 "A firefighter working at the site of a Russian strike in Brovary, near Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It's been 1,000 days of this war. AFP")
On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed his nation, announcing a “special military operation” against Ukraine. It was the beginning of what the world knows today as Russia’s full-fledged war against Ukraine, which has now crossed the 1,000-day mark.
The war is Europe’s deadliest since World War II, leaving human and economic scars on both sides. The destruction is unprecedented — cities, towns and villages lie in ruins; the human toll keeps mounting and experts predict that the countries will take years to recover from the financial losses.
There’s also the heartbreak and mental trauma that people on both sides have to contend with as this war drags on.
As this war enters its 1,000th day, we analyse the human cost, the economic fallout and the geographical impact that it has left on either side — Moscow as well as Kyiv.
Human cost of Russia-Ukraine war
The war between Russia and Ukraine has left a devastating mark on both nations, turning into a human catastrophe. According to estimates by the United Nations, at least 11,743 people have died and over 24,600 injuries as of August 2024. Ukrainian prosecutors say of the casualties, 589 children.
However, others believe that the death toll is much higher. The Wall Street Journal in a September report said that the loss of lives was a staggering one million. The report citing a confidential estimate from Ukraine earlier this year, suggested that 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died, while 400,000 had been wounded. Meanwhile, Western intelligence estimates suggest Russian losses range from 200,000 dead to around 400,000 wounded.
There are other estimates too. For instance, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) reported in February that more than 10,200 civilians had been confirmed as killed, with nearly 20,000 injured.
Earlier in February, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself had said that around 31,000 soldiers had been killed so far. However, counting the number of casualties has been difficult. Moreover, many defence experts note that both sides are underplaying the actual scale of losses to maintain morale and continue recruitment efforts.
But death and injury aren’t the only price that the war has extracted. As the Russia-Ukraine war hits the 1,000-day mark, it has triggered one of the biggest displacement crises in the world. As per the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), more than 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced, with 6.7 million finding refuge in other European nations.
UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Kelly T Clements highlighting the impact of the war in early November said that “countless children continue their studies online, missing out on social interaction and classroom experiences”.
The Russia-Ukraine war has also led to a fall in the birth rate , with the UN estimating that Ukraine’s population had declined by 10 million, or around a quarter, since the start of the invasion.
Economics of the Russia-Ukraine War
The Russia-Ukraine war hitting the 1,000-day mark has also ravaged both countries economically. A World Bank estimate in late 2023 states that damage to infrastructure is worth $152 billion. The total cost of reconstruction was estimated by the World Bank and Ukrainian government at $486 billion as of the end of December last year. The figure is 2.8 times higher than Ukraine’s nominal gross domestic product in 2023, according to economy ministry data.
According to Roksolana Pidlasa, head of Ukraine parliament’s budget committee, each day of the war costs Kyiv more than $140 million.
Russia too is paying a heavy financial price for the war. A recent Pentagon estimate, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, has placed the cost of the war for Moscow at $211 billion so far to equip, deploy, maintain, and sustain operations in Ukraine.
Additionally, 70 per cent of Russian banking assets and around €20 billion (over $21.6 billion) of assets of more than 1,500 people and entities are under Western sanctions , according to a report the European Council released in May. The sanctions have also resulted in a drop in exports — last year, Russia’s exports fell by 28.3 per cent to $425.1 billion, down from $588.3 billion, while its exports to Europe plunged 68 per cent to $83.9 billion.
The Russia-Ukraine war has also caused food prices to escalate, causing hunger rates to rise across the world. Ukraine, which is often referred to as the breadbasket of Europe, is a significant global exporter of agricultural commodities, including grains and sunflower oil. However, owing to the war, production and distribution of grains have been hit, exacerbating the crisis of global hunger .
Geographical impact of Russia-Ukraine war
The ongoing war has also redrawn countries on the map. Today, Russia occupies and claims to have annexed around a fifth of Ukraine, an area around the size of Greece. The Vladimir Putin-led country has captured nearly the whole of the Donbas region in Ukraine’s east, and the entire coast of the Sea of Azov in the south.
According to a Reuters report, many cities in the frontline area that have been captured by Moscow have been destroyed, the largest among them the Azov port of Mariupol, with a population before the war of around half a million.
In August, Ukraine also launched its first large-scale assault on Russian territory and has captured a sliver of western Russia’s Kursk region.
Mental trauma from the war
The Russia-Ukraine war is also extracting a huge price on people’s mental health. Children, as the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, are “disproportionately” bearing the brunt of this conflict.
Children witnessing conflict experience severe psychological distress, say experts. For instance, children in cities in Ukraine’s frontline areas have spent between 3,000 and 5,000 hours —equivalent to between four to seven months — sheltering underground since Russia’s invasion. “The combination of fear, grief, and separation from loved ones is having a massive impact on children as the war drags on. Forty per cent of kids are not attending in-person school,” Leah James, a mental health support specialist at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told DW. “The consequences are just massive.”
Moreover, the sound of air raid alerts is disconcerting. “Every siren and explosion bring further anxiety. Education is a pillar of hope, opportunity and stability in children’s lives, but it continues to be disrupted or out of reach for millions of Ukraine’s children,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
Moreover, a UNICEF survey reveals that half of 13- to 15-year-olds have trouble sleeping, and one in five have intrusive thoughts and flashbacks, which are typical manifestations of post-traumatic stress disorder .
The Russia-Ukraine war’s cost is phenomenal, but a sign of any breakthrough seems bleak. Perhaps, it’s time that both sides — Russia and Ukraine — heed John Lennon when he sang — ‘Give peace a chance’.
With inputs from agencies