also widespread.<\/p>\n

“Fast forward to today, and there is no indication of any peace deal on the horizon, Russia is rapidly advancing across multiple fronts, and the Ukrainian government estimates the country has lost around 40% of its working-age population due to the proxy war,” Klanenberg wrote. “No wonder BlackRock\u2019s Development Fund has failed to attract a single dollar. Quite what will remain of Ukraine when the conflict is over, and whether any financial returns can be gleaned from its ruins, are open, grave questions.”<\/p>\n

During the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland in January 2023, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink had pledged to coordinate billions of dollars in reconstruction financing for Ukraine, which he predicted would become a \u201cbeacon of capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldman Sachs chief David Solomon spoke at the WEF with intense optimism: \u201cThere is no question that as you rebuild, there will be good economic incentives for real return and real investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukrainian leader Volodymry Zelenskyy spoke at multiple events held at Davos over the five-day-long conference. He spoke of recapturing Crimea, and demanded attendees \u201cgive us your weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

On one panel, Boris Johnson, who personally sabotaged fruitful peace talks between Kiev and Moscow in April 2022, urged Zelenskyy be provided \u201cthe tools he needs to finish the job.\u201d The disgraced former British Prime Minister boomed, \u201cGive them the tanks! There\u2019s absolutely nothing to be lost!\u201d<\/p>\n

Kranenberg noted: “In future, the January 2023 Davos summit may be viewed both as the glimmering apex of Ukraine\u2019s proxy war effort, and roughly when everything began to spectacularly unravel. The desired weapons arrived in huge quantities, to no effect. Kiev\u2019s three biggest military efforts since, all British-planned – that year\u2019s counteroffensive, the Krynky incursion, and Kursk ‘counterinvasion’ – were deeply costly cataclysms, leaving Ukraine undermanned and ill-equipped to fend off Russian advances. Countries that supplied munitions borderline disarmed themselves in the process.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kranenberg concluded, “there is little indication that Britain has given up on making Kiev safe for neoliberalism and its own profit, despite London\u2019s covert commitment to ‘keeping Ukraine fighting at all costs.’ Of course, the longer the lost proxy war grinds on, the less Ukraine there will be to rebuild, and reap returns from. But apparently, this unambiguous reality is lost on the proxy war\u2019s sponsors. God help us all.”<\/p>\n

\n

Beat The Press <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by WorldTribune Staff, July 20, 2025 Real World News In 2023, BlackRock launched its Ukraine Development Fund aimed at rebuilding that nation when its war with Russia ended. Two years later, with a bombed-out Ukraine set to be on the losing end of the conflict, the BlackRock fund has yet to attract any investors, an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":148044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,3,9,10,91,12,44,5],"tags":[189,6],"class_list":["post-148043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-europe","category-exclusives","category-rest-of-the-best","category-top-stories","category-ukraine","category-world-links","category-world-news","category-world-tribune","tag-blackrocks-hyped-development-fund-bombs-in-bombed-out-ukraine","tag-worldtribune-com","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}