Adviser to the Ukrainian President: The catastrophe is greater than we imagined... We have lost 100 billion dollars so far!
An adviser to the Ukrainian President revealed, yesterday, that the value of the damage caused by Russian military operations in Ukraine has so far reached about $100 billion.
Oleg Ustenko, economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that the value of the damages of military operations in Ukraine, since the start of those operations on February 24 so far, is estimated, according to preliminary assessments, at about $100 billion.
"The very preliminary assessments that we have made show that the value of the assets that we have lost, which have been destroyed, is about 100 billion US dollars," Ustenko explained in an online intervention with the American think-tank "Peterson Institute for International Economics", according to AFP.
"About 50 percent of our companies are no longer operating, and those that have not stopped are not operating at full capacity," he explained.
Ustenko also stressed, in an online intervention, that Ukraine is witnessing a "real catastrophe...much more serious than any of us could imagine."
He talked about the important future reconstruction work after the destruction of roads, bridges and hospitals.
He warned, according to the French agency, that "the situation with regard to economic growth will be very depressing, even if the war stops now."
It is noteworthy that the international community moved to support Ukraine, but experts point out that the large financial assistance that has been allocated to it will not compensate for the losses.
The International Monetary Fund approved, on Wednesday, for example, emergency aid to Ukraine amounting to 1.4 billion dollars, and pledged to help reconstruction efforts when the war ends.
And the economic adviser to the Ukrainian president renewed his call Wednesday to governments, especially European ones, to boycott Russian oil and natural gas, and said that "the Europeans continue to pay money for this monster to kill our people," according to AFP.
Ustenko commented on the need for some countries such as Germany for Russian energy for heating, saying, "I can assure you that it is much cooler in Ukrainian shelters where people are hiding."
In return, the Ukrainian official thanked the United States for stopping Russian oil imports, and said he hoped Washington would also help create a "recovery fund" for Ukraine.
He also raised the idea of using about $300 billion of Russian Central Bank reserves frozen after Western sanctions, in addition to money confiscated from wealthy people allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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