As of April 11, 2022, the KSE Institute estimated damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure from the war in the country at $80.4 billion, or UAH 2.4 trillion, while over the past week, the estimate of losses increased by $12.2 billion, according to a press release. analytical division of the Kiev School of Economics (KSE) KSE Institute.
“Over the past week, direct losses to the Ukrainian economy due to destruction and damage to civilian and military infrastructure, documented in public sources, have increased by $12.2 billion. As of April 11, the total amount of direct documented damage to infrastructure, based on public sources alone, has already reached $80.4 billion, or UAH 2.4 trillion,” the KSE Institute said, referring to data analysis within the framework of the Russia will pay project.
Most of all, the growth in the cost of infrastructure damage increased over the past week due to the destruction of residential real estate, including due to clarifications of previous destructions, analysts said. Also, the assessment of the damage caused by the loss of assets of enterprises has also increased.
In general, according to the general estimates of the Ministry of Economy and KSE, the losses of the economy due to the war, taking into account the direct losses calculated in this project, as well as indirect losses, such as a decrease in GDP, a halt in investment and an outflow of labor, range from $564 billion to $600 billion .
According to the release, during the 47 days of Russian aggression in Ukraine, at least 23,000 km of roads, 37,000 sq. m of housing stock, 319 kindergartens, 546 educational institutions, 205 medical institutions, 145 factories and enterprises. In addition, at least 54 administrative buildings, 277 bridges and bridge crossings, 10 military airfields, eight airports and two ports were damaged during the war. Also as of April 8, at least 74 religious buildings and 62 other cultural buildings have been damaged, destroyed or seized.
As reported, the Office of the President, the Ministry of Economics and the analytical center at the Kiev School of Economics KSE Institute launched the project “Russia will pay” – a portal to collect information about the destroyed objects in the country as a result of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
On a special website https://damaged.in.ua/ you can provide information about the damage caused as a result of the war against Ukraine. In the future, this information will be used by the Ukrainian government as evidence in international courts to compensate Russia for the damage caused.
Representatives of the European Union met with representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in Kyiv to discuss the application for EU accession, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Matti Maasikas said.
“The best possible start to my first official working day back in Kyiv. Meeting with Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna, representatives of the European Commission for Neighborhood and Enlargement, the EU Delegation to Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the questionnaire, the basis for the EU Commission forthcoming opinion on Ukraine’s EU membership application. Working 24/7 as tasked by Ursula von der Leyen,” he said on Twitter.
As reported, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen handed over to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky a questionnaire for joining the EU on April 9.
About 300 thousand square meters. m of the territory of Ukraine needs humanitarian demining due to the large amount of ammunition left by the occupiers, sowing work on a large area of Ukrainian fields cannot begin due to the threat of explosive objects there, the State Emergency Service reports.
“To date, we have conducted an indicative analysis of the territories where it is necessary to carry out a set of measures for humanitarian demining … According to our preliminary estimates, this is about 300 thousand square kilometers, almost half of the territory of our country,” the head of the Office of the organization of pyrotechnic works and humanitarian demining of the State Emergency Service Oleg Bondar.
He noted that there are pyrotechnic divisions in every region of Ukraine, in total, about 550 pyrotechnicians work in the State Emergency Service.
“An average of 2,000 to 6,000 explosive items are seized and rendered harmless every day,” a spokesman for the State Emergency Service said.
According to Bondar, at present the main demining efforts are concentrated in the Irpen-Buchansky, Chernihiv-Brovary, Nezhensky and Trostyanets directions.
The representative of the State Emergency Service emphasized that, despite the ongoing shelling, pyrotechnicians work daily in the Kharkiv and Nikolaev regions.
Answering a question about how soon residents of the Kiev region can return home after clearing the territories, the head of the department said: “We worked out Irpen. But there are households where there were no owners. We, as a rescue service, have no right to enter private territory. Therefore, we we leave a notice: if a person returns home, then they call us and inspect, after which we give permission to be in the house.
At the same time, Bondar added: “But the main decision on the possibility of returning people is the function of local authorities.”
The representative of the State Emergency Service also noted that Ukrainian explosives technicians are highly qualified and work with modern Iskander-type ammunition, ammunition used in aviation – Surface-to-air and Air-to-air missiles.
“There is the use of multiple launch rocket systems with cluster elements … from the Iskander system, when, when triggered, they are scattered over large areas and the elements are in combat readiness. Our specialists destroy such ammunition directly at the place of their detection, that is, these are the ammunition that cannot be moved, transported, neutralized in any way other than a physical explosion,” the representative of the State Emergency Service said.
Bondar stressed that the Russian invaders use anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, in the Kharkov region the enemy used remote mining systems.
According to the head of the State Emergency Service, rescuers inform law enforcement agencies about all the facts of the location of prohibited ammunition.
He also stressed that due to large-scale mining by the enemy, a very large area of fields in Ukraine cannot yet be used for agricultural activities.
“But we will do our best to provide our farmers with the opportunity to carry out sowing work as soon as possible,” he assured.
“Of course, when there is information that a survey has not been carried out in a settlement for the presence of explosive objects, it is very dangerous to be in this settlement. Together with the local authorities, we are taking all measures to limit the access of the civilian population to settlements until examination was carried out,” Bondar summed up.
The EU has developed a plan for reverse gas supplies to Ukraine and Moldova in case these countries experience interruptions in supplies from Russia, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson.
“She told reporters in Vienna that the EU in the current situation cannot consider Russia a trustworthy partner, and therefore interruptions are not ruled out,” the agency writes.
In addition, Simson noted that Brussels is assessing what difficulties the economies and citizens of the EU countries will face if this integration association imposes an embargo on oil supplies from Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that the West could have prevented Russian aggression, but humoured Putin for a long time.
“Could the West have prevented this? I believe that there is a high percentage that they could have done this. I believe that Putin may not hear me. But he could not hear the United States, Great Britain or the Western world. The West was not united. They [in the West] are people of principle, they defend common values, but, first of all, they think about the political situation inside the state, and only then what is happening outside,” Zelensky said in an interview with the 60 Minutes program on the American CBS television channel, published on Monday by the President’s Office of Ukraine.
According to Zelensky, “they could put powerful pressure on Putin, and he would be forced to hear them.”
At the same time, Zelensky said that he has no legal claims against the leaders of NATO countries, however, in general, in his opinion, they are responsible.
“When you can close the sky… Yes, it is scary that the Third World War will start. It is scary, I understand it. I cannot put pressure on them every day, because everyone is afraid of war. But the world is responsible,” the president said.
“I saw the leaders of small countries with big hearts. Not everyone played down to Putin. But the one who has something to lose always flirts. Small Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia are countries with big hearts. Countries where major business is Germany always have a choice and difficulties, France, Italy, Portugal, where there are great interests, great trade, long historical relations, cultural ties, many people who emigrated with the capital of the Russian Empire went to Europe with their families. And therefore the influence there is great,” he said, noting that all of these countries tried not to spoil relations with Russia.
“No one wants to leave the comfort zone. And fighting Putin, supporting Ukraine, is leaving the comfort zone. Political, financial, and even risking a career, because a war may start. A financial crisis, people may not forgive,” Zelensky said.
At the same time, according to him, “there are less and less of these people every day.”
“The war in Ukraine, which separated our families, at the same time united us as a nation and united the West,” the head of state said.
Ukraine in the current season can grow and harvest 63 million tons of grain and oilseeds, approximately from 20 million hectares.
The corresponding estimates of the possible harvest were published on the website of the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) on Monday.
“Ukraine, in the conditions of aggression from Russia, will still be with grain. This year, despite the fact that 5 million hectares cannot be sown or it will be impossible to harvest on them, Ukraine can receive about 63 million tons of grain and oilseeds from an area of about 20 million hectares. At the same time, the domestic market of Ukraine consumes about 30 million tons of grain and oilseeds annually,” the association’s report says.
In addition, subject to the reorientation of exports from seaports blocked by the aggressor country of the Russian Federation to land transportation, the country will be able to export up to 35 million tons of agricultural crops in the 2022/2023 marketing year (MY, July-June).
UGA recalled that Ukraine in the current MY 2021/2022 due to the Russian blockade of seaports will not be able to export about 20 million tons of grain, which will be forced to store in elevators as transitional balances for the next MY.
According to the association, today the capacity of alternative logistics routes bypassing seaports is 600,000 tons of crops per month, but this figure can be increased by increasing the capacity of railway and logistics crossings at the borders with EU countries. Thus, thanks to the optimization of logistics, the export of grain and oilseeds in MY 2022/2023 can be expected at the level of 35 million tons.
“The current developments of the government and the public in the field of logistics and exports allow expanding the throughput to 2 million tons of crops per month. To reach the level of exports of 35 million tons of grains and oilseeds per year, it is necessary to further expand the throughput at the EU borders to 3 million tons per month,” the UGA said.
According to her, the wheat harvest in Ukraine in the current MY will decrease by 1.8 times – from 33 million tons in 2021/2022 MY to 18.2 million tons, but this figure is almost three times more than Ukraine consumes wheat per year. Taking into account the transitional stocks of wheat of the last harvest of almost 10 million tons, exports of wheat in 2022/2023 MY, with such harvest indicators and taking into account large transitional stocks, can amount to about 10 million tons.
In addition, the country can harvest up to 6.2 million tons of barley this season (in 2021 – 10.1 million tons), so its export in 2022/2023 MY can be expected at the level of 2 million tons.
The corn harvest can be expected at the level of 23.1 million tons (in 2021 – 37.6 million tons), while its exports may reach about 20 million tons.
The rapeseed harvest can be expected at the level of 1.5 million tons (2.9 million tons), while its export in 2022/2023 MY is expected at the level of 1.3 million tons.
The soybean harvest can be expected at the level of 1.8 million tons (in 2021 – 3.5 million tons), and exports in 2022/2023 MY are projected at the level of 0.6 million tons.
“Thus, Ukraine will be guaranteed to have sufficient grain reserves, while the countries of the world will not receive a significant amount of grain from Ukraine due to Russia’s war against Ukraine and rising prices, which, according to UN estimates, could cause famine in many countries of the world. In particular, Ukraine traditionally exports about 30-35% of grain to the countries of North Africa and the Middle East, 30-35% to the countries of South and Southeast Asia, and about 35-40% to European countries,” the UGA concluded in its forecast.
As reported, before the Russian military invasion, Ukraine monthly exported up to 5 million tons of agricultural products through the ports of Odessa and Nikolaev, however, due to the blockade of these ports by the aggressor country of the Russian Federation, the country can transport no more than 0.5 million tons of grain monthly, which leads to a monthly shortage $1.5 billion in export earnings.
Ukraine in 2021, according to the State Statistics Service, harvested a record harvest of 85.7 million tons of grain and leguminous crops, which is 32% higher than in 2020, including 32.07 million tons of wheat (+28.9%), 41.87 million tons of corn (+38.2%) and 9.42 million tons of barley (+23.3%).
In addition, 593.9 thousand tons of rye were harvested in Ukraine (+30% by 2020), 471 thousand tons of oats (-7.3%), 204.2 thousand tons of millet (-20.2%) , 173.9 thousand tons of sorghum (+63.2%), 106.0 thousand tons of buckwheat (+8.5%), 48.6 thousand tons of rice (-20%), 32.3 thousand tons triticale (-7.8%), as well as 681 thousand tons of other leguminous crops.
Among other crops in the country last year, 16.38 million tons of sunflower were harvested (+25% compared to 2020), 10.8 million tons of sugar beet (+18.1%), 3.5 million tons of soybeans (+24. 4%), 2.92 million tons of rapeseed and 42 thousand tons of oilseed flax (an increase of 3.7 times).
