Economic Consequences of the War for Business in Ukraine:
Analysis, Challenges, and Perspectives
Olena H. Denysiuk
a
and Kateryna Ye. Orlova
b
Zhytomyr Polytechnic State University, 103 Chudnivska Str., Zhytomyr, 10005, Ukraine
Keywords:
War, Ukraine, Economic Impact, Business, Economic Entities, Exchange Rate, Export, Logistics, Migration,
International Support, State Support.
Abstract:
War is a complex social and economic phenomenon which causes tragedy due to irreparable human losses.
Another implication of the war is a great damage to economy, which has its consequences in short-term,
medium-term, and long-term perspectives. In order to overcome the war consequences, it is important to
estimate, analyze and systematize the key impact for providing a comprehensive understanding of the state
of the economy. The article contributes to such a holistic understanding as its purpose is to identify and to
systemize the key economic consequences of the war in Ukraine. The authors systematized the key impact
of the war for business in Ukraine according to the following spheres: business activity of economic entities,
exchange rate, export, logistics, migration. It was defined that due to the scale of consequences and to the
ongoing (at the moment of the article preparation) hostilities on the territory of Ukraine the state cannot
overcome the damage on its own. This emphasizes the necessity of the international support. The key spheres
of international support were examined according to the countries. The Ukraine state support programs were
also revised in the article.
1 INTRODUCTION
Ukraine’s economy has suffered from a range of is-
sues for quite a long time. Political instability, incom-
pletion of supply chains, high level of competition,
vulnerability to the global crisis tendencies – all these
factors form a significant impact on the conditions of
Ukrainian economic entities functioning, thus, on the
state of the economy as a whole. According to the
calculations provided by Yakymchuk et al. (Yakym-
chuk et al., 2021) the level of economic security of
Ukraine during 2009–2019 can be defined as crisis
level. While fluctuating from year to year the cor-
responding level of economic security indicator has
never reached a secure level. The following – 2020
year has also brought severe shocks to the country’s
economy due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The year of
2021 was marked by some revival of business activity,
but, at the same time, business entities and the econ-
omy as a whole did not have time enough to recover
from the blow caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
After the full-scale invasion of Russia the immediate
result was GDP reduction by 40 % in the 2nd quarter
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2108-7347
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9985-0210
of 2022, and the forecast inflation level is set as 31 %
by the end of the year (National Bank of Ukraine,
2022a). Still, the medium-term and long-term conse-
quences remain uncertain, as hostilities continue, the
interaction of various factors causes effects of emer-
gence and resonance, complicating the processes of
forecasting and prediction. Therefore, we believe it is
extremely expedient to provide research in the sphere
of the war outcomes estimation in order to map out
the ways out of the crisis and determine the key mea-
sures for the post-war reconstruction of the country.
It should be mentioned that due to the complemen-
tary origin of the issue none of the researches can
provide holistic understanding and comprehensive an-
swers and solutions, but each research with its specific
stressed points will contribute to the final result.
It is worth noting that the importance of study of
the Russia-Ukraine war consequences is also deter-
mined by the role played by both countries in the
world economy. For example, both countries mu-
tually supply up to 25 % of world wheat export,
and some of the countries (e.g., Armenia, Georgia,
Turkey, etc.) import more than 75 % of the wheat con-
sumed from Russia and Ukraine (World Bank, 2022).
In addition to growing food insecurity risks, the war
90
Denysiuk, O. and Orlova, K.
Economic Consequences of the War for Business in Ukraine: Analysis, Challenges, and Perspectives.
DOI: 10.5220/0011931600003432
In Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Monitoring, Modeling Management of Emergent Economy (M3E2 2022), pages 90-101
ISBN: 978-989-758-640-8; ISSN: 2975-9234
Copyright
c
2023 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
in the region has disrupted a lot of logistic channels,
making it difficult, impossible and / or expensive to
deliver goods internationally. While understanding
the immediate consequences of the war, it is also im-
portant to analyze and forecast the medium and long-
term impact in order to improve the effectiveness of
the activities management and the post-war recon-
struction of the country.
Thus, taking into account the importance of the
outlined issues, as well as the fact that the determi-
nation of potential consequences for the economy of
Ukraine is an important step on the way to the devel-
opment of complex programs for overcoming the re-
spective consequences, we believe that this study will
contribute to the implementation of a comprehensive
approach to the relevant range of problematic issues.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
The Russia-Ukraine war has become a truly global
conflict, as its implications form a great influence
on most of the world’s countries. Issues of deal-
ing with such influence and overcoming the conflict
consequences are of a special importance nowadays,
that forms a significant scientific interest in the corre-
sponding sphere of researchers all over the world.
The hostilities on Ukraine’s territory have started
in 2014, however, they didn’t impact severely on the
world’s economy. Therefore, at that time, an insignif-
icant number of publications were devoted to the con-
sideration of issues related to the identification of the
war’s impact on economic relations. In particular,
Garzon Gordon and Hierro Recio (Garzon Gordon
and Hierro Recio, 2019) analyzed the impact of the
war in Ukraine on global oil prices, taking into ac-
count the fact that Russia is a powerful player in the
oil market. The study is devoted to determining the
relationship between events in Ukraine and the price
of oil. Bluszcz and Valente (Bluszcz and Valente,
2022) analyzed the costs of the hybrid war in Ukraine,
considering the period of 1995–2017. The scientists
defined that not only Ukraine, but also the neighbor-
ing countries suffer from the war consequences. The
main indicator which is analyzed in the research is
GDP per capita, and the authors state that Ukraine has
lost about 15.1 % of GDP per capita due to the war in
2013–2017.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Febru-
ary 2022 had a significant economic, geopolitical, and
social impact not only on the parties to the conflict,
but also on other countries. This led both to the
growth and scaling of the war consequences, and to
the corresponding attempts to identify and predict the
impact of the war on socio-economic relations. Ac-
cording to Astrov et al. (Astrov et al., 2022) the war
has changed the world in many dimensions – military,
economic, financial, and geopolitical. The compre-
hensive study is dedicated to estimating both imme-
diate and medium-term implications of the war from
the standpoint of three perspectives: implications for
Ukraine, for Russia, and for the rest of Europe (As-
trov et al., 2022). Orhan (Orhan, 2022) states that the
consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war will affect
not only the region, but also the economy on a global
scale. The main spheres of impact include financial
sanctions, increase of commodity prices, and supply
chain disruptions. Glauben et al. (Glauben et al.,
2022) analyze the implications of the war from the
agricultural trade and food security standpoint. The
authors define that Russia and Ukraine are both im-
portant market players regarding agricultural products
and fertilizers, as their mutual market share was about
28 % for wheat, 15 % for corn, 66 % for sunflower
oil, and 16 % for fertilizers. Thus, war consequences
resulted in reduction of global supplies of mentioned
products forming prerequisites for food security cri-
sis in some countries and regions, especially countries
from the MENA region. According to the estimations
more than 300 million people are at critical high risk
of food insecurity (Glauben et al., 2022).
One of the most discussed issues in current pub-
lications is related to migration trends, particularly
refugees’ flows. Thus, Duszczyk and Kaczmarczyk
(Duszczyk and Kaczmarczyk, 2022) state that Poland
has faced an unprecedented flow of refugees, which
has created a lot of challenges for Poland as for the
receiving country.
Prohorovs (Prohorovs, 2022) defines that the fur-
ther consequences of the war should be examined
within the following spheres: shocks of price, sup-
plies, and supply chains; inflation; employment and
unemployment rate; the economy growth perspec-
tives; possible consequences of confrontation be-
tween the West and Russia. The research provides
a comprehensive analysis of the war impact on the
outlined spheres with a special stress put on the coun-
tries of the European Union. Markus (Markus, 2022)
focuses on the business implications of the war for
Russia. The implications for global business are also
reviewed in the study. The researcher indicates the
following consequences of the war: fuel global infla-
tion, commodity shock, long-term fracturing of the
global financial system. Korneyev et al. (Korneyev
et al., 2022) have provided a detailed study of the war
consequences for Ukraine. Particularly, the authors
examine business activity reduction (with a focus on
specific types of activity) and the governmental sup-
Economic Consequences of the War for Business in Ukraine: Analysis, Challenges, and Perspectives
91
port programs, as well as they define the key chal-
lenges faced by Ukrainian business. The key chal-
lenges, according to Korneyev et al. (Korneyev et al.,
2022) are as follows: supply chain disruption, ship-
ping surcharge, consumer demand, creating stocks of
products, the state of uncertainty among business rep-
resentatives.
Despite the significant amount of research in this
field, which makes a valuable contribution to creat-
ing a holistic understanding of the consequences of
the war both for Ukraine and for the whole world,
the outlined problem remains insufficiently covered
in view of its complexity and multifacetedness. This
determines the relevance of current research and de-
termines its purpose and tasks.
3 OBJECTIVE OF THE
RESEARCH
The purpose of the article is to identify and to sys-
temize the key economic consequences of the war in
Ukraine. The identification and systematizing of the
implications will contribute to performing a holistic
approach to the relevant issue, as well as they will
serve as a basis for understanding the priority direc-
tions of action for overcoming the relevant conse-
quences. The defined objective involves solving the
following tasks: to identify key spheres of the war
impact on business functioning in Ukraine; to ana-
lyze trends of changes in spheres selected for analy-
sis; to systematize the main directions of international
support of Ukraine; to consider existing governmen-
tal tools for overcoming crisis phenomena caused by
the war.
4 METHODOLOGY
The methodological basis of the study is a system ap-
proach based on the understanding of socio-economic
relations as a whole and, at the same time, structured
system, which is subject to the catastrophic impact of
military actions. During the research, the following
methods were also used: monographic – when study-
ing available publications and reports on assessing the
consequences of the war; analysis and synthesis to
identify the key spheres of influence of the war conse-
quences on the economy of Ukraine; generalization –
for formulating research conclusions; ranking method
to determine the positions of individual countries
in the overall ranking of aid to Ukraine; the deduc-
tion method to determine the priority directions for
the development of measures to overcome the conse-
quences of the war; graphical and tabular – to visual-
ize the obtained research results.
5 RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH
War is a complex socio-economic phenomenon that
definitely affects all spheres of life, both in the coun-
tries participating in the conflict, and in the region
or even the world. In addition to irreparable human
losses, military actions also have a devastating effect
on the economy, endangering the functioning of so-
ciety. Wars can affect economic growth, the provi-
sion of production factors, the production structure,
the public budget, and public debt (Garzon Gordon
and Hierro Recio, 2019). Studying the consequences
of war is an important component of developing pro-
grams for overcoming the respective consequences,
because for the formation of adequate support pro-
grams, a clear understanding of the mechanisms of
the impact of war on various spheres and aspects of
the country’s economic life is necessary. S. Mariotti
states that the war is, on one hand, a result of grow-
ing global imbalances and instability and, on the other
hand, is a cause of further growth of such instabil-
ity (Mariotti, 2022). The globalization processes have
led to a situation when regional conflicts (the Russia-
Ukraine war particularly) affect a significant number
of the world’s countries, creating a negative impact on
economic, social, and geopolitical spheres.
The war in Ukraine will have immediate conse-
quences, as well as medium and long-term impact.
Moreover, this impact will affect not only the coun-
terparties of the war, but almost all countries of the
world. The EU countries will suffer from inflation,
price and supply chains shock, and likely will have to
face recession or even stagflation (Prohorovs, 2022).
The USA are not so vulnerable to the war conse-
quences but will also fall under the impact of destruc-
tive tendencies created by the war (Prohorovs, 2022).
However, the biggest and worst impact will be on
Ukraine. Since 2014 when the hostilities started at
the Eastern Ukraine, the country has suffered from
a considerable decline of economy (Bluszcz and Va-
lente, 2022). The full-scaled invasion has led to much
greater negative impact. The post-war reconstruction
of Ukraine will require not only significant financial
resources, but also a clear plan of action, like the Mar-
shall Plan. In turn, the implementation of a compre-
hensive approach to the formation of an appropriate
reconstruction plan requires a clear understanding of
the main spheres of the war consequences.
The study of scientific literature, reports of
M3E2 2022 - International Conference on Monitoring, Modeling Management of Emergent Economy
92
Ukrainian institutions and international organizations,
as well as our own experience provided an opportu-
nity to determine the key, in our opinion, spheres of
the formation of the war negative impact on the econ-
omy of Ukraine. We consider it expedient to provide
a description of the identified spheres.
5.1 Business Activity of Economic
Entities
Full-scale military operations on the territory of
Ukraine dealt an almost devastating blow to busi-
ness, which has not yet fully recovered from the coro-
navirus crisis. Business entities faced a significant
number of problems, starting from the physical threat
to existence and the destruction of capacities in the
areas of active hostilities and ending with the destruc-
tion of logistic channels and the reduction of solvent
demand. Even if not situated in the active hostil-
ities zone business entities experience all the con-
sequences of the war: destabilization of the econ-
omy, disruption of supply chains, decrease in sol-
vent demand, increase of inflation, etc. (Korneyev
et al., 2022). It is worth noting that the extent to
which business entities are affected can vary signif-
icantly depending on their field of activity. Accord-
ing to Korneyev et al. (Korneyev et al., 2022), the
most vulnerable are the following spheres: agricul-
ture, metallurgy, logistics, insurance. In particular,
the NGO “The Institute for Economic Research and
Policy Consulting” conducted a survey of represen-
tatives of domestic business in May-July to identify
expectations and to assess the current situation. In
July, 449 enterprises took part in the survey. Among
them are mainly industrial enterprises located in 21 of
the 27 regions of Ukraine, in particular in Vinnytsia,
Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Za-
porizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Lviv,
Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil,
Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi and Chernihiv
regions, and in the city of Kyiv (Kuziakiv et al., 2022).
According to the results of the survey in July 2022,
31.9 % of respondents characterized the current finan-
cial and economic situation at the enterprise as bad,
and the share of those who assess the situation pos-
itively was only 10.3 % (Kuziakiv et al., 2022). It
is worth noting that such a share indicates the pres-
ence of significant crisis tendencies in the activities of
enterprises, which, in turn, negatively affects the dy-
namics of general economic development indicators.
According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine,
real GDP in the II quarter of 2022 decreased com-
pared to the previous quarter by 19.1 % (taking into
account the seasonal factor) and compared to the II
quarter of 2021 by 37.2 % (State Statistics Service
of Ukraine, 2022). The key factors that create risks
and threats to the existence of Ukrainian business en-
tities include physical threats, exchange rate fluctua-
tions, rising production costs, including due to rising
fuel costs, disruption of logistic channels, problems
with resource provision, including due to the emigra-
tion of the population, a decrease in solvent demand,
etc.
5.2 Exchange Rate
One of the most significant spheres that has suffered
a devastating impact as a result of military opera-
tions on the territory of Ukraine is the situation on
the foreign exchange market. Significant shocks al-
ways have a negative impact on the exchange rate, the
volatility of which increases significantly due to the
uncertainty of the situation. In turn, changes in the
exchange rate potentiate a significant number of fur-
ther consequences related to the solvency of the popu-
lation, inflation fluctuations, foreign trade policy, etc.
Therefore, the exchange rate is one of the key indica-
tors that has the property of emergence, that is, it af-
fects a significant number of socio-economic param-
eters. It is worth noting that at the beginning of the
full-scale war, in order to contain panic fluctuations
and speculative risks, the National Bank of Ukraine
(the NBU) fixed the official rate at UAH 29.25 per
dollar (National Bank of Ukraine, 2022b). This mea-
sure was part of the set of actions introduced by the
NBU to ensure reliable and stable functioning of the
country’s financial system. At the same time, the “re-
tail” rate of the dollar differed significantly from the
officially recorded one, which determined the need
to use foreign exchange reserves to balance the mar-
ket situation. According to official NBU data, gross
international reserves during this period decreased
from USD 29.087 billion equivalent (as of Febru-
ary 1, 2022) to USD 22.387 billion equivalent (as of
August 1, 2022), i.e., by almost $6.7 billion or by
23.03 % (National Bank of Ukraine, 2022b). In or-
der to preserve currency reserves, as well as to prevent
the devaluation of the national currency, the NBU was
forced to increase the discount rate from 10 % to 25 %
in June. At the same time, this measure did not lead to
stabilization of the currency market. In order to avoid
further rapid reduction of foreign exchange reserves,
on July 21, 2022, the NBU adjusted the exchange rate
by 25 % to UAH 36.57 per dollar (National Bank of
Ukraine, 2022b). It is worth noting that the official
rate of the NBU can differ significantly from the mar-
ket rate of commercial banks. This situation was es-
pecially critical in March-May 2022, when there was
Economic Consequences of the War for Business in Ukraine: Analysis, Challenges, and Perspectives
93
a significant increase in the rate of commercial banks
with the fixed rate of the NBU. The trend of changes
in the exchange rate of the hryvnia to the dollar in
commercial banks is shown in figure 1.
So, we can note a gradual, but significant decrease
in the cash rate of the hryvnia to the dollar. Such
a trend led to a significant number of negative con-
sequences, including: a decrease in the solvency of
the population, an increase in production costs, an in-
crease in foreign debt in the hryvnia equivalent, as a
result – a deterioration of macroeconomic indicators.
5.3 Export
One of the indicators of the socio-economic develop-
ment of the country most significantly related to the
hryvnia exchange rate is export. It is worth noting
that, in general, the devaluation of the hryvnia has a
stimulating effect on exports, but the military actions
that led to the disruption of logistics chains (first of
all, the blocking of ports) caused a significant reduc-
tion in exports.
According to the State Statistics Service of
Ukraine (State Statistics Service of Ukraine, 2022),
the export of goods in June 2022 amounted to 3177.5
million USD, and the value of exports for the cor-
responding period of 2021 was 5305.8 million USD,
i.e., there was a decrease in exports by almost 40 %.
The reduction in exports led to the formation of a
significant negative foreign trade balance – (–1549.4)
million USD. For comparison, the respective indica-
tor for June 2021 was (–258.4) million USD. The
following product groups experienced the greatest
reduction: grain crops (exports in June 2022 were
only 57.2 % of the level of June 2021); ready-made
food products (50.9 %); mineral products (36.8 %);
products of chemical and related industries (42.2 %);
low-value metals and products from them (35.7 %)
(State Statistics Service of Ukraine, 2022). One of
the most crucial not only for Ukraine, but also for
other countries (especially, of the MENA region) ex-
port products is wheat. As Glauben et al. (Glauben
et al., 2022) state the most vulnerable are Albania,
Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Georgia, Mauritania, Sudan,
Tunisia, and Yemen as large parts of their population
are already subject to high risk of undernourishment.
The reduction in exports not only negatively af-
fected the economic condition of exporting enter-
prises, a significant number of which faced serious
difficulties with the sale of products and ensuring their
existence, but also increased the devaluation of the na-
tional currency due to the reduction in the inflow of
foreign exchange earnings to Ukraine. At the same
time, a positive trend emerged. In June 2022 com-
pared to May 2022 seasonally adjusted exports in-
creased by 18.6 %, and imports by 27.6 %. Season-
ally adjusted balance of foreign trade in June 2022
was negative and amounted to 1408.1 million USD. In
May 2022, it was also negative 889.9 million USD
(State Statistics Service of Ukraine, 2022).
According to the official information of Min-
istry of Economy of Ukraine (Ministry of Economy
of Ukraine, nd), in August 2022, the volume of
Ukrainian exports increased by 25 % and amounted
to 7.29 million tons. The increase in exports is con-
nected with the partial unblocking of the ports of
Greater Odesa. This made it possible to significantly
increase the volume of export of Ukrainian goods.
As a result, transportation by sea transport increased
by 85 % and amounted to almost 2.9 million tons.
Ukraine exported more than 3 million tons of goods
by rail, 1.36 million tons by road. At the same time,
exporters receive the largest revenue from goods ex-
ported by road $ 1.48 billion, sea cargo $ 995
million, and rail cargo – $ 788 million.
The leaders in terms of export value in August
2022 were (Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, nd):
sunflower oil ($ 443 million). Its export volumes
increased by 30 % to 366000 tons. Ukraine began
to export less raw materials sunflower seeds
and more processed products;
corn ($ 347 million). Its export increased by 31 %
to 1.5 million tons. It was this export segment
that benefited the most from the unblocking of the
ports from which ships loaded back in February
left;
rapeseed ($ 305 million). Ukraine has already ex-
ported 665000 tons of this crop of the new harvest;
wheat ($ 213 million). In August, Ukraine ex-
ported 2.3 times more grain than in July, amount-
ing to 880000 tons (Ministry of Economy of
Ukraine, nd);
ore ($ 172 million). As a result of the occupa-
tion and destruction of the south-eastern regions,
the volume of exports of metallurgical products is
decreasing. In particular, 1.4 million tons of ore
were exported in August;
cable products ($ 89 million). Despite the de-
crease in export volumes by 9.8 %, this category
of goods remains one of the key ones;
electricity ($ 73 million). Revenue from electric-
ity increased by 2 times compared to July. This
is the result of the successful integration of the
Ukrainian energy industry into ENTSO-E the
energy system of the European Union;
M3E2 2022 - International Conference on Monitoring, Modeling Management of Emergent Economy
94
Figure 1: Dynamics of the weighted average exchange rate of the hryvnia to the dollar on the cash currency market of Ukraine
(National Bank of Ukraine, 2022b).
sunflower seeds ($ 71 million). Gradually, this
segment of exports will decrease due to the
growth of processing;
poultry meat ($ 67 million). The export of prod-
ucts showed a decrease compared to July;
soybeans ($ 62 million). In August, its export
growth was +30 % to 148000 tons (Ministry of
Economy of Ukraine, nd).
It is important that confectionery processing prod-
ucts show stable upward dynamics: bakery +19.4 %,
sugar +9.1 %, chocolate +25 % (Ministry of Economy
of Ukraine, nd).
We have optimistic prediction from the First
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy of
Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko (Shalal, 2022). She told
Reuters that Ukraine’s economy should stabilize over
the coming year and expand by as much as 15.5 % in
2023, depending on military actions development in
the war against Russia that began on February.
5.4 Logistics
The well-adjusted transport and logistics activities of
the country are determined not only by the direct
restoration of the national economy but also by the
preservation and further development of international
relations, which are of key importance for modern
economies of developed countries (Ohar et al., 2022).
During the war, the traffic flow increased. Since
the beginning of the war, the seaports have remained
virtually blocked, so the main part of trade flows has
been taken over by road and rail transport. Today
roads and transport points are usually the most dam-
aged and destroyed as strategically important objects
for the movement and storage of military equipment
and, consequently, as battlefields. As of May 2022,
as a result of hostilities on the territory of Ukraine,
about 23 % of railway tracks were damaged, includ-
ing 6.3 thousand km of main tracks. In the first quar-
ter of 2022 exports amounted to 102.9 % compared
to the first quarter of 2021, imports 94.4 % com-
pared to the same period last year. At the same time,
foreign trade operations were conducted with partners
from 214 countries (Ohar et al., 2022). We must also
emphasize the breaking of chains, the destruction of
transport routes, the exclusion from operation of key
trunk roads that connected the West, Center, and East
(the Lviv-Kyiv and Kyiv-Kharkiv route); fuel short-
age and high fuel prices; frequent air alarms; highway
logistics stopped working at night due to curfews and
difficulties at roadblocks.
In general, it is worth noting that the war and
its consequences from the point of view of logistics
and infrastructure determined the understanding that
in the future, when rebuilding the state, localization
and the creation of alternative infrastructure are nec-
essary (Markus, 2022).
Economic Consequences of the War for Business in Ukraine: Analysis, Challenges, and Perspectives
95
5.5 Migration
Another painful issue for Ukraine as a whole, and for
the economy in particular, is population migration re-
lated to hostilities. Orhan (Orhan, 2022) states that
the most significant consequence of the war between
Russia and Ukraine is the lives lost and the humani-
tarian crisis associated with the large number of peo-
ple besieged and displaced. A great number of people
left the country (this trend was especially significant
at the beginning of the war), in addition, many peo-
ple were forced to move within the country (internal
displacement). Such a situation has significant neg-
ative consequences for the business activity of eco-
nomic entities, because the decrease in the number
of the population located on the territory of Ukraine
has led to both a reduction in demand (due to a de-
crease in the number of potential consumers) and to
problems with staffing of economic entities. Approx-
imately 2.75 million refugees from Ukraine are of
working age, of whom 1.2 million worked before the
start of the war in Ukraine and, accordingly, could
enter the EU labor market (Prohorovs, 2022). This
situation results in the absence of the respective hu-
man resources in Ukraine and complicates business
entities functioning. This was especially clearly visi-
ble in February-March, when enterprises and organi-
zations could not always adjust their work due to the
lack of employees (for example, pharmacies belong-
ing to critical infrastructure suffered from the lack of
pharmacists who could work, which, in turn, deter-
mined reduction of pharmacy networks even in rela-
tively “calm” regions).
According to the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, 2022),
as of September 7, 2022, 7.16 million refugees from
Ukraine were registered in Europe. The largest num-
ber of refugees is registered in Poland (1.37 mil-
lion people), Germany (1 million people), and the
Czech Republic (0.43 million people). In total, since
the beginning of the war, according to the UNCHR,
11.9 million people crossed the borders with Euro-
pean countries towards Europe and 5.3 million peo-
ple moved towards Ukraine. In addition, according to
the estimation, almost 7 million people are internally
displaced within Ukraine. These trends cause prob-
lems with providing shelter for a significant number
of displaced persons (UNHCR, 2022). The closest
countries – Poland and Romania faced a situation of
unpreparedness for such a large number of refugees, a
similar situation is observed in Ukraine in the western
regions. As Astrov et al. (Astrov et al., 2022) define
“For example, the population of Lviv the largest city
in western Ukraine is only about a quarter of the
size of Kyiv.... It is a logistical nightmare to find ac-
commodation for half of Kyiv’s population (or about
1.5 m people)”. However, Poland is playing the most
important role in providing sanctuary for Ukrainian
refugees. This phenomenon is caused by several rea-
sons. First of all, Poland is a bordering country which
is situated in the west, this creates a more or less safe
route for fleeing. Secondly, there is a long-lasting
tradition of labor migration from Ukraine to Poland,
which started long before the full-scale war started
(Duszczyk and Kaczmarczyk, 2022). Such tradition
made it easier to find shelter, to build logistics, etc.
5.6 Measures for Overcoming Negative
Consequences
The spheres of the negative consequences of the war
discussed above are not exclusive and exhaustive, be-
cause the large-scale military actions on the territory
of Ukraine had an extremely negative impact on all
spheres of socio-economic life. Destruction of in-
frastructure, reduction of business activity, decline in
GDP, significant increase in inflation, population mi-
gration are just some of the challenges that Ukraine
has faced. Overcoming the consequences of such
challenges requires significant efforts, coordination
and, first of all, financial resources. Suffering from
military operations, Ukraine is currently unable to in-
dependently overcome existing and projected prob-
lems, that actualizes the need and determines the im-
portance of international assistance. In the next sec-
tion of the article, we find it expedient to consider the
specifics of providing international aid to Ukraine as
well as governmental aid to business.
5.7 International Support
Under the war conditions, when the situation changes
every day, it is quite difficult to predict the conse-
quences of Russia’s aggression both for Ukraine and
for the world. Faced with the incredible desire of
Ukrainians to protect the country’s sovereignty and
fight back against the enemy, foreign partners provide
comprehensive assistance to Ukraine. Starting from
February 24, partner countries are helping Ukraine in
various ways.
We analyzed the amount of aid from foreign part-
ners and summarized the open sources of two plat-
forms Ukrainian FORBES (Landa, 2022) and The
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (Antezza et al.,
2022b). Poland, Estonia, Latvia, United States, and
Lithuania took the first places in the updated rating of
“Friends of Ukraine” from FORBES. In general, the
authors have presented a rating for twenty countries,
including sixteen European countries. In the “Friends
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96
of Ukraine” rating (7) the authors have considered the
following indicators (Landa, 2022):
voting at the United Nations General Assembly
for the withdrawal of Russian troops, the intro-
duction of sanctions against Russia and the clo-
sure of its airspace, participation in the conference
to support Ukraine on the basis of “Ramstein Air
Base”, the inclusion of Russia in the list of hostile
countries I(1),
the recognition of the genocide of Russia/USSR
against Ukraine I(2),
the expulsion of Russian diplomats I(3),
the amount of aid to Ukraine, according to the
Kiel Institute, in monetary terms, C billion I(4)
and as % of GDP I(5),
visits of high-ranking officials to Ukraine I(6).
In table 1 we have described the TOP-10 countries
in the “Friends of Ukraine” rating.
Forbes has determined the financial component of
the “Friends of Ukraine” rating based on the infor-
mation from The Kiel Institute for the World Econ-
omy. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy fo-
cuses only on government-to-government transfers to
Ukraine (Antezza et al., 2022b). The Ukraine Support
Tracker lists and quantifies military, financial, and hu-
manitarian aid promised by governments to Ukraine
between January 24, 2022, and currently through Au-
gust 3, 2022. It covers 40 countries, specifically
the EU member states, other members of the G7, as
well as Australia, South Korea, Turkey, Norway, New
Zealand, Switzerland, China, Taiwan, and India.
We have summarized the data of the Institute’s re-
port (Antezza et al., 2022a) of various types of assis-
tance to Ukraine. Some institutions are closed, and it
is very difficult to find reporting information on them
(such as the United Nations or the Red Cross). Sup-
port from major international organizations includes:
1. IMF programs: On March 9, the International
Monetary Fund announced and disbursed an
emergency assistance loan of $ 1.4 billion to
Ukraine under the umbrella of its Rapid Financ-
ing Instrument.
2. The World Bank: According to the data provided
by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, out of the
$ 2.467 billion $ 929 million have been disbursed
so far, a share of 37.66 %.
3. The European Bank for Reconstruction and De-
velopment (EBRD): On March 9 an international
organization half-owned by European countries,
announced a support package for Ukraine and
neighboring countries totaling $ 2 billion.
Total aid to Ukraine is C84.2 billion (from Euro-
pean Union and 40 countries from January 24, 2022,
until August 3, 2022). In table 2 we compare the type
of government support to Ukraine by type of aid: mil-
itary, humanitarian, and financial directions (TOP-10
countries in billion Euros).
Table 2 shows that The United States government
alone (C44.5 billion) committed almost four times as
much to Ukraine than all the individual EU country
governments combined ( C16.22 billion). However,
the large commitments by the EU institutions bring
the total European support to a level closer to the US.
The United States clearly remains the largest donor to
Ukraine.
Table 3 shows the amount of aid provided to
Ukraine by other countries compared to the GDP indi-
cator. Considering the GDP indicator provides an op-
portunity to determine the contribution of each coun-
try taking into account the level of economic develop-
ment of the respective state.
Table 3 shows that Eastern European countries
stand out as particularly generous when consider-
ing the size of their economy, with Estonia, Latvia,
Poland, and Lithuania ranging among the top ten
donors. The United States (being the largest donor in
absolute terms) comes in 10th, with assistance worth
around 0.22 percent of its GDP. Also, Eastern Euro-
pean countries show even higher commitments rela-
tive to GDP if one were to account for support by
hosting Ukrainian refugees.
5.8 Ukrainian State Support for
Business During the War
Supporting Ukrainian businesses is an important task
to ensure the economic capacity of Ukraine to meet
the challenges of war. Revitalization of the en-
trepreneurial activity is a key factor to enhance the
country’s stability and to overcome the consequences
of the war (Korneyev et al., 2022). The state is taking
affordable steps to support companies that find them-
selves in difficult conditions. In table 4 we have sum-
marized the main state initiatives to support business
in wartime, presented on the “Diia. Business” gov-
ernment services portal.
The effectiveness of government initiatives is
varying. For example, according to the information
from The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine (Ministry
of Economy of Ukraine, nd), at the end of August,
725 enterprises moved from the regions of active hos-
tilities to safer ones, of which 528 have already re-
sumed their activities at the new location. Another
284 companies are currently searching for a suitable
location or method of transportation. Among the relo-
Economic Consequences of the War for Business in Ukraine: Analysis, Challenges, and Perspectives
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Table 1: Top-10 countries in the “Friends of Ukraine” rating (Landa, 2022).
Country
Indicators
Rating (7)
I(1) I(2) I(3) I(4) I(5) I(6)
Poland Yes Yes 45 5.1 0.88 President, Prime minister 100
Estonia Yes Yes 17 0.3 1.13 President 96
Latvia Yes Yes 16 0.3 1.03 President 96
United States Yes Yes 12 44.5 0.22 House speaker, Secretary of State 93
Lithuania Yes Yes 5 0.3 0.55 President 90
Portugal Yes Yes 10 0.5 0.24 Prime minister 90
United Kingdom Yes Partly 23 6.6 0.25 Prime minister 89
Italy Yes Partly 30 2.8 0.15 Prime minister 89
Spain Yes Partly 25 2.3 0.19 Prime minister 88
Slovakia Yes Partly 38 0.4 0.43 President, Prime minister 88
Table 2: Government support to Ukraine: type of aid, C billion (Antezza et al., 2022b).
Country
Type of aid, C billion
Total, C billion
military financial humanitarian
United States 25.0 9.2 10.3 44.5
EU Institutions 2.5 1.42 12.3 16.22
United Kingdom 4.0 0.38 2.10 6.48
Germany 1.2 0.75 1.15 3.1
Canada 0.96 0.26 1.82 3.04
Poland 1.80 0.10 0.99 2.89
France 0.23 0.12 0.80 1.15
Norway 0.21 0 1.03 1.24
Japan 0 0 0.59 0.59
Italy 0.15 0 0.31 0.46
Table 3: Government support to Ukraine: by donor GDP,
incl. refugee costs (Antezza et al., 2022b).
Country
Bilateral aid
(percent of GDP)
Refugee costs
(percent of GDP,
rough baseline
estimate)
Estonia 0.8 0.4
Latvia 0.8 0.3
Poland 0.5 0.5
Czech Republic 0.2 0.4
Lithuania 0.3 0.3
Slovakia 0.2 0.2
Norway 0.4 0.02
Bulgaria 0.01 0.31
United Kingdom 0.2 0.01
United States 0.22 0.00
cated enterprises that have already resumed their ac-
tivities in the new place, the largest part is formed
up by enterprises operating in the sphere of whole-
sale and retail trade more than 40 % (of the to-
tal number of relocated enterprises) and enterprises
in the sphere of processing industry 30 %. Also,
among displaced companies, almost 7 % are active
in the sphere of information and telecommunications,
6 % in professional, scientific and technical ac-
tivities, and 4 % in the sphere of construction.
The most significant number of enterprises were re-
located to Lviv (29 % of relocated enterprises), Za-
karpattia (18 %), Chernivtsi (13 %), Ternopil (8 %)
and Khmelnytskyi (7.6 %) regions. Among the
large companies that were relocated are LLC “Pozh-
mashina”, LLC “CORUM Druzhkovka Machine-
Building Plant”, LLC “Staleks”, PJSC “Kramatorsk
Heavy Duty Machine Tool Building Plant” (Ministry
of Economy of Ukraine, nd).
Another important direction of state support for
business is preferential taxation, which made it possi-
ble to reduce the tax burden for enterprises and thus
mobilize additional reserves to ensure the survival of
business entities.
Based on open sources, we have summarized the
tax innovations information proposed by the govern-
ment:
1) individual entrepreneurs of the I and II groups
(simplified tax system) during the martial law
and within a year after its completion will be ex-
empted from paying a single social contribution;
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Table 4: Spheres of state support for business during wartime (Diia.Business, 2022).
Sphere Explanation
Compensation for em-
ployment of internally
displaced persons (IDP)
or 6,500 hryvnias within
eSupport
Compensation to the employer for labour costs for each internally displaced per-
son. The source is the state budget reserve fund. Ukrainians will be able to receive
UAH 6500 within the eSupport program in the areas where the most active hos-
tilities are taking place. These funds can be used to pay for any expenses without
restricting the type of business. Hired employees and individual entrepreneurs of
all groups will be able to receive assistance.
The Government program
of the enterprises evacua-
tion from the combat zone
The government has presented the program for the evacuation of enterprises from
the war zone to the west of Ukraine. Businesses will be provided with appropriate
conditions for work in the new place and employment opportunities for people.
Enterprises will be provided with assistance in selecting locations for their pro-
duction facilities, transportation and resettlement of personnel, and search for new
employees. The program is aimed at preserving the production and labour poten-
tial of Ukraine and is aimed at all enterprises that wish to move production to the
territory of the western regions of Ukraine.
The Government program
“eWork”
Any Ukrainian who does not work at other enterprises can take part. To receive
money, you need to submit an application through “Diia” or in the branches of the
OshchadBank together with the attached business plan. Money can be received by
anyone who has the desire, skills and plan to start their own business or expand
their business. For the grant, it will be possible to purchase equipment, buy raw
materials or pay for the rent of the premises.
For example:
– Grant for own business: up to UAH 250000
– Gardening grant: up to UAH 400000
– Greenhouse grant: up to UAH 7 million
– Grant for a processing enterprise: up to UAH 8 million.
State support “Credit pro-
gram for exporters”
Credit program for companies that, due to the aggression of the Russian Feder-
ation, need additional financing for the implementation of export contracts. The
affordable financing program for exporters during the war “Loans for the imple-
mentation of foreign economic contracts under a simplified procedure” will help
Ukrainian manufacturers enter new markets and become competitive.
Support of Ukrainian en-
trepreneurs under condi-
tions of war to preserve
business and jobs
The tool from the UA Anti-crisis initiative will help to gather information about
resources, build a strategy and take specific steps to start a business with the aim
of faster recovery of the Ukrainian economy.
2) enterprises and individual entrepreneurs of the III
group (simplified tax system) will be exempted
from paying a single social contribution for em-
ployees who joined the armed forces and other
armed groups (including territorial defense). The
fee will be paid by the state;
3) payment of taxes for all enterprises that are unable
to pay them is postponed;
4) the introduction of cash registers for all individual
entrepreneurs is postponed;
5) all measures of the market and consumer surveil-
lance in all matters, except for price regulation
and control over pricing, will be abolished. A
moratorium on inspections of all types for busi-
ness has already been established.
Tax innovations also involve the following mea-
sure: VAT and income tax have been replaced dur-
ing the wartime by a 2 % turnover tax (the transition
to this taxation system is voluntary). The taxation of
fuel is also diminished in order to constrain the prices
(Astrov et al., 2022).
Summarizing the above mentioned, we can con-
clude that currently a significant number of measures
to overcome the consequences of the war in Ukraine
are already being implemented by both foreign gov-
ernments and the government of Ukraine. However,
we should note that most of these measures are aimed
at ensuring business survival and ongoing support for
Ukraine, while spheres related to the post-war recon-
struction of the state are also important. We see the
prospects for further research in the formation of a
complex system of measures for overcoming the neg-
ative consequences of the war in Ukraine.
Economic Consequences of the War for Business in Ukraine: Analysis, Challenges, and Perspectives
99
6 CONCLUSIONS
War in Ukraine is a powerful trigger, significantly in-
creasing the level of inflation and exacerbating the
existing issues of economies. Companies and coun-
tries have needed to adapt their activities to the con-
sequences of the Russian war in Ukraine. The con-
sequences of the war for Ukraine are especially sig-
nificant (for objective reasons), because currently
Ukraine suffers not only from direct military actions,
but also from the economic consequences associated
with them. Therefore, it is extremely important to
understand the consequences of the war both in the
short-term and in the medium-term perspective. The
article identified the key directions of the formation
of the negative impact of the war on socio-economic
relations in Ukraine. It is worth noting that busi-
ness in Ukraine faced unprecedented challenges re-
lated to both the threat to existence (physical) and the
destruction of economic ties, the loss of sales mar-
kets, the increase in costs, and the decrease in the effi-
ciency of functioning. Based on the results of the re-
search, the main risks and threats were systematized
in the following spheres: business activity of eco-
nomic entities, exchange rate, export, logistics, pop-
ulation migration (refugees). The researched list of
directions of the formation of the war negative impact
on socio-economic relations in Ukraine is not exhaus-
tive, but it provides an opportunity to contribute to
the formation of a holistic understanding of the state
and prospects for the development of the situation in
Ukraine. In turn, such a comprehensive understand-
ing will serve as a basis for developing complex pro-
grams to overcome the negative consequences of the
war in Ukraine. Based on the analysis of the scale of
negative consequences, it was determined that, given
the current situation, Ukraine is unable to indepen-
dently overcome the existing problems, which deter-
mines the importance of international support. Cur-
rently international support should be analyzed in two
directions: diplomatic and financial (in terms of mili-
tary, humanitarian, and purely financial). The largest
contribution to total aid in absolute terms was made
by the USA, however, if the analysis is carried out in
comparison with the GDP of the respective country,
then the countries of Eastern Europe (Estonia, Latvia,
and Poland) take the first places in terms of aid. At
the same time, the government of Ukraine implements
measures aimed at supporting both business and the
population, which is extremely important from the
point of view of preserving the country’s potential.
We see the prospects for further research in the for-
mation of a complex system of measures aimed at
overcoming the consequences of the war in Ukraine,
which will be based on the data of the econometric
model for assessing the impact of individual factors
on the resulting indicator (for example, GDP).
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