Ukraine Has Lost $565 Billion in 1 Month of Russian Invasion

The people and the government of Ukraine have incurred a staggering loss of estimated $564.9 billion as a result of all the devastation and destruction of human life, properties, and economic activity caused by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s invasion of their country, which began more than a month ago.

Damages Nearly Four Times Ukraine’s GDP

The huge total estimate of Ukraine’s losses from being attacked by Russia on February 24 was announced in a Facebook post by Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

The figure is indeed mind-blowing considering as it is nearly four times the size of Ukraine’s GDP.

While it was one of the most developed parts of the former Soviet Union, known for its industrial production, Ukraine’s economy is still largely transitioning from the vastly inefficient Communist modes of production, and even 30 years after the end of Communism and the falling apart of the USSR, its standard of living remains quite low.

Russia, its arch-enemy since 2014, when Putin first carried out a partial invasion of Ukraine, has enjoyed a higher standard of living since the mid-2000s but for one single reason: the increase in the price of energy resources as it is an ample exporter of oil and natural gas.

Had it not been for all the petro-dollars coming its way mostly from its clients in Western and Central Europe, economically Russia would be even in a worse condition than Ukraine.

The fact that Ukraine’s losses from being attacked by Putin, who wants to conquer the democratic, pro-Western country in order to make it part of his neo-Soviet Russian empire, have reached $565 billion underscores the scope of the gigantic devastation caused by the Russian invaders.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians are believed to have been killed by Putin already, and while at least 17,000 Russian soldiers have also perished, according to Ukrainian estimates, the strategic weakening of the Russian attacking forces hasn’t influenced its ability to cause huge damages, including by resorting increasingly to World War II-style “dumb” aviation bombs.

As Putin’s military hordes failed to conquer Ukraine in 72 hours, as their dictator had seemingly been hoping, they have increasingly turned to atrocious war crimes terrorizing the civilian population in the battle zones, and wreaking havoc upon residential properties and civilian infrastructure.

According to Ukraine’s Economy Minister Svyrydenko, the destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure by the Russians has alone caused damages worth $119 billion

The rest of the figure is due to the economic downturn caused by the war and the devastation of private properties.

Svyrydenko emphasized that, “unfortunately”, the figures of Ukraine’s losses caused by Putin, are growing by the day.

(Snapshot from social media footage shows dead body in the streets of Ukraine’s Mariupol)

Russia Will ‘Inevitably’ Be ‘Punished’

Ukraine’s Economy Minister, however, expressed confidence that Putin’s Russia is going to be held accountable for all the horrific devastation it has already caused and continues to cause in her country.

She noted what the Ukrainians and Western leaders have already been mentioning numerous times: namely, that vast Russian monetary assets in Western banks, which have been frozen because of Putin’s war, are going to be used to pay for the rebuilding of Ukraine once the war is over.

More specifically, Svyrydenko declared only that “evil” is going to be “punished” “inevitably”, and that Russia will be felling “the full weight” of its “criminal actions” in Ukraine.

The most devastated of all Ukrainian cities has been Mariupol, formerly a city of nearly 500,000 people on the coast of the Sea of Azov.

Mariupol was surrounded and besieged by the Russians early on in the war, and tens of thousands of its residents are believed to have been killed, while more than 90% of its buildings have been either fully destroyed, or partly damaged by Russian missile strikes, aerial bombardment, and artillery shelling.

To top it all off, among all the other horrifying war crimes that Putin’s troops have committed in Mariupol, they have also abducted dozens of thousands of its residents to use them for slave labor in Russia.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR