Who Will Pay For The Ukraine War?

Soldiers of Ukraine's Donbas battalion inspect their unit's bus, which was destroyed in fighting, in the eastern Ukrainian town of Ilovaisk on August 24, 2014. Maks Levin/Reuters

Anders Åslund, Newsweek: Neither Putin Nor Kiev Can Afford to Fund Russian-Occupied Ukraine

The war in the Donbas is imposing large costs on Ukraine. According to Ukraine's leading investment bank, Dragon Capital, in October 2014 the occupied territories in the Donbas accounted for 2.6 percent of Ukraine's territory, 7.3 percent of the population, 10 percent of gross domestic product and 15 percent of industrial production. This output has declined by roughly two-thirds, explaining two-thirds of Ukraine's decline in GDP in 2014.

What will happen to the Donbas economy if the Minsk II cease-fire agreement collapses?

On June 4, Heidi Tagliavini, the Swiss ambassador who has mediated the Donbas conflict, resigned as special envoy of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Although it was without drama, her resignation was widely seen as the end of the Minsk negotiation process.

WNU Editor: This is one of the reasons why I always shake my head at those who believe that after Crimea Putin's true intent is to to annex eastern Ukraine .... sighhh .... the costs would set back Russia's budget and economy for years ... and for what .... to help eastern Ukrainians who have a long history of never listening to Moscow in the first place. Bottom line .... the economic damage that this war has caused to Ukraine is incalculable. Destroyed infrastructure. A currency that has been obliterated. Huge debts with international lending agencies like the IMF. High unemployment. The departure and immigration of the country's best and brightest to better places. These are things that are going to take years and generations to recover and rectified ... and here is an easy prediction .... Moscow is not going to pay that bill, and neither will oligarchs like Poroshenko .... the ones who will be stuck with the costs will be the common citizen in both parts of Ukraine.