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Conflict in eastern Ukraine causes 911 mln USD losses: deputy PM

12 September 2014 19:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. More than four months of fighting in eastern Ukraine has caused losses of at least 11.8 billion hryvnya (around 911 million U.S. dollars) to the public sector, Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said here Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"This sum is based on the preliminary calculations. We still have no access to many areas in the east to fully assess the damage," Groysman told a press conference.

Confrontation between government troops and independence-seeking insurgents has damaged 11,325 buildings, including 4,500 private houses in the restive regions, Groysman said.

The damage to human resources has also been severe, as at least 271,000 people were displaced by the confrontation, Groysman said.

The outflow of human resources and considerable destruction of infrastructure forced some metallurgical plants and coal mines in Lugansk and Donetsk regions, the country's industrial hubs, to halt their production.

Local analysts estimated that the conflict in the east would cost Ukraine around 3 percent of its GDP in 2014.

The country's fragile economy, which shrank 3 percent in the first half of this year, is expected to decline by 6 to 7 percent by the end of 2014.

Clashes between Ukrainian government troops and rebels, which started in mid-April, have claimed about 3,000 lives.

Representatives of Ukraine's government and insurgent leadership inked a ceasefire deal on Sept. 5 in Minsk, Belarus, to pave the way for a solution to the crisis and a permanent end to the bloodshed.