Photo from UNIAN
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman estimates that Ukraine has lost over 16% of GDP and ongoing Russian aggression does not allow to quickly raise Ukrainian citizens' living standards.
"We have lost over 16% of our gross domestic product [GDP] due to Russian aggression. As a result, people's welfare has significantly worsened. We managed to rein in the decline in 2016 and saw economic growth, but it is clear that the aggression of the Russian Federation is a very negative factor affecting people's living standards. And most importantly, there are victims – both among civilians and our military – because of the aggression in our territory, the territory of a sovereign state in the 21st century," the prime minister said at a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Kyiv on Monday, July 10.
At the same time, Groysman said Ukraine has to spend over 5% of GDP on national defense amid ongoing aggression.
Stoltenberg, in turn, said that NATO did not recognize and would never recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea and insisted on the withdrawal of Russian forces from eastern Ukraine.
Read alsoNATO to provide cyber defense equipment to Ukraine"We have clearly stated many times that Russia must withdraw its forces from eastern Ukraine, stop supporting the militants and also stop all their activities undermining and trying to destabilize Ukraine, hybrid warfare, cyber attacks," Stoltenberg said.
He thanked Ukraine on behalf of NATO for support and participation in peacekeeping missions. He also announced that NATO plans to continue providing practical support to Ukraine.
Read alsoOver 76,000 tonnes of Donbas coal smuggled to Russia within month – NGOAs UNIAN reported earlier, Donetsk and Luhansk regions accounted for about 16% of Ukraine's GDP before Russia unleashed military aggression there. Before DTEK holding's enterprises in Donbas were seized by Russian-backed militants in February 2017, the Ukrainian government estimated the losses of the regions' economic potential at 80%.
The claimed losses due to Russia's illegal seizure of nearly 4,000 Ukrainian enterprises on the Crimean peninsula totaled UAH 1.18 trillion, or US$45.3 billion, according to preliminary estimates by Ukraine's Justice Ministry.