While fighting continues in Ukraine, talk has already begun on what it will take to rebuild the country after the conflict eventually ends. 

On Tuesday, German President Olaf Scholtz said a modern day Marshall Plan will be needed for Ukraine, replicating the international effort to rebuild Germany after World War II. 

With the destruction caused by Russian bombing campaigns immense, the cost of reconstruction will be enormous.

Architect and sculptor Valeryy Gumenyuk saw his house in Irpin badly damaged by Russian shelling in March.

When CGTN Europe first visited him back then Gumenyuk was sifting through the rubble of his home, and removing shrapnel.

Gumenyuk now lives in the two least damaged rooms on the ground floor, using plastic sheets over those windows that weren't totally destroyed. The top floor is completely wrecked. 

He's converted one room downstairs for his bedroom but there are holes in the ceiling which let in water whenever it rains.

There's a makeshift kitchen but the bathroom and toilet are irreparable. Yet Gumenyuk is determined to rebuild. 

"I've already drawn up plans for the roof," he told CGTN. "I've bought all the materials and friends helped me unload it. I'm just hoping to get the roof covered this summer before winter sets in."

READ MORE

Michael Rosen's unexpected cult status

What is Kaliningrad?

Belgium returns Lumumba's tooth

Cost of reconstruction

There are many in Irpin, though, who will never be able to move back into their old homes, which are beyond repair.

Irpin is a small commuter town on the edge of Kyiv, but entire apartment blocks and homes have been destroyed, along with the main road and railway bridges. With scenes like this common across the country, it's clear that the reconstruction bill will run into many billions of dollars.

According to Andrei Ginkul, head of the independent Kyiv based Centre for Reform and Local Development, "the cost of reconstruction and modernisation will be not less than a trillion dollars, maybe even bigger."

Ginku is a development specialist working closely with both the Ukrainian government and foreign organisations. He told CGTN that there are already fledgling plans for a new Marshall Plan, similar to the one which helped Germany rebuild after World War II. 

But Ginku admits that hard choices will have to be made. 

"Some places should not be rebuilt because many people will not come back because they do not have the jobs, do not have the facility and will not wish to come because they will stay in big cities, in European cities all over the world," he said.

As Monday's missile strike on a shopping centre shows, the human cost to this conflict remains terribly high. Even when rebuilding work can begin, no amount of reconstruction will be able to replace what Ukraine has lost.