515,800,000,000 euros
Ukraine estimates previous war damage
03/28/2022, 6:55 p.m
Kiev’s deputy prime minister is trying to assess the material damage caused by Russia’s war in the country. The state is missing almost 90 percent of its income. GDP falls by more than half. Thousands of kilometers of roads have been destroyed, as have millions of square meters of living space.
According to its own statements, Ukraine has already suffered more than half a trillion euros in economic losses as a result of Russia’s war of aggression. The costs of the “direct effects of the destruction” since the beginning of the war on February 24 amount to the equivalent of 515.8 billion euros, as Minister of Economics and Deputy Prime Minister Julia Swyrydenko announced on Facebook.
In addition, according to their statements, there are the indirect consequences of the struggles for the economy, above all through the explosion in unemployment, the sharp drop in consumer consumption and the significantly reduced tax revenue.
In the area of infrastructure, the losses are highest at 108.5 billion euros, explained Swyrydenko. Almost 8,000 kilometers of roads are “damaged or destroyed,” as are dozens of train stations and airports. In addition, ten million square meters of living space and 200,000 cars were destroyed within about a month.
The gross domestic product is expected to be 102 billion euros lower this year, which is a decline in economic power of more than 55 percent compared to 2021. According to the Minister for Economic Affairs, the annual budget is missing 43.8 billion euros, which is almost 90 percent less than planned. “The numbers are changing every day, and unfortunately they are increasing,” Swyrydenko regretted on Facebook.
Ukraine will therefore “demand financial compensation from the aggressor,” she added. This could be done through legal decisions “or through a direct transfer (currently) in Ukraine of frozen Russian assets to the state.”