About a third of Ukraine’s highways, bridges, railways, seaports, and airports have been destroyed since Russia invaded the country on February 24, a senior Ukrainian official has said. The analysis underscores that even as the war recedes from the headlines outside Europe, the devastation wrought by Moscow’s war machine is extensive — and expensive, too. In remarks given to French newspaper Le Monde, Ukraine’s minister for infrastructure, Alexander Kubrakov, put the cost of the destruction in excess of $105 billion.

Of that amount, more than $40 billion is due to damage to transportation infrastructure. Cities such as Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Severodonetsk, and Lysychansk have been the most badly battered. More than 320,000 people have declared the loss of their homes due mainly to Russian bombardment, Mr. Kubrakov said, but in reality the figure is probably much higher. Mariupol, for example, is completely destroyed. In all, nearly 475 million square feet of residential property either lie in ruins or are likely damaged beyond repair. 

According to estimates from Ukraine’s Ministry of the Economy and the Kyiv School of Economics, total direct and indirect financial losses to Ukraine are lurching toward the $600 billion mark. That assessment is based on data points including gross domestic product, frozen investments, evaporation of manpower, and additional infusions of monies to fund defense and social security needs. 

“Our economy is far behind in exports,” Mr. Kubrakov said, adding that “since the invasion, exports have tumbled by up to 40 percent, mainly because ports are blockaded.” He said that six ports have been attacked “several times,” with significant economic fallout: “That prevents us from financing the reconstruction of liberated cities by ourselves, and undercuts the war effort,” he said. 

The minister said that despite this, Ukraine has the support of America, Britain, Canada, and the EU.  

Two days shy of the four-month mark of the Russian invasion and with an estimated one-fifth of Ukraine currently under Russian control, the support of Ukraine’s Western allies is perhaps more important now than at any other time in the war. As revealing as the statistics are, the human losses and physical destruction are nothing less than gut-wrenching. 

On Wednesday alone, and at a remove from the eastern Donbas region where fighting is raging, Russia unleashed a barrage of seven missile strikes on the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv. The city’s mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych, told the Telegraph that the attacks caused several fires, damaged a number of residential buildings and businesses, and left smoke hanging over the port city. “I keep saying it’s still dangerous in the city,” the mayor said. At least one person was reportedly killed and a school was damaged in the strikes.