Digital Desk: Russia's invasion of Ukraine has caused nearly $1
trillion in damage, according to a Kyiv government official, as the war
continues to wreak havoc on the country's economy.
According to Oleg Ustenko, President Volodymyr Zelensky's
economic advisor, Ukraine has suffered "somewhere close to $1
trillion" in damages in terms of "direct and indirect costs."
Ustenko stated at a German Council on Foreign Relations event in
Berlin that the figure was equivalent to five times Ukraine's annual GDP prior
to the February invasion.
The official previously estimated that invading Russian forces
caused around $100 billion in damage in the first two weeks of the war.
The destruction and displacement caused by the conflict posed a
"significant problem for public financing," according to Ustenko.
Many businesses that had not been destroyed were "not
operating at full capacity or are only operating for a few hours per day,"
he said.
"It means that the budget will receive far less than was
initially anticipated."
Despite drastic cuts in government spending, the Ukrainian
government has been running a monthly deficit of five billion euros ($4.9
billion) since the invasion, according to Ustenko.
Kyiv expects the gap to close to around 3.5 billion euros by
2023.
Allies have rushed to fill the void with aid, with the World
Bank, European Union, and G7 countries pledging billions of dollars.
According to Ustenko, the Ukrainian government expects the
economy to contract by 35 to 40% this year.
According to him, the drop was the "deepest decline in
our GDP that we have experienced since 1991" and the establishment of the
modern Ukrainian state.
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