Ukraine: The invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24 resulted in tens of thousands of fatalities, millions of displaced people, and global economic unrest.
As the war enters its seventh month, the following are its primary effects:
Kyiv reported that 9,000 Ukrainian military personnel had died in the conflict, while US intelligence puts the figure closer to 15,000 soldiers.
With 41 million people, a third of Ukrainians have been evicted from their homes, making it the country with the largest current human displacement crisis.
Demise
Although the actual toll is much higher, since February 24 there have been 5,587 civilian fatalities and 7,890 civilian injuries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), who made the announcement on August 22.
According to the OHCHR, the majority of those killed or hurt were the victims of explosive weapons like artillery, missiles, and airstrikes.
Separately, on August 22, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, announced that nearly 9,000 Ukrainian service members had perished in the conflict. This was the first death toll announced by the military's top brass since the invasion. He made no further mention.
How many of its soldiers were killed has not been disclosed by Russia.
According to US intelligence, 15,000 Russian soldiers have died and three times that many have been wounded in Ukraine so far, which is equal to the total number of Soviet fatalities during Moscow's occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989.
After the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine toppled a pro-Russian president and Russia annexed Crimea, fighting between Russian-backed forces and Ukraine's armed forces broke out in eastern Ukraine.
OHCHR estimates that between 2014 and 2021, 14,000 people were killed there, including 3,106 civilians.
Sorrow
According to the United Nations Refuge agency, since February 24, one third of Ukrainians, who number over 41 million, have been ejected from their homes, creating the world's largest human displacement crisis right now.
According to the agency's data, more than 6.6 million Ukrainian refugees have been registered across Europe, with the largest populations being in Poland, Russia, and Germany.
Motherland
In addition to the lives lost, Reuters estimates that since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Ukraine has lost control of about 22% of its territory.
A large portion of its coastline has been lost, its economy is in ruins, and Russian shelling has reduced some cities to wasteland. According to projections from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Ukraine's economy will contract by 45% in 2022.
Uncertainty surrounds Ukraine's actual monetary loss. The cost of the entire post-war rebuild, according to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, is estimated to be around US$750 billion. It could be a lot more.
How much Ukraine has spent on the conflict is unknown.
Russia's outgoings
Russia has also incurred costs as a result of the conflict, though it does not disclose them because they are state secrets.
In addition to the military costs, the West has attempted to punish Moscow by enforcing harsh sanctions, which have caused Russia's economy to experience its biggest shock since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In contrast to its earlier predictions of an 8–10% contraction, the central bank of Russia now expects the country's $1.8 trillion economy to contract by 4–6% in 2022.
The economic impact on Russia is still significant and not entirely understood. It is unable to access Western financial markets, the majority of its oligarchs are subject to sanctions, and it has trouble obtaining some goods, such as microchips. The first time Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt since the disastrous months that followed the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 was last month.
Pricing rises
Prices for energy, metals, fertiliser, and wheat all increased dramatically as a result of the invasion and Western sanctions against Russia. This contributed to the developing food crisis as well as the inflationary wave that is now crashing through the world economy.
Russia is the world's top exporter of natural gas, wheat, nitrogen fertiliser, palladium, and the second-largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia. International oil prices surged to their highest levels since the records of 2008 shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The most severe energy crisis since the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s has been made worse by efforts to lessen reliance on Russian oil, gas, and oil products, or even to cap their prices. Gas prices for wholesale in Europe increased after Russia stopped supplying gas to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
According to Goldman Sachs, a total cutoff would cause the euro area to enter a recession and cause severe contractions in both Germany and Italy.
Economic boom
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) now predicts that the global economy will expand by 3.2% this year, down from 6.1% last year and significantly less than its predictions of 3.6% in April, 4.4% in January, and 4.9% in October.
The IMF predicted that the world's growth would slow to 2.6% in 2022 and 2% in 2023 under a "plausible" alternative scenario that includes a complete cutoff of Russian gas supplies to Europe by year's end and a further 30% drop in Russian oil exports, with growth in Europe and the US next year being practically nonexistent.
Western munitions
Since February 24, the United States has given Ukraine security assistance worth about $9.1 billion, including stinger anti-aircraft systems, javelin anti-armour systems, 155mm howitzers, and protective gear against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.
Britain is the second-largest military aid donor to Ukraine, having contributed 2.3 billion pounds ($2.72 billion). Ukraine will receive security assistance valued at 2.5 billion euros ($2.51 billion) from the European Union.
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