Russia has caused $11.5 billion worth of losses to Ukrainian business

THURSDAY, 9 JUNE 2022, 13:49 - DANA GORDIICHUK

Over the past week the Russians have caused US$1 billion worth of damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure, and the damage done to businesses since 24 February has reached $11.5 billion.

This is stated in an updated assessment of losses to the Ukrainian economy calculated by Russia Will Pay, a project run by the KSE Institute [Kyiv School of Economics] with the support of the government and the Office of the President of Ukraine.  

At the same time, as of 8 May, the total amount of direct infrastructure damage calculated by analysts has decreased by $2.6 billion to $103.9 billion due to the recalculation of losses caused to certain categories of railway infrastructure facilities, religious and cultural buildings, and car losses.

The past week has seen an increase in the damage caused to enterprises, educational and healthcare institutions, kindergartens, administrative buildings and warehousing infrastructure. 

Ukrainian enterprises have already suffered $11.5 billion worth of losses and damage, educational institutions $1.6 billion, and medical institutions $1.1 billion. During the full-scale invasion, at least 44.8 million square metres of housing, 256 enterprises, 6,300 railway tracks, 656 medical facilities, 1,177 educational institutions, 668 kindergartens, 198 warehouses, 20 shopping centres and 28 oil depots have been damaged or seized.   

It is noted that the reduction in the estimate of losses caused by damage to cars is associated with the recalculation of average vehicle prices, and also because more accurate data is now available. According to current estimates, Ukrainians have lost almost 105,000 passenger cars valued at a total of $968 million (the initial estimate was $1.6 billion). These calculations do not take into account the quantity and cost of cars that were imported from Europe unofficially, so the actual amount of losses may be higher, according to the KSE Institute. 

The total losses to the Ukrainian economy due to the war, including indirect ones such as the fall in GDP, cessation of investment, outflow of labour, additional defence and social support spending, etc., have consistently ranged from $564 billion to $600 billion. 

You can provide information about infrastructure losses on the Russia Will Pay website, and also with the help of a chatbot or in the Kyiv Digital app.