Ukraine’s economy as a result of Russian Federation (RF) invasion has shrunk by 35 to 60 percent and that not might be the worst of it, a senior government official said, according to Friday news reports.
Rostislav Shurma, vice head of Ukraine’s Presidential Administration, said the estimate was preliminary and that if Ukrainian businesses currently closed due to the war do not return to work, the economic damage will be even more severe. His comments, made during a Thursday, March 24, evening television talk show, were carried widely by major Ukrainian news agencies, including UNIAN.
Shurma said Ukraine’s government is managing to cover state budgetary needs – which have skyrocketed to war costs – thanks only to western state financial assistance. So far Ukraine has received more than four billion dollars but, he said, as long as the war continues, the government will need more massive outside funding, or face bankruptcy.
Senior Ukrainian government officials led by President Volodymyr Zelensky and Shurma, starting in the beginning of March, have called repeatedly on Ukrainian businesses to return to work where possible as a matter of national security.
Without a functioning economy Ukraine will be unable to generate the funds, or produce the weapons and supplies, needed to fight and hopefully win a war against the Russian Federation (RF), these officials have argued.
Ukrainian private industry response to the appeals has been tepid for a host of reasons: shortages of components and supplies due to a RF blockade of Ukrainian seaports, drastically reduced Ukrainian consumer purchasing power due to to unemployment or forced long-term leave, location of some businesses too close to fighting to be safe to operate, damage to logistical and commercial infrastructure caused by RF shelling, air and missile strikes, and the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of key staff to serve in the armed forces.
