Ukraine’s economy is another victim of Russia’s ‘hybrid war’

ONE by one, embassies and international offices in Kyiv closed. Flight after flight was canceled when insurance companies balked at covering planes arriving in Ukraine. Hundreds of millions of dollars in investment dried up within weeks.

With Russian troops encircling much of the country, Ukrainian businesses large and small no longer plan for the future — they can barely foresee what will happen week to week.

It is Ukraine, not Russia, where the economy is eroding the fastest under the threat of war. Even before Russian troops rolled into rebel-held areas in the country’s east and Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the separatist region, Ukraine was the biggest loser in the agonizing, slow-motion aggression.

“Why is it that we are suffering consequences already? And Russia, who is actually threatening the whole world, in Europe, is not suffering any consequences?” asked Andrey Stavnitser, CEO of the port operator TIS Group.