Blood and Billions: The Cost of Russia’s War in Ukraine

Aug 23 (Reuters) – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands dead, displaced millions and caused economic upheaval around the world in the 18 months since the invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022.

Here are some details of the effect:

* death

The war caused deaths on a scale not seen in Europe since World War II.

More than 9,000 civilians had been recorded killed and more than 16,000 injured by the end of July, according to UN estimates. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), which said it believed the actual numbers to be much higher.

The war left nearly 500,000 soldiers dead or wounded, according to estimates New York times.

The newspaper quoted officials from the United States, which supports Ukraine, as saying that up to 120,000 Russian soldiers were killed and between 170,000 and 180,000 wounded, while the Ukrainian army’s death toll reached 70,000 and 100,000 to 120,000 wounded.

Russian officials say the American estimate of Russian casualties is too high — and it’s propaganda. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on September 21 that 5,937 Russian servicemen have been killed since the start of the war. No further updates were provided and the losses are a state secret.

Ukraine has not given the number of its soldiers killed and says its military losses are a state secret because they influence battlefield tactics.

Reuters was unable to verify the death toll on both sides.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after the overthrow of a pro-Russian president in the Ukrainian Maidan Revolution and Russia’s annexation of Crimea, where Russian-backed forces are fighting the Ukrainian armed forces.

About 14,000 people were killed there between 2014 and the end of 2021, according to figures. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rightsincluding 3106 civilians.

* offset

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, said that since the 2022 invasion, millions of Ukrainians have been forced from their homes. Ukraine has a population of more than 41 million people.

that An estimated 17.6 million people The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said refugees in Ukraine need urgent humanitarian support, including more than 5 million people internally displaced by the war.

There are more than 5.9 million refugees from Ukraine registered across Europe, according to the EU report Agency data.

* Ukraine

Russia has controlled 11 percent of Ukraine’s territory since the start of the war, an area equivalent to Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut combined, according to Russian Defense Ministry data. Belfer Center at Harvard Kennedy School.

When added to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, Russia now controls about 17.5 percent of Ukraine, an area of ​​about 41,000 square miles (106,000 square kilometers).

And after pushing back Russian forces in 2022, it has failed to make significant advances against Russian forces well entrenched since launching a new counteroffensive in early June.

Ukraine has lost a large swath of its coastline, its economy has been crippled, and fighting has turned some cities into wastelands.

Ukraine’s economy shrank by 30% in 2022 and is expected to grow by 1% to 3% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

It is not clear how much Ukraine has spent on the fighting.

* Russia

Russia’s spending on the war is a state secret, but it coincides with a major shock to the Russian economy as a result of the toughest Western sanctions ever imposed after the invasion.

The economy defied early forecasts of a double-digit contraction in 2022, but a return to prosperity remains elusive as the government directs more spending towards the military.

Russia’s economy is expected to grow by 1.5% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, after contracting by 2.1% in 2022.

“In the medium term, the Russian economy will be hampered by the departure of multinational corporations, the loss of human capital, its disconnection from global financial markets, and its declining political reserves,” IMF spokeswoman Julie Kozak said last month.

“Thus, in the medium term we expect production in Russia to be 7 percent lower than pre-war forecasts.”

Russia has doubled its defense spending target for 2023 to more than $100 billion, a third of total public spending, a government document seen by Reuters showed, as the costs of the war in Ukraine mount and put increasing pressure on Moscow’s public finances.

As Russia’s military spending soars and sanctions squeeze its energy revenues, Moscow faces a battle to control its budget deficit.

Russia lost a large part of the European gas market, but managed to continue selling its oil to global markets, even though the United States, Europe and other powers limited or stopped their purchases.

It has been excluded from Western financial markets, most of its oligarchs have been sanctioned, and it is having problems obtaining items such as microchips.

CIA Director William Burns said earlier this year that Putin risks turning Russia into “an economic colony of China over time.”

Russia defaulted on its foreign bonds for the first time since the disastrous months after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.

* the prices

The invasion and Western sanctions on Russia led to sharp hikes in the prices of fertilizers, wheat, metals and energy, fueling a wave of inflation and a global food crisis.

Russia is the world’s second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and the world’s largest exporter of natural gas, wheat, nitrogen fertilizers and palladium.

Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, global oil prices rose to their highest levels since 2008.

Western weapons

since the invasion, The United States has committed Over $43 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, including Stinger anti-aircraft systems, Javelin anti-tank systems, 155mm howitzers, and equipment to protect against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear attacks.

Ukraine’s biggest backers in nominal terms are the United States, the European Union, Britain, Germany and Japan, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Russia says the West’s arms supplies are escalating the war.

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