Ukraine losses against Russia could amount to $500bln: Kiev
Ukraine is losing nationalists, money, and territory to Russia despite the whole West weighing in on the crisis in support of Kiev.
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Damage in the city of Brovary, outside Kiev on March 1, 2022 (AFP)
Losses due to the Russian special military operation in Ukraine could amount to some $500 billion, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said Tuesday.
He asserted that the negative consequences of the Ukraine crisis would be devastating for the country.
"Tens of areas where hostilities are taking place account for half of the GDP. The most important sections are Kharkov, Kiev, and Mariupol, which made a very significant contribution to the GDP," the Ukrainian minister told Forbes.
"Many supply chains are completely broken, many enterprises are physically destroyed, some are unable to work in war mode, many workers simply left," he added, highlighting the toll Russia's special military operation took on Ukraine.
According to Marchenko, the ministry of economy believed that the losses would cost Ukraine between a third to a half of its GDP. However, he also highlighted other estimates, which suggested that the losses would amount to a whopping $500 billion.
"It will be possible to calculate exactly only after the war," Marchenko added in an interview with Forbes.
On March 10, Volodymyr Zelensky's economic adviser, Oleksii Ustenko, estimated that assets worth $100 billion had been destroyed in Ukraine.
Russia had launched a special military operation for several reasons, such as NATO's eastward expansion, the Ukrainian shelling of Donbass, and the killing of the people of the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, in addition to Moscow wanting to "denazify" and demilitarize Ukraine.
Ukraine's estimations of losses come after US President Joe Biden authorized on Saturday a drawdown of up to $200 million for "defense articles" and military training to provide military assistance to Ukraine.
In January, a report published by Politico revealed that US President Joe Biden's administration "quietly authorized an additional $200 million in security assistance to Ukraine."
