In the ongoing conflict against Ukraine, Russia appears to be increasingly targeting critical points within the Ukrainian economy. According to Robert Kirchner, an economist and expert on Ukraine from the consultancy Berlin Economics, Russia has “started systematically destroying every industry relevant to Ukraine.” Kirchner noted that the scope of the attacks has far exceeded isolated instances concerning ports, power plants, or warehouses, evolving into a comprehensive economic war.
The apparent goal of this strategy is to weaken the Ukrainian economy and drain the civilian population’s resources. While the Kremlin has not achieved the goal of discrediting the populace in recent years, Ukraine’s economic difficulties are demonstrably growing worse.
Experts are now projecting only weak economic growth, estimated at a mere 1.1 percent. Kirchner warned that the economic situation was deteriorating, predicting that growth would be lower and primarily driven by strong military production.
The foundation for this assessment is Russia’s latest waves of attacks targeting various sites, including storage facilities, medical depots, supermarkets, and most notably, steel mills. For instance, the facilities of Zaporizhstal in southeastern Ukraine have been deliberately attacked four times since mid-August, with the most recent strike taking place on September 17. As a consequence, Ukraine’s steel production plummeted by over 57 percent year-on-year in August alone.
