According to the Minister of Economy of Ukraine, missile alarms cost the country $45 million for each hour during which the work of enterprises stops. “What we didn't fully anticipate was how quickly Russia would develop these jet-powered drones and start using them to attack everything,” said Economy and Environment Minister Oleksandr Kravchenko.
These attacks are forcing much of the economy to stop as workers are sent to bomb shelters and sirens sound for up to 10 hours a day.
However, a "yellow" alarm is not a guarantee of safety. This danger became apparent on Monday when a Russian jet-powered drone hit the National Academy of Sciences building in downtown Kyiv during a yellow alert, killing two people who were then still working inside.
Kravchenko noted that this year alone, Russian attacks caused about $10 billion in damage to fixed assets; targets included metallurgical plants, warehouses, logistics infrastructure, and, recently, data centers.
Russia also effectively blocks Ukrainian Black Sea ports, through which the bulk of the country's exports passed before the blockade.
Kryvyi Rih will sequester the city budget and suspend part of development projects due to a drop in tax revenues from industrial enterprises.
According to Kravchenko, more than half of the enterprises continued to operate during the "yellow" alarm.
According to Kravchenko, Kyiv is now seeking additional support from the EU, Japan, Canada and the UK, in particular, possibly through early loans that were planned for next year.