Ukraine is bracing for a brutal winter as intensified Russian attacks on the country’s infrastructure and key export industries compound a deepening budget crisis, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.
Economy Minister Oleksandr Kravchenko said that damage to infrastructure and fixed assets from Russian air strikes was estimated at close to $10 billion this year, while the broader economic costs of the attacks and the de facto blockage of its ports were seen at about 1.5 percentage points of gross domestic product.
“We anticipate a very difficult winter in terms of both critical infrastructure, which is being destroyed every day by Russian attacks, but also in terms of overall economic conditions in the country,” Kravchenko said.
“This all comes when the budget and the fiscal space are very constrained,” he told investors, officials and diplomats at a YES conference in Kyiv.
With fighting on the front line largely stalled more than 4-1/2 years into the war in Ukraine, Russia and Ukraine have increasingly targeted logistics networks and other economic assets in an effort to undermine each other’s war effort.
For more than two weeks, Russia has carried out near constant attacks on Kyiv using faster jet-powered drones, disrupting life, business and government operations.
Both Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians in air attacks.
