A year after war started: 15 million Ukrainians displaced, infrastructure damage at $700 billion

An elderly woman pushes her bicycle loaded with hay and brushwood on a roadside near village of Kolisnykivka, in the Kharkiv region on February 23, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — A year after the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, 15 million Ukrainians have been displaced while infrastructure damage reached $700 billion.

Denys Mykhailiuk, chargé d’ affaires of the Embassy of Ukraine in Malaysia, noted that the damage to their country is “awful.”

“Minimum estimates of the physical damages for infrastructure is $700 billion. They might be much more than that,” Mykhailiuk said on ANC Rundown on Friday.

“In terms of population, 15 million people of Ukrainians displaced, 8.1 million of them are abroad, mainly women and children,” he added.

Citing the United Nations’ figures, Mykhailiuk said that there are 10,000 casualties, but the number only includes people whose identities can be proved.

He also said that there are at least 25,000 civilians laid in mass graves in Mariupol City.

To date, 15 percent of Ukraine has been occupied by Russia.

“As of now, 15 percent of the territory is occupied. On the battle areas, Russian forces gone back to the decades of the first world war. They just use their artillery barrages and destroy whole cities,” Mykhailiuk said.

The official said that Ukraine is fighting Russia for a “stable” and “peaceful” world.

“Ukraine is not fighting only for Ukraine, not only for our territorial integrity but Ukraine is fighting for the stable world, a peaceful world,” he said.

Mykhailiuk expressed gratitude to nations who have provided them even with the smallest help.

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine to halt what Moscow calls Western encroachment through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union support of Kyiv.

JMS