Russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine has caused unprecedented destruction of the natural environment, destruction of ecosystems, and large-scale pollution of the air, soil, and water resources. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the amount of damage caused to the environment has reached 6.01 trillion hryvnia, according to the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture, citing data from the State Environmental Inspection.
“These are the largest environmental losses recorded in Europe in modern history,” the Ministry of Economy emphasized.
According to the State Environmental Inspection’s estimates, the total amount of damage includes UAH 1.29 trillion in damage to soil, UAH 967 billion in damage to atmospheric air, UAH 117.8 billion in pollution and contamination of water resources, and UAH 3.63 trillion in destruction of nature reserve areas.
One of the most destructive incidents was the fires at oil depots, according to the State Environmental Inspection. For example, after a strike on an oil depot in the village of Kryachky in the Kyiv region, toxic emissions into the atmosphere reached more than 41,000 tons, and soil pollution exceeded permissible limits by 17 times. Similar incidents occurred in Chernihiv, Sumy region, Rubizhne, and Severodonetsk, where Russian missiles hit tanks containing ammonia and nitric acid, causing dangerous chemical emissions.
The destruction of hydraulic structures also has long-term consequences, the agency emphasized. The blowing up of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam in 2023 caused a large-scale ecological and hydrological collapse in southern Ukraine and the Black Sea region. Natural complexes were destroyed, hydrology was altered, and protected areas were affected. The destruction of the Oskil Reservoir dam had similar consequences, with 76% of the water volume lost and the aquatic ecosystem destroyed.
In total, 20% of Ukraine’s nature conservation areas were affected by the war, including 2.9 million hectares of the Emerald Network. Significant damage was done to the Kinburn Spit, Oleshky Sands, Kakhovka Reservoir, Lower Dnipro, dozens of Ramsar sites, and other valuable ecosystems. Several national parks and reserves remain under occupation, including Askania-Nova and the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve.
The State Environmental Inspection has highlighted problems with Ukrainian soils. Explosions, fires, and chemicals are changing their structure, reducing fertility, and causing heavy metals and toxic compounds to accumulate. The soil contains elevated levels of copper, lead, nickel, combustion products, sulfur and nitrogen compounds. This affects the quality of agricultural products, human health, and ecosystem restoration.
Ukraine is not the only country experiencing the environmental consequences of the war. There has been a documented cross-border impact: as a result of Russian strikes, approximately 3 million tons of harmful substances have been released into the atmosphere and spread across neighboring European countries. Large-scale fires—on oil products, critical infrastructure, and forests—have caused millions of additional tons of toxic emissions.
“At the end of 2024, the environmental damage from the full-scale war amounted to 2.78 trillion hryvnia, and today it already exceeds 6 trillion. Unfortunately, this figure continues to grow every day, as does the scale of destruction of Ukrainian nature. The environmental damage caused by Russia is measured not only in trillions of hryvnias — decades are needed to restore the destroyed ecosystems. And the scale of environmental destruction will go far beyond Ukraine,” said Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture Ihor Zubovych.
The Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture stated that UAH 6.01 trillion is only the confirmed losses in territories controlled by Ukraine. The final scale of environmental damage will be known after complete de-occupation and the possibility of conducting a full investigation.
Yaroslava Maksimenko, who was recently director of the property policy and sanctions department at the Ministry of Economy, and before that, she headed the then state-owned United Mining and Chemical Company (UMCC) for a certain period of time, and served as acting chair of the National Agency for Asset Tracing and Management (ARMA).
“Yaroslava is a specialist with many years of experience in law, state asset management, sanctions policy, and international cooperation. She headed the property and sanctions policy department in our ministry and worked continuously with assets that later ended up in ARMA, so she knows the system inside out,” wrote Economy Minister Alexei Sobolev on Facebook, introducing Maksimenko to the ARMA team.
According to him, the recently updated version of the law on ARMA, which has already come into force, has strengthened the agency’s institutional capacity.
“The new version of the law will strengthen the tools for managing seized assets, transfer strategic assets to state-owned companies, and allocate certain assets for defense and military rehabilitation. It will also ensure greater control through Prozorro and expand public reporting tools,” Sobolev explained.
He also recalled that the reform of ARMA is part of Ukraine’s commitments to its European partners under the Ukraine Facility.
“The top priorities for ARMA now will be to conduct an independent audit and a new competitive selection procedure for the head of the agency, which we will monitor closely,” the minister added.
According to Interfax-Ukraine and the declarations of the new head of ARMA, among other things, she was a member of the supervisory board of the Odessa Port Plant (OPZ) and the Nikolaev Thermal Power Plant, and until July 2021, she was the founder and head of the law firm Stalex and Partners, and now owns the LLC “Legal Company AS.”
Before Maksimenko, the position of ARMA deputy chair for European integration was held by former Georgian ambassador to Ukraine Grigol Katamadze. At the end of July, the government also dismissed the agency’s head, Elena Duma.
Ukraine’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for January-March 2024 amounted to 4.5% (+/- 1%) from 3.6% (+/- 1%) at the end of January-February.
Growth accelerated to 4.6% (+/- 1%) in March from 3.9% (+/- 1%) in February and 3.5% (+/- 1%) in January this year, according to an estimate released on the website of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.
“In March 2024, the trend of recovery growth continued, supported by the stable operation of the Ukrainian maritime corridor (stimulated activity in rail transport, metallurgy and metal ore mining), increased production capacity in the extractive industry, intensified production of mineral fertilizers, increased demand for construction materials, taking place against the backdrop of improved business sentiment … and revival of consumer activity …,” the Ministry of Economy pointed out.
The Ministry added that in March, almost all aggregated economic activities formed a positive contribution to the total GDP. Thus, exports of products of agricultural production and mining and metallurgical complex were provided by the Ukrainian Sea Corridor; and investment demand generated by the budget, as well as the increase in production capacity in the extractive industry formed a positive contribution of production types.
At the same time, it is pointed out that the dynamics of electricity production slowed down significantly in the context of significant rocket attacks in late March, which led to serious damage to energy infrastructure and will require a significant period of time and resources to restore it.
As reported, the National Bank of Ukraine on April 25 worsened its forecast for the country’s GDP growth this year from 3.6% to 3% after 5.3% last year.
When approving the draft state budget for the second reading in early November 2023, the government forecasted GDP growth of 4.6% this year.
Earlier Experts Club analytical center and Maxim Urakin released a video analysis of how the GDP of the world’s countries has changed in recent years, more detailed video analysis is available here – https://youtu.be/w5fF_GYyrIc?si=BsZmIUERHSBJrO_3 Subscribe to Experts Club youtube channel here – https://www.youtube.com/@ExpertsClub
EXPERTS CLUB, GDP, MACROECONOMICS, MINISTRY OF ECONOMY, UKRAINE, УРАКІНА
The list of officially recognized professions in Ukraine has been updated by 42 positions, of which 29 are in the field of information technology, the Ministry of Economy said on Friday.
“We update the list of professions in accordance with the requirements of the time and the needs of the labor market. The most changes are in the IT sphere, where 29 new professions will appear, meeting the realities and demanded by employers. Also new professions are now in the medical sphere, financial sphere”, – the report quotes the words of Deputy Minister Tatyana Berezhnaya.
She also noted that professions were added, in which there was a need in connection with the war and overcoming its consequences, in particular, now there are specialists in mine clearance, in the medical sector – prosthetists-orthotists.
It is specified that the 29 new professions proposed by the Ministry of Digital Transformation included, among others: web resource administrator, mobile application analyst, artificial intelligence engineer, artificial intelligence developer, software architecture developer (IT), cloud architecture developer, electronic communications security specialist.
It is indicated that nine professions in IT sphere are brought in line with modern technologies, in particular, “computer databank analyst” is changed to “data analyst”, “operating and application software analyst” to “software analyst”, “computer software engineer” to “software engineer”, etc.
At the same time, nine obsolete names of professions were removed from the Classifier, for example, “application programmer”, “system programmer”, “computer application engineer”, “software and multimedia analyst”.
In addition, a number of positions that have recently become urgently needed have been added, in particular: prosthetist-orthhetist, operator of the 112 service (providing emergency assistance to the population through a single telephone number on the principle of “single window”), duty officer of the Civil Protection Operational Rescue Service, instructor in spatial orientation and mobility, demining specialist, auditor by type of activity, financial analyst, operator of shot blasting machines, as well as a master of installation, maintenance, repair and debugging, and also a master of the “single window”, “computer engineer”, “computer engineer”, “computer application engineer”, “computer application engineer”, “computer application engineer”, “software and multimedia analyst”, “software and multimedia analyst”, “computer application engineer”, “software and multimedia analyst”.
To date, 9,172 occupational job titles have been registered in the Classifier of Occupations. They (professions, positions, occupations) are systematized into professional groups, depending on the nature, complexity of the work performed, qualification (level of education, specialization), according to the hierarchy of the International Standard Classification of Occupations (International Standard Classification of ).
MINISTRY OF ECONOMY, professions in Ukraine, Татьяна Бережная
The Ministry of Economy invites you to participate in the international forum “Industrial Visa Waiver (ASAA) in the System of Economic Recovery and Development of Ukraine”.
The forum is organized at the initiative of the Department of Technical Regulation within the framework of the international cooperation project ReACT4UA, with funding from the German government and with the support of the German federal company Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the public union “Foundation for Support of Reforms in Ukraine”.
Date of the event: October 13, 2023.
Registration: 9:00 – 10:00 Kyiv time.
Registration is required. Online registration is available here.
Start: 10:00 a.m. Kyiv time.
Format: online/free of charge.
Simultaneous translation (English/Ukrainian) will be provided.
The main objective: to consider the Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA Agreement, or the so-called “industrial visa-free regime”) as a factor in overcoming technical barriers to trade, increasing the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises and restoring Ukraine’s economy in general during the war and post-war period.
Key objectives: to hear business priorities and outline ways to create a unified European business environment where each participant will be able to establish communications to find partners.
Two sessions:
Session 1: “Ukraine’s quality infrastructure in the European coordinate system: economic recovery and development”;
II session: “Dialogue with Ukrainian and EU businesses on practical aspects of internationalization of enterprises.
Participation in the Forum is a great opportunity for businesses to get guidance on the movement of industrial goods, search for reliable partners in areas where countries have accumulated significant human and production potential.
Representatives of the following are invited to participate in the Forum:
state-owned enterprises, institutions, organizations operating in the field of technical regulation, standardization, metrology and metrological activities
manufacturers and businesses interested in the production and export of industrial products of Ukraine
other interested parties.
The official media partner is Interfax-Ukraine.
It is planned to merge the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food with the Ministry of Economy by the end of 2022 and create a new Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation.
According to the General Plan for the Transformation of the Executive Power in Ukraine, which is at the disposal of the specialized publication Agroportal, the united ministries will be included in the Economic Growth and Innovation block.
According to him, the united department will be tasked with deepening processing in the Ukrainian agro-industrial complex, as well as increasing the export of agricultural products.
In general, 20 ministries functioning in the country are planned to be united into 12.
As reported, in August 2019, the Verkhovna Rada approved the merger of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and the Ministry of Economy into the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture.
In 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers recreated the Ministry of Agrarian Policy by canceling its affiliation with the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture and determined its number at 203 people.
