Tracing the impact of seven months long Russia-Ukraine war in numbers

By: Yash Gupte

. According to a report published by the United Nations Office on Human Rights (UNOHR), around 5,587 people have been killed (2,161 men, 1,490 women, 149 girls, and 175 boys, as well as 38 children and 1,574 adults whose sex is yet unknown) since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called up 3,00,000 reservists to fight the ongoing war in Ukraine and annex more parts of Ukraine. He also said that he is in a position to use nuclear weapons to capture Ukraine. It was the first time since the World War II that Russia mobilized the troops in such a way by using the reservists. This is one of the largest escalations since the beginning of war on 24^th February this year. The war between the neighbors commenced on 24^th February with Vladimir Putin announcing his decision to launch a special military operation in Ukraine. As soon as Russia launched an offensive in Ukraine’s eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, US was the first country to impose sanctions on Russia as it banned Russian banks and exports of sensitive US technologies, especially in the aviation, maritime and defense sectors. European countries soon followed USA in imposing sanctions on Russia.

The Russia-Ukraine war is one of the most deadly wars in the 21^st century. According to a report published by the United Nations Office on Human Rights (UNOHR), around 5,587 people have been killed (2,161 men, 1,490 women, 149 girls, and  175 boys, as well as 38 children and 1,574 adults whose sex is yet unknown) since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war. It is estimated that around 7,890 people have been injured out of which 1,603 are men, 1,190 are women, 172 girls, 236 boys, as well as 202 children and 4,487 are adults whose sex is yet unknown.

It must be noted that out of all the casualties, more than 50% have been reported from the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Luhansk and Donetsk are the Ukrainian provinces bordering Russia. Both the regions have reported 7620 casualties (3,317 killed and 4,303 injured). The UN agency had marked that the actual number of casualties is much more than reported. The data on the death of soldiers of both the countries is not much credible as both the sides exaggerate the deaths of their soldiers and the enemy’s too.

Since the war began, a large number of people have fled the country for their safety and have taken shelter as refugees in the surrounding European countries. As the accompanying chart shows, the countries bordering Ukraine have witnessed a mass influx of refugees from Ukraine as large number of people have crossed the border since the war began in February.

Source: United Nations High Commission for Refugees

Maximum Ukrainians have fled to the neighboring country of Poland as the country witnessed an influx of 54,39,431 people from the war-torn Ukraine. Russia is on the second position after Poland as 21,97,679 people from Ukraine have fled to Russia in order to save themselves from the war. Hungary is also witnessing a huge influx of refugees from Ukraine as 11,88,983 Ukrainians have fled to Hungary since the beginning of the war. The UNHCR reported that more than 10 million people have fled Ukraine since February 24, 2022 and around 7.2 million individual refugees have been recorded across the Europe since 24^th February. It is estimated that 6.9 million people have been internally displaced in Ukraine since the beginning of war. Around 41,27,643 refugees from Ukraine have  registered for Temporary Protection or similar national protection schemes in Europe.

The European Commission announced a plan to reduce dependence on Russian natural gas by two-thirds by the end of the year. The US has imposed a ban on Russian crude oil imports and the US Congress approved $13.6bn in spending for Ukraine, divided equally between aid for refugees and military aid. The war and the sanctions imposed on Russia have resulted in disruption of global supply chains, inflation, food crisis and energy crisis. But India has benefitted from the discounted oil offered by Russia as the latter is selling oil at low prices.