In view of the costs of the Russian aggression, the Ambassador of the Ukraine Andriy Melnyk is calling for a "billion dollar aid package" from the federal government. He criticized the ARD political magazine Kontraste: "The fact that the traffic light government likes to stylize itself as the main savior of Ukraine is nothing more than a beautiful fairy tale." One is grateful for the promises of Chancellor Scholz in the amount of 150 million euros of untied credit guarantees. "But if you realize how huge our losses are because of the Russian war that has been going on for eight years," said the ambassador, Scholz's commitment is "not entirely symbolic – but rather manageable".
Loss of $280 billion
As Kontraste reports, since the Russian annexation of Crimea began in 2014, the country has lost a total of $280 billion in economic output by 2020. Contrasts refers to a study by the London-based "Centre for Economics and Business Research" commissioned by the Ukrainian government. The state lost $48.5 billion in tax revenue by 2020 alone due to the decline in gross domestic product. In addition, military activities in response to the Russian actions and the fight against the separatists in Donbass cost an additional $15 billion. Overall, the national budget alone suffered damage of 63.5 billion dollars.
The current crisis is making the situation even worse, Melnyk told Kontraste: Ukraine's access to the financial markets is becoming more difficult, and interest rates are rising for the country. The government has recently spent more than half a billion euros on airline insurers just to keep air traffic "in the face of the impending great war". An aid package from the federal government is necessary "to stabilize the Ukrainian economy, including political guarantees for investments," said Melnyk.
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