Over the past 18 months, since its beginning on February 24, 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, displaced millions and caused economic disruptions around the world.
Sufferers
The war caused suffering on a scale not seen in Europe since World War II.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), more than 9.000 civilian casualties and over 16.000 injuries were recorded by the end of July, with the actual numbers believed to be significantly higher. According to the New York Times, almost 500.000 soldiers died or were injured in the war. The paper referred to US officials who claim that as many as 120.000 Russian soldiers were killed and between 170.000 and 180.000 were injured, while on the Ukrainian side, 70.000 soldiers were killed and 100.000 to 120.000 were wounded.
Russian officials claim that American estimates of Russian losses are exaggerated and propaganda. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on September 21 that 5937 Russian soldiers had been killed since the beginning of the war. In the meantime, no new data has been published, and information about losses is a state secret.
Ukraine also does not publish data on losses.
Displaced
Since the 2022 invasion, millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes, the UN refugee agency said. Ukraine has a population of over 41 million.
An estimated 17,6 million people in Ukraine are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, including more than 5 million people internally displaced by the war, UNHCR announced.
According to the agency, over 5,9 million refugees from Ukraine are registered across Europe.
Ukraine
Russia has occupied about 11 percent of Ukrainian territory since the beginning of the war. When you add Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, Russia now controls about 17,5 percent of Ukraine, an area of about 106 square kilometers.
After repelling Russian forces in 2022, Ukraine has failed to make significant inroads against entrenched Russian troops since launching a new counteroffensive in early June.
Ukraine has lost part of its coastline, its economy is weakened, and some cities have been turned into wasteland by the fighting.
According to the International Monetary Fund, Ukraine's economy shrank by 30% in 2022 and is expected to grow by 1% to 3% this year.
It is not clear how much Ukraine has spent on warfare.
Rusija
Russia's war spending is a state secret. Russia's economy is defying early expectations of a double-digit contraction in 2022, but a return to prosperity is a long way off as the government funnels large resources into the military.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the Russian economy will grow by 1,5% this year, after a contraction of 2,1% in 2022.
"In the medium term, the Russian economy will be disrupted by the departure of multinational companies, the loss of human capital, its exclusion from global financial markets, the reduction of reserves for policy implementation," IMF spokeswoman Julie Kozach said last month.
"Therefore, we expect that over the medium term, production in Russia will be 7 percent lower than the pre-war forecast."
Russia has lost a significant share of the European gas market, but has managed to continue selling its oil on global markets, even as the US, Europe and other powers have limited or stopped purchases.
It is cut off from Western financial markets, most of its oligarchs are sanctioned, and it has problems obtaining certain goods such as microchips.
CIA director William Burns said earlier this year that Putin risks turning Russia into an "economic colony of China" over time.
Prices
The invasion and Western sanctions against Russia led to a sharp rise in the prices of fertilizers, wheat, metals and energy, fueling a wave of inflation and a global food crisis, which hit the world's poorest countries hardest.
Western weapons
Since the invasion, the United States has provided more than $43 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, including Stinger air defense systems, Javelin anti-armor systems, 155mm howitzers, and chemical, biological, radiological, and chemical defense equipment. and nuclear attack.
The largest total donors to Ukraine in nominal terms are the USA, the European Union, Great Britain, Germany and Japan, according to data from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Russia claims that the supply of weapons by the West is leading to an escalation of the war.
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