The Russian occupation of eastern Ukraine has robbed the nation of its natural resources, collectively worth tens of trillions of dollars. The loss has forced Kyiv to import coal to keep the lights on in cities and towns.
During the 2014 Russian invasion, in which Ukraine lost roughly 7 percent of its land mass, critical Western investment in the energy and mining sector was scared awayPolish-Ukrainian investment company Millstone & Co, for instance, struck a
“Every day, Ukrainians are losing their economy,” Zhernov said. “I know many investors who started geology research, but they have stopped because [of the war]. Everything, it’s a bet now.”of the Black Sea. Some analysts see the lost sea transit routes as more significant than the lost mineral reserves“Raw materials like coal are not the future, they’re the past,” said Anders Aslund, an economist who has long studied Ukraine.
The impact of that has been minimized because Ukrainian steel production has dropped so much because of the war — 60 percent to 70 percent — that factories have been able to make do with lower-quality limestone deposits in the west. But Yuriy Ryzhenkov, chief executive of the Ukrainian steel and mining giant Metinvest, warned that ramping back up to normal levels will mean “we will have to import it.
Further east, the onslaught unleashed by the invading army has laid waste to Ukraine’s Donbas region, razing entire cities to the ground. Thousands of mine employees fled. But such losses, if permanent, would compel what’s left of Ukraine to realign its economy. The possible upside: a modernization that could make its dated steel plants more efficient and greener. Early estimates suggest the price tag for rebuilding the broader economy range upward of $750 billion.
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