Russia has caused up to $600 billion in direct and indirect damage to Ukraine’s economy since Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin ordered a renewed invasion of the neighboring country on Feb. 24.
Nearly $70 billion worth of damage to infrastructure was caused alone as of April 1, the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) said in conjunction with the presidential office and Economy Ministry.
Their joint project is published on the https://damaged.in.ua/ website.
Despite what Moscow has announced is a “special operation” to cleanse the country of purported Nazis without providing evidence and reducing its military capability, Russia has focused instead on the wholesale destruction of the country’s civilian infrastructure.
Atrocities amounting to possible crimes against humanity also surfaced over the weekend as hundreds of dead bodies with signs of torture were seen strewn on the streets of cities and towns northwest of Kyiv as Russians retreated.
In the first three weeks of the renewed invasion, Russia obliterated more than 200 schools, 124 children’s day-care centers, 39 hospitals, dozens of bridges, and over 1,600 residential buildings.
About 23,000 kilometers (14,291 miles) of roads alone have been ruined, causing $3 billion in damage, the state-run road management agency Ukravtodor reported over the weekend.
In the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, relentless Russian bombardment has led to at least $10 billion of damage, a preliminary estimate by municipal officials stated on April 1. The center of the Donetsk region’s second-largest is still held by Ukrainian forces. Mayor Vadym Boychenko on March 27 said that 40 percent of the city’s residential buildings are now uninhabitable.
MARIUPOL, UKRAINE – MARCH 26: Collapsed building is seen as civilians are being evacuated along humanitarian corridors from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol under the control of Russian military and pro-Russian separatists, on March 26, 2022. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Chernihiv Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko said on April 3 that 70 percent of the city is ruined.
In south-easternmost Kharkiv region, 80 percent of Izyum is destroyed, the deputy mayor announced on April 3. It had a pre-invasion population of 45,000 and is now mostly controlled by invading Russian forces.
Russia initially invaded Ukraine in 2014 when Putin ordered the military seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and a covert invasion of the two easternmost regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. Western intelligence say that Russia has switched strategy and is devoting resources to conquer the rest of the two regions that constitute the Donbas area while consolidating its gains in the southern regions where a land bridge has been created from mainland Russia to Crimea.
Overall economic losses, according to KSE, are up to $600 billion when including indirect costs to the decline of economic output, “reduction in investment, outflow of labor, additional defense and social support costs, etc.”
The educational institution noted that these estimates are not comprehensive because not all data is available from local and state authorities and as well as citizens.
