Ukraine lost $280B over period of Russian aggression – finance minister

Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said this during a question-and-answer session in the Verkhovna Rada on Friday, February 18, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"We have been living in the conditions of Russian aggression for eight years now. According to international experts, during all the years of military aggression Ukraine has lost about $280 billion from the occupation of the Donbas and Crimea in the form of lost GDP in 2014-2020," Marchenko said.

He noted that geopolitical tensions over the escalation of the situation at the Ukrainian border have affected investors' perceptions of Ukraine's sovereign debt and this has led to deterioration in Ukraine's eurobond quotations on foreign markets and a reduction in the portfolio of non-residents in Ukrainian government bonds.

Marchenko said the portfolio of non-residents in Ukrainian government bonds had decreased by about UAH 14 billion.

"The share of government bonds owned by foreign investors has decreased from 10% to 8%," Marchenko said.

In early January 2022, non-residents began to actively reduce their portfolio of hryvnia-denominated government bonds, which affected the exchange rate of the national currency. Last month, the official exchange rate of the hryvnia against the U.S. dollar fell by 4.3%.

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