The amount of direct losses incurred by Ukraine’s infrastructure from full-scale Russian military aggression has already reached $119 billion, work is underway to compensate for them at the expense of the seized gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, First Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Denys Kudin has said.
“When the president’s office yesterday or the day before yesterday announced over $100 billion, this figure is somewhat clarified. It is $119 billion. Unfortunately, it will grow with every next day of the war,” he said on Ukrainian TV channels.
According to Kudin, one of the ways to compensate for losses and restore infrastructure is to work through cooperation with Western governments. “Western governments have already seized the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Russia in the amount of $415 billion. In fact, this amount is almost enough to cover these direct one-time losses,” the first deputy minister said.
According to him, the Ministry of Economy expects that in the near future, together with partner governments of other countries, a legal mechanism will be found, how this money can go to Ukraine for further recovery.
The first deputy minister said that the Ministry of Economy from the first day began to count the losses that the state suffered due to Russian aggression. According to him, in addition to the direct approach to determining the damage (how much it will cost to restore bridges, roads, infrastructure facilities, hospitals, kindergartens, schools destroyed by Russia), there is a second approach – the amount of GDP losses.
“We see that in cities and towns where active hostilities are taking place, economic activity has decreased by 75%. In the rest of Ukraine, only every second business operates. This is a loss of 50% of economic activity,” Kudin said.
He added that most of the metallurgical plants, most of which are located in the east of the country, have ceased their activities. “The blocking of sea routes by the Russians, of course, does not make it possible to fully export corn, wheat, sunflower oil – traditional agricultural export products,” the first deputy head of the Ministry of Economy said.
According to him, among other ways for Russia to compensate for these losses is the judicial, claims work of the government of Ukraine against the Russian Federation in international courts. “We are talking about the International Criminal Court, and about the ECHR, and about commercial arbitrations around the world. In each of these courts, Ukraine files lawsuits against the Russian Federation,” Kudin said.
He said that the collection of evidence from Ukrainians about the destruction has begun in electronic form, since it is important to document every fact of destruction jointly by all the people so that this becomes the material basis for claims.
The first deputy head of the Ministry of Economy also named a third way to receive compensation for damage from the aggressor – “the way of reparations after the signing of a peace treaty and the actual surrender of the enemy.” “They [reparations] can be in two forms – in cash and in kind. In the form of reparations, they could receive energy resources and other types of material values that Ukraine needs,” Kudin said.
As reported, Ukraine’s GDP in 2021 for the first time amounted to about $200 billion.
