Rocket alerts cost Ukraine approximately 45 million dollars for each hour that economic activity is halted, stated the Ukrainian Minister of Economy, as Kiev seeks solutions to keep the economy running in the face of intensifying Russian bombardments.
Russia increasingly targets the infrastructure supporting Ukraine’s economy, hitting industrial facilities, warehouses, logistics hubs, and data centers. Oleksandr Kravcenko, the Minister of Economy and Environment, described these attacks to The Guardian as an attempt to “destroy almost the entire economy”.
“What we hadn’t fully anticipated was how quickly Russia would develop these jet-propelled drones and how swiftly they would use them to strike anything,” he said, referring to the new weapons that have been bombarding Kiev in recent weeks.
Kravcenko, former director of the consulting firm McKinsey, who joined the government in the summer, spoke from the heavily fortified government building in Kiev. He said that the attacks force large parts of the economy to repeatedly halt, as employees are sent to shelters, and the sirens can last up to 10 hours a day.
“If people are in shelter, business stops”, stated the minister.
In order to reduce economic costs, the government has recently introduced a new two-tier warning system, designed to allow companies to continue working during prolonged air alerts.
The “red” alert warns of a missile threat and requires people to take shelter, while the “yellow” alert is used for drone threats and allows many companies to remain open.
According to Kravcenko, over half of the companies continued to operate during the yellow alerts.
However, a yellow alert does not guarantee safety. This was demonstrated on Monday, when a Russian jet-propelled drone struck the National Academy of Sciences in central Kiev, during a yellow alert. Two people died, and employees were still inside, at work.
This is one of the difficult compromises that Ukraine is facing, trying to keep normal life moving and at the same time protect its citizens from an increasingly intense Russian strike campaign.
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