Russian occupation of Crimea and Donbas costs Ukraine 17% of GDP – Economy minister

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Trade and Development Stepan Kubiv says that Ukraine's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 7% in 2014 and by 10% in 2015 because of the occupation of Crimea and Donbas by the Russian Federation.

"The annexation of Crimea and the occupation of part of the east of Ukraine led to a decrease in GDP by almost 7% in 2014 and by almost 10% in 2015. Inflation in 2014 was 25%, and it exceeded 43% in 2015," he said at a government meeting on Wednesday.

Read alsoUkraine's GDP growth may reach 3.8% in 2020, 4.1% in 2021 – Kubiv

"Ukraine lost 80% of the oil and gas deposits in the Black Sea, a significant part of port infrastructure over the annexation of Crimea. Russia is now exacerbating the loss of the ports by blocking the Black and Azov Seas," he said.

According to Kubiv, 115 of the 150 coal mines are now in the temporarily occupied territories. The Ukrainian defense industry suffered the greatest losses from Russian aggression: 13 state-owned enterprises in the annexed Crimea were lost, as well as ten state-owned enterprises remained in the uncontrolled territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

As UNIAN reported, the State Statistics Service estimated Ukraine's GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2018 at 3.4%, in the third quarter at 2.8%, in the second quarter at 3.8%, in the first quarter at 3.1%. A statistics report for all the 12 months of 2018 has not yet been made public.

According to estimates of the National Bank, Ukraine's GDP grew by 3.3%, while the Ministry of Economic Development estimates the growth at 3.2%.