Huge war damage in Ukraine: Experts now name a specific dollar amount

Created: 07/05/2022 05:07

By: Markus Hofstetter

The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine is not just a human tragedy.

The war damage is enormous, it is probably about many hundreds of billions of euros.

Kyiv - The Ukraine war has claimed thousands of lives so far.

The actual number of victims will probably remain unclear for a long time.

But the fighting also has an economic side, the damage caused is enormous.

People are already thinking about rebuilding the war-torn country.

The Ukrainian government presented its priorities for repairing the damage for the first time this Monday (July 4) in Lugano, Switzerland.

The demand is assumed to be in the hundreds of billions of euros.

This is an estimate, there are no exact numbers.

However, surveys by the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) can provide a clue.

The private university put the total amount of damage at up to 600 billion dollars.

The figure from the "Russia will pay" project is based on publicly available reports and our own research.

However, it dates from the end of May, so the damage is now probably higher given the ongoing fighting.

The KSE has divided the damage into individual areas.

War damage in Ukraine: houses, civilian facilities, businesses - $56 billion

The KSE values ​​the damage to homes at $39.4 billion.

It is based on the assumption that around 44.2 million square meters of living space was bombed.

According to the university, the following were also destroyed:

• 643 hospitals ($1.3 billion damage)

• 99 administration building (damage $542 million)

• 1123 Educational Institutions ($1.5 billion damage)

• 621 Nurseries ($538 million damage)

• 2910 stores (damage $1.4 billion)

• 19 malls (damage $329 million)

• 227 companies/factories (damage $11.3 billion)

The recent bombing of a shopping center in Kremenchuk caused sadness and anger.

A Russian attack destroyed a school near Kharkiv.

(Photo of June 2, 2022) © Sadak Souici/Le Pictorium/imago

Ukraine war damage: transport infrastructure - $42.7 billion

Traffic routes are important targets of Russian attacks, the enemy should be cut off from aid supplies or weapons supplies.

The result, according to the data, is that 23,000 kilometers of roads have been destroyed.

KSE estimates the damage for this alone at 29.9 billion dollars.

There are also 295 bridges worth $1.6 billion.

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A loss of 6.8 billion dollars is assumed for eleven civilian airports that were bombed.

The railway, which is of great importance for the evacuation of people, has also been badly hit.

According to the KSE, the costs for the stations, 6,300 kilometers of track and 41 railway bridges that have been destroyed amount to almost $3.7 billion.

For ports, it's $471 million.

The loss of the giant Antonov An-225 is estimated at $300 million.

War damage in Ukraine: cars - $1.6 billion

According to surveys by the KSE, almost 105,000 vehicles were destroyed.

The resulting loss should amount to almost 1.6 billion dollars.

Cars not registered in Ukraine were not taken into account.

War damage in Ukraine: agriculture - $27.7 billion

Ukraine is one of the largest wheat exporters in the world.

Russia prevents the country from exporting large parts of these goods through its ports.

In addition, many fields and camps are no longer usable and the Russians have destroyed or confiscated machines and tractors.

Overall, the KSE assumes a loss of 4.3 billion dollars.

Add in the $23.4 billion in lost revenue for a total of $27.7 billion.

The Ukraine War in Pictures - Destruction, Resistance and Hope

View photo gallery

War Damages in Ukraine: Churches and Cultural Property - $1.2 billion

Churches and cultural assets are not spared from the hostilities.

115 religious buildings worth $767 million were destroyed and 192 cultural buildings worth $463 million.

This is the material damage.

Added to this is the immaterial damage, some goods are probably irretrievably lost.

War Damage in Ukraine: Economic Loss - Hundreds of Billions of Dollars

However, economic loss accounts for most of the total damage.

The CFE is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars.

This is caused by the decline in gross national product (GDP), which according to the BBC

estimated at 45 percent by the World Bank.

In 2020, Ukraine's GDP was around $155.5 billion. 

The KSE also takes other factors into account, such as the standstill in investment, the mass exodus of workers, additional defense spending or the cost of social support for citizens.

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