U.S. and Ukrainian officials are rethinking their approach to Ukraine’s reconstruction to insulate it from political changes in both Washington and Kiev without a key figure: Penny Pritzker, Biden’s special envoy for Ukraine reconstruction.
Pritzker was scheduled to serve just one year in office, which ended this month, but her impact during that time has been described as immeasurable.
“We’ve always done what’s called the Chicago style,” Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s Minister of Strategic Industries, said of working with Pritzker in a brief interview with The Hill.
Pritzker, born and raised in Chicago, is a billionaire heir who served as commerce secretary during the Obama administration and whose family fled Ukraine in the late 19th century to escape the violence of anti-Semitic pogroms in the Russian Empire.
“Brief, precise, to the point, straightforward — that’s how we do business,” Kamyshin said of Pritzker, explaining how they worked together during their first meeting.
“She’ll do anything,” said one State Department official, who spoke privately because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
“She’s very direct, she’s to the point, she’s very goal-oriented – meaning she doesn’t joke, she identifies a problem and she solves it,” said Ben Harris, a vice president and director of the economic studies program at the Brookings Institution who worked with Pritzker during the Obama administration.
Ukraine’s ability to rebuild, sustain and grow its economy is essential to surviving Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression.
Part of Putin’s strategy is to weaken Ukraine’s resolve, resources and international support through a protracted war of attrition.
Ukraine shocked Russia earlier this month when it launched a surprise incursion across the border in the Kursk region, but the country is still suffering from air attacks on civilian facilities and energy infrastructure and has made little progress along its roughly 620-mile front line.
“There’s a saying: armies win battles, but economies win wars,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhali said. Speaking at an event in April.
Pritzker will be succeeded by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma, a former ambassador to India and a veteran of Washington’s national security ranks. Verma, a lawyer, has served in roles including chief legal officer and head of international public policy at Mastercard and vice chairman at consulting firm The Asia Group.
Kamyshin said Pritzker’s contributions over the past year cannot be overstated: “She’s always been someone who could pick up the phone and have a proper discussion with anyone, not just the U.S. but also Ukraine. So it’s going to be quite a challenge for the new special representative to exceed her expectations.”
Kamyshin, who has shaved sides and long black hair braided down his back, is leading efforts to turn Ukraine into a military-producing powerhouse to supply troops stationed in Ukraine and serve as an arsenal for NATO, which it is seeking to join.
In July, on the sidelines of the NATO summit, Ukraine and Northrop Grumman Contract signed for production of medium caliber ammunition It was seen by both Ukrainian and U.S. officials as a landmark agreement that lays the groundwork for further co-production deals.
Later that month, Boeing Defense Memorandum signed The company has partnered with Ukrainian state-owned aircraft manufacturer Antonov to jointly develop aerial drones.
Speaking at the Brookings Institution on July 31, Pritzker said the pace of defense agreements is unprecedented.
“The defense is trying to close four or five deals within six months, which means it’s not normal for defense deals to happen in that time frame,” she said.
Kamyshyn said these successes are part of Pritzker’s no-nonsense approach to deal-making.
“[Secretary] “Pritzker has always been supportive, not only pushing things forward but also helping me when I didn’t understand why it wasn’t happening,” he said.
In a speech at the Brookings Institution late last month, Treasury Secretary Pritzker laid out a five-point plan for Ukraine’s economic recovery.
The plan includes Kiev creating a government body that will decide which reconstruction and infrastructure projects should be prioritized, including protecting the energy infrastructure that Russia is trying to destroy.
Pritzker also called on Ukraine to do more to combat corruption, acknowledging that Kyiv had passed a “set of tough reforms” but said momentum needed to be maintained.
“We support Mr. Penney’s position regarding further measures,” Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Yulia Svyridenko said in a statement to The Hill.
Harris, of the Brookings Institution, said the speech called for the country to shift its focus from reliance on donors to attracting businesses and capital.
“I don’t know if it was the intention to protect this plan from political change, but it feels like this plan was protected from political change,” he said, “so I can imagine this plan would be implemented regardless of who wins the 2024 U.S. presidential election.”
Whether Vice President Harris or former President Trump occupies the White House, U.S. aid to Ukraine, especially economic aid, will be under pressure.
Congress has passed emergency additional aid for Ukraine five times since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, but support has dwindled with each vote, especially among Republicans, making a sixth aid package unlikely before the end of the 118th Congress in January 2025.
Even among Republicans who support Ukraine, few want to prioritize economic aid.
“We can do two things at once, but we have to prioritize accordingly,” said Luke Coffey, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank seen as a key supporter of aid to Ukraine among increasingly skeptical Republicans.
“I understand that the Secretary has a job to do and is tasked with getting our economy back on track, but I think our priority should be winning the war.”
Harris noted that Pritzker, in his speech, emphasized the urgency of the effort by saying that reconstruction could be completed before the war was over.
“There is no guarantee that this war will end soon. Some wars last for decades. Of course, I hope that this one never ends,” he said.
“This war has not progressed the way we expected it to. We thought it would be a war that would be over in a few weeks, but now several years later, there is no end in sight and Ukraine is actually invading Russia. This is something that nobody expected. So obviously you can’t predict what’s going to happen.”
