ukraine tourism before war

Travelers Remind Us of the Beauty of Ukraine Before the War

A little more than one month after russia’s invasion of ukraine, travelers offer their recollections of what visiting ukraine was like prior to the destruction and devastation. and remind us not to forget..

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Los Angeles–based writer Eric Newman snapped this photo of performers in traditional dress in Ukraine’s Dnieper Delta during a 2017 visit.

Photo by Eric Newman

Five weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the clashes continue while we watch, heartbroken and still somewhat in shock—whether we have ever been to Ukraine during our travels or not. More than 4.1 million refugees have now fled Ukraine since February 24, according to the United Nations , a number that keeps growing each day. Of those, nearly 2.4 million have crossed the border into neighboring Poland, while others have gone to Romania, Moldova, Hungary, and Slovakia, among other countries.

“The escalation of conflict in Ukraine has caused destruction of civilian infrastructure and civilian casualties and has forced people to flee their homes seeking safety. . . . They are in need of protection and support,” the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) wrote in its latest report about the current Ukraine refugee crisis.

Last week, President Biden pledged $1 billion in humanitarian assistance for those affected by the war in Ukraine and announced plans to welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing the war.

As we observe in horror as this humanitarian crisis unfolds, we have been reminded in recent days and weeks by travelers of better times in Ukraine, prior to the invasion, when the destination left an indelible mark on visitors’ hearts and souls.

“There was a time, just a few years past, when Kyiv would regularly host my visits,” my brother, Paul-Andre Baran, who owns and operates Anagram Brewing in Bucharest, Romania, recently told me. “The patchwork of images that still spring to mind flow from nubilous mornings walking through the slumbering city while visiting the glorious green and gold of the St. Sophia Cathedral, to late night descents into the deep caverns of beautifully ornamented subway stations that now house the many residents of that beautiful city.”

The bright green and gold St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv was a popular tourist destination prior to the war.

Photo by Sergiy Velychko/Shutterstock

He noted that rather than seem “hard or broken from their long communist legacy,” he found the people of Ukraine to be “confident and aspirational of a future they worked to define.” Kyiv, he said, was very much a welcoming capital city “that earned its place beside its European brethren.”

My brother isn’t the only person I know who has spent some time traveling in Ukraine. In 2017, while working as a senior editor at Travel Weekly , I sent Los Angeles–based writer, editor, and producer Eric Newman on assignment to Ukraine .

“When I visited Ukraine on a river cruise in May 2017, it was a place where one could almost viscerally feel the push and pull of history,” recalls Newman.

Newman was on one of the first river cruises to make its way from Odessa to Kyiv following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, “and spirits were so high that the ship was greeted at the Kyiv port by cheering pedestrians and a brass band playing the songs of composer Vlodymyr Ivasyuk. I will never forget that moment, which resonates differently for me today, when I see a country that offered so much warmth, joy, discovery (and food!) torn apart by war. It won’t always be, of course. Ukraine is a country that knows and lives perseverance, and I look forward to the day when others can walk those streets in Odessa and Kyiv as I once did.”

Véronique Banzet, who runs the luxury travel service VeronicTravel , lived in Kyiv for five years and was there during the 2014 revolution. She recalls a Kyiv “colored with the roofs of the monasteries, full of life with all the restaurants, the terraces of the cafés, enchanted by the Opera and the Philharmonic hall.”

Banzet tells AFAR that Kyiv, Odessa, Chernivtsi, Lviv, and many cities in Ukraine are in her heart these days. “We are totally shocked and sad,” Banzet says.

One traveler recalls her time visiting Lviv, which she referred to as the little Paris of Ukraine.

Photo by Boris Stroujko/Shutterstock

Four years ago, Loretta Becker of Cruise World Inc. traveled to Ukraine with her husband. “It was such a memorable time,” she recalls. “We love Ukraine and her people.”

Becker and her husband visited Lviv, Kyiv, Odessa, and the Carpathian Mountain region. “We loved Lviv, the little Paris of Ukraine, with her sidewalk cafés and beautiful churches,” says Becker. “I was amazed at the beautiful architecture in Kyiv.”

During her trip, Becker took a Ukrainian cooking class, hired a sailboat one afternoon and sailed down the Dnieper River, and took a tour of Odessa’s hidden courtyards and attended a ballet performance in Odessa.

“As my husband has Ukrainian heritage, it was an incredible journey for us to visit the country of his ancestors,” she says.

How travelers can help Ukraine

A little more than one month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, help is still needed. Travelers who would like to assist refugees fleeing Ukraine as well as people who are displaced within the country can donate to organizations that are aiding and supporting those who are affected.

United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR)

Dating back to 1950, UNHCR works to provide everything from secure shelter to food and medical supplies to those who are fleeing violence around the world. The organization has been in the Ukraine since 1994 and has currently established outreach efforts to Ukrainian refugees who have fled to Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. The current response plan includes partnering with emergency teams to ensure that basic needs are met for the now millions of refugees fleeing Ukraine.

“Millions of people—mostly women and children—have been forced to flee Ukraine. They are sheltering in underground train stations, walking hundreds of miles and leaving behind everything they’ve ever known,” the agency writes in its latest report about Ukraine.

To donate: give.unrefugees.org

The organization that works to protect children throughout the world estimates that 2 million children have been forced to flee Ukraine and more than 2.5 million children have been internally displaced.

“Children fleeing the war in Ukraine are also at heightened risk of human trafficking and exploitation,” UNICEF reports.

UNICEF is working to provide vulnerable children and families with essential services, including safe water, food, healthcare services, education, and protection.

To donate: unicefusa.org

International Rescue Committee (IRC)

The IRC mission dates back to 1933, and the organization currently responds to humanitarian crises in more than 40 countries throughout the world. The IRC is working to help provide evacuation services to people who are trapped by the conflict in Ukraine and to provide essential items to those being forced to flee. In Poland, the IRC is offering legal counseling, social work services, interpreters, and psychological support to Ukraine refugees.

To donate: help.rescue.org

World Central Kitchen

Chef José Andrés’s nonprofit specializing in humanitarian food aid has set up services in Poland, where the group is serving hot meals at eight border crossings throughout the country. The organization is also supporting local restaurants preparing meals in the Ukrainian cities of Odessa, Lviv, and Kyiv and is handing out meals in Romania, Moldova, and Hungary.

To donate: donate.wck.org

>> Next: Is Europe Travel Safe During Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine?

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Ukraine invasion — explained

The roots of Russia's invasion of Ukraine go back decades and run deep. The current conflict is more than one country fighting to take over another; it is — in the words of one U.S. official — a shift in "the world order." Here are some helpful stories to make sense of it all.

With Ukraine at war, officials hope to bring tourism back to areas away from fighting

Ashley Westerman

Tourists by the boulevard at a Black Sea resort in Odesa, Ukraine, on Sept. 3. Tourists are not allowed to enter the public beach due to the presence of land mines and other explosives. Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto via Getty Images hide caption

Tourists by the boulevard at a Black Sea resort in Odesa, Ukraine, on Sept. 3. Tourists are not allowed to enter the public beach due to the presence of land mines and other explosives.

SLAVSKE, Ukraine — Ukraine's war-battered economy is expected to shrink by at least a third this year, hitting virtually every sector. This includes the tourism industry, which officials say had started to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

But the Ukrainian government still hopes its people will continue to travel within the country — and spend money in locales on the Black Sea and in the Carpathian Mountains in the west.

"A lot of people in Ukraine still don't feel it's OK to go on vacation or travel," Mariana Oleskiv, chair of Ukraine's State Agency for Tourism Development, tells NPR.

More than seven months into the war, "we understand that many people in our country live in very bad conditions, that some people don't have electricity and our soldiers sleep in trenches," she says.

According to agency data provided to NPR, domestic tourism, which the agency defines as leaving your home city for leisure, increased 24% between 2019 and 2021. Nearly 4.2 million foreign tourists visited Ukraine in 2021 — a 30% jump over the previous year.

Oleskiv says she forecasted that the trend would continue into 2022, but then the war started.

Trips into Ukraine by international tourists are down between 85% and 90%, says Oleskiv. Tour operators in safer areas of Ukraine reported to the government that occupancy rates are down 50% this summer compared to last. She says tourism in places such as Odesa and other parts of southern Ukraine closer to the front line of the conflict has "stopped completely."

Tourists take the Soviet-era Zakhar Berkut resort chairlift in Slavske, Ukraine, in August. The tourist town is located in the Carpathian Mountains, a wildly popular vacation destination for Ukrainians. Ashley Westerman/NPR hide caption

Tourists take the Soviet-era Zakhar Berkut resort chairlift in Slavske, Ukraine, in August. The tourist town is located in the Carpathian Mountains, a wildly popular vacation destination for Ukrainians.

The slowdown is being felt across the country, including in the Carpathian Mountains, a popular vacation destination in the relatively safe western part of the country.

Katerina Minich manages the Dvir Kniazhoiy Korony hotel in Slavske, a popular ski resort town about 85 miles south of Lviv. Minich tells NPR that the number of guests at her 15-room hotel is down about 60% from last year.

"Overall, from February to [August], the hotel's earnings are 70 to 80% lower" compared to last year, Minich said by text message. She says other hotels in Slavske, whose population has shrunk since the war broke out, have experienced a similar drop in guests and revenues.

Tourists ski near the Chornohora mountain range, part of the Carpathian Mountains, in western Ukraine on Feb. 21, 2021, one year before the Russian invasion. Markiian Lyseiko/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images hide caption

Tourists ski near the Chornohora mountain range, part of the Carpathian Mountains, in western Ukraine on Feb. 21, 2021, one year before the Russian invasion.

The true damage Russia's full-scale ground invasion has wrought on Ukraine's domestic tourism sector won't be fully known for months, Oleskiv says. But her agency plans to start trying to turn things around with a new tourism campaign called "Get Inspired by Ukraine" — which she says aims to tell Ukrainians they have a right to take a rest.

"At some point, we need to stop and take a breath and don't be so involved in the news," Oleskiv says.

Some Ukrainians are already following the advice.

"I think that in order to be more effective, you have to relax sometimes," Natalii Baliuk, 35, from Kyiv said on a visit to Slavske in August. "Otherwise, you just will not be able to do anything and you cannot serve this country."

Baliuk and her friends traveled to the Carpathians for Ukrainian Independence Day not only because they believed it to be safe, but also because one of her friends could not travel abroad because martial law prevents men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving Ukraine.

The conflict in Ukraine could affect tourism throughout all of Europe, according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit . Russian and Ukrainian tourists spend a combined $45 billion a year, but that number is expected to decrease. In addition to the loss of tourists, the report says the conflict will also raise food and fuel prices, affect traveler confidence and disposable incomes, and restrict airlines and airspace.

Vendors sell food, beverages and souvenirs at a lookout spot in Slavske, Ukraine, in August. The week of Ukrainian Independence Day, the tourist town saw a small spike in visitors, but overall tourism this summer was down significantly across the Carpathian Mountains because of the war. Ashley Westerman/NPR hide caption

Vendors sell food, beverages and souvenirs at a lookout spot in Slavske, Ukraine, in August. The week of Ukrainian Independence Day, the tourist town saw a small spike in visitors, but overall tourism this summer was down significantly across the Carpathian Mountains because of the war.

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How Russia’s war on Ukraine impacts travel and tourism

Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine, while and first and foremost a humanitarian tragedy, has caused widespread economic damage across the globe, not least in travel and tourism. Between them, Russian and Ukrainian tourists usually spend around 45 billion US dollars per year on outbound travel, much of it in the countries of emerging Europe.

Hardly had the Covid-19 pandemic abated than Russia invaded Ukraine, providing the travel and tourism sector throughout emerging Europe with yet another challenge.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, the war will affect Europe’s tourism industry in four ways: a loss of Russian and Ukrainian tourists; restrictions on airlines and use of airspace; higher food and fuel costs; and a big hit to traveler confidence and disposable incomes.

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The loss of Russian and Ukrainian tourists, who spent a combined 45 billion US dollars per year prior to the Covid-19 pandemic (around eight per cent of the global total), will impact many countries in emerging Europe.

However, some regional experts also see the positive side of decreasing reliance on tourism from Russia in particular.

Loss of tourists in the Baltics?

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania could potentially also lose 10 per cent or more of their annual visitors owing to the effective ban on Russian travellers, as more and more countries in the Schengen space are choosing to stop issuing tourist visas to Russian passport-holders.

“The war in Ukraine came as we were all still recovering from the impact of the past two years and tourism numbers were not yet at pre-Covid levels,” Kadri Gröön of Visit Estonia tells Emerging Europe.

She points to a 50 per cent decrease in the number of cruise ships docking in Tallinn as a direct effect of the war. She further argues that this is not a result of fear, but because they could no longer visit St Petersburg, a key attraction for Baltic Sea cruises.

Nonetheless, she is optimistic about the future of the Estonian tourism industry.

“We have heard about the impact of the war as a reason for cancelling group trips, but we have not seen the direct impact of the war in tourism statistics. Passenger numbers have been gradually improving every month,” she says.

Regarding the cruise ships, she states that those ships that do come to Tallinn will stay longer than before. Also, more cruise ships have visited other ports than in previous years, for example Estonia’s largest island, Saaremaa.

It is a similar situation in Latvia.

“The Covid-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine have had an impact on tourism sector, reducing the number of travellers from North America, Asia, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine,” Janis Kovalevskis of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia tells Emerging Europe .

“The war in Ukraine had an immediate impact on booking figures for the spring and summer season, especially for group segment. A large number of booked group reservations were cancelled during March and did not re-book for the summer season. According to estimates provided by the tourism sector, bookings have been cancelled at around 60 to 70 per cent. Currently, incoming tourism is mainly based on individual travellers and small tourist groups, also domestic travel, and domestic and regional corporate travel.”

She explains that in order to ameliorate the effects of the war, in close cooperation with industry stakeholders, the Latvian tourism marketing strategy has been revisited in order to redefine priority markets and products.

“Due to the geopolitical situation, a large part of our tourism marketing budget now is invested in campaigns in our target markets in Scandinavia and Western Europe. Most of the tourists come from Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Germany, and other European countries,” says Kovalevskis.

Loss of tourists in the Balkans?

Montenegro, which attracted wealthy Russians to its exclusive beach resorts and marinas, has also been predicted to see large drop in tourism-related income, although some Russians have still been making their way to the country through Serbia. Belgrade is one of just a handful of European airports still open to flights from Russia.

In May, the World Bank downgraded Montenegro’s 2022 economic growth forecast to 3.6 per cent from a previous 5.9 per cent, partly due to the expected drop in the number of high-spending tourists.

“Russia and Ukraine represented one of the most important markets for Montenegro as a tourist destination in the last few years, as both were among the top five countries from which the largest number of tourists came. Prior to the war tourists from Russia and Ukraine made up 15.8 per cent of foreign visitors and 21 per cent of those that stay in the country overnight,” Milena Vujović of the National Tourism Organisation of Montenegro tells Emerging Europe .

She says that the country’s tourism industry has encountered a significant change as a result of this crisis, bust still managed to have a successful tourist season by attracting tourists from the region, Western Europe, but also from Israel, Kazakhstan, as well as some new markets for Montenegro, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

“According to our data on the number of tourists since the beginning of this year, on average, we are recording a growth of 9.91 per cent compared to the same period of the pre-pandemic year 2019,” Vujović says.

The Bulgarian Black Sea was another major tourist destination for Russian and Ukrainian tourists, and Deutsche Welle Bulgaria estimates that over 350,000 Russians own property on the country’s seaside.

“In our country, the war had a detrimental effect on tourism. In January we recorded a very high number of bookings for the starting spring and summer season. During this time, we were also experiencing a rather satisfactory winter tourism season. In February, the hostilities in Ukraine started and this stopped virtually all sales,” Pavlina Ilieva, chairwoman of the Future of Tourism Organisaiton which offers independent representation of the Bulgarian tourism industry, tells Emerging Europe .

A government scheme to boost tourism and assist some of the 297,000 Ukrainian refugees that had by the end of May settled or passed through Bulgaria included payments of 20 euros per day for food and accommodation given to hoteliers which hosted over 40,000 refugees in seaside resorts.

However, according to Ilieva the lack of clarity on when the scheme will end made it difficult for those participating to take bookings.

Tourists need not be afraid

lieva further argues that some tourists remain confused over where Bulgaria is located, something that has also contributed to the low number of seaside visitors.

“Some tourists are under the wrong impression that Bulgaria shares a border with Ukraine, and this led to the cancellation of reservations from the Western market.”

Some Bulgarian tour agencies have reported receiving calls from long-term clients from western countries asking if Russian shelling of Ukraine can be heard from Bulgaria.

Kadri Gröön of Travel Estonia is also at pains to point out that currently, there is no military threat to Estonia.

“It is the same distance from Tallinn to Kyiv as it is from Berlin or Vienna. Whilst we do share a border with Russia, we are a proud northern European country, a member of the EU and NATO and just 80 kilometres across the gulf from Helsinki,” she says.

Bulgaria, Estonia, and all other eastern EU member states in-between currently have the lowest (Level 1) travel warning status issued by the US Department of State.

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Ukraine sees tourism as 'crucial' for post-war revival

MADRID - With its beaches targeted by Russian strikes and its hotels empty or closed since the start of the war, Ukraine has been deprived of an important source of income: tourism.

But Kyiv sees a revival of the industry as “crucial” for Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction.

“Once the war is over, tourism will play a key role in letting Ukraine recover quickly and rebooting its economy,” Ms Mariana Oleskiv, head of Ukraine’s SATD tourism development agency, told AFP.

And although the war, which began last February, appears far from over, Ukraine is “already working” on plans to promote tourism, said Ms Oleskiv, who is heading a Ukrainian delegation to FITUR, one of the world’s biggest tourism fairs taking place in Madrid from Jan 18-22.

“Of course, we don’t want to invite any tourists to come now: we don’t want them to take risks, even though in some areas of Ukraine the risk is very low,” said Ms Oleskiv who has headed the SATD since March 2020.

“But the moment the country is safe, we want to be ready to invite people to come and visit,” she explained.

By then, she said, Kyiv hoped to “have enough partners to promote Ukraine” which could be “an important (tourist) destination”.

A war-battered sector

Until 2010, Ukraine counted close to 20 million foreign visitors a year, mostly coming from Russia and Eastern Europe, UN World Tourism Organisation figures show, making it the eighth most-visited country in Europe.

But that figure plummeted to some 12 million in 2014 with Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula – one of the country’s top tourist regions – and subsequent support for separatist rebels in the vast eastern Donbas region.

And since Russia invaded on Feb 24, 2022, visitor numbers have collapsed.

“There are still domestic tourists, for instance, in the Carpathian mountains” which have become a refuge for those seeking to flee the “stress” and destruction of the war or the “electricity cuts due to Russian attacks”, Ms Oleskiv said.

But there are no foreign tourists – although the steady stream of international delegations, journalists and NGOs passing through Kyiv and the western city of Lviv has meant the hotel industry there “can survive more or less”, she said.

That’s not the case in places like the southern port city of Odesa, which lies close to the front line.

“It used to be a big touristic place, very dynamic”; but today, the situation is “much more difficult,” Ms Oleskiv said.

Image problem

Before the crisis, tourism accounted for 2 per cent of Ukraine’s economy and getting the sector back on track will be far from easy, requiring major investment.

“We will need time,” admits the tourism chief, while insisting Ukraine had strong potential for attracting visitors with its Black Sea beaches, its historical sites and family ski resorts.

In recent years, Kyiv has started to look towards new markets such as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states thanks to visa waivers and new airline routes in a strategy which could easily be expanded.

But with its railway network battered and its historic and cultural buildings destroyed, Ukraine will have to face the challenge of its image problem given its association with war.

“It’s important to show the consequences of this war and of the war crimes that Russia has committed,” Ms Oleskiv said.

And when the war is over, it will be time to start promoting another image of Ukraine, she said: “The image of a brave people, of a people that keep on fighting” despite everything. AFP

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Impact of the Russian offensive in Ukraine on international tourism

UNWTO Tourism Market Intelligence and Competitiveness

Overall assessment of the impact on tourism

Added risk to a weak and uneven tourism recovery

Disruption of Russian & Ukrainian outbound travel

which accounts for some 3% of global spending = US$ 14 billion in 2020

Lower consumer confidence

particularly in more risk averse markets and segments

Impact on traditional destinations but also emerging ones

especially island and coastal destinations

Weaker economic growth and higher inflation

Higher oil prices + inflation + interest rates = higher travel costs for consumers & pressure on businesses, specially MSMEs

Threatens tourism-related jobs and businesses

impacting livelihoods

A risk to the ongoing recovery of tourism

First and foremost, the biggest concern is for the human tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. Our thoughts go to the people suffering from this conflict.

Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine represents a downside risk for international tourism. It has exacerbated already high oil prices and transportation costs, increased uncertainty and caused a disruption of travel in Eastern Europe.

The destinations most impacted so far (aside from Russia and Ukraine) are the Republic of Moldova with a 69% drop in flights since 24 Feb. (compared to 2019 levels), Slovenia (-42%), Latvia (-38%) and Finland (-36%) according to data from Eurocontrol. Russian bookings of outbound flights also plunged in late February and early March but have since rebounded according to data from Forwardkeys.

Despite the conflict, European air traffic has grown steadily from mid March to early May. Air bookings also show rising demand for intra European travel and for flights from the US to Europe.

The easing of travel restrictions are contributing to the normalization of travel (36 countries had lifted all COVID 19 related travel restrictions as of 13 May 2022) but the conflict continues to pose a serious threat to the recovery.

A possible loss of US$ 14 billion for the tourism economy

The military offensive risks hampering the return of confidence to global travel . The US and Asian source markets could be particularly impacted, especially regarding travel to Europe, as these markets are historically more risk averse.

As source markets, Russia and Ukraine represent a combined 3% of global spending on international tourism as of 2020. A prolonged conflict could translate into a loss of US$ 14 billion in tourism receipts globally in 2022.

In 2019, Russian spending on travel abroad reached US$ 36 billion and Ukrainian spending US$ 8.5 billion. In 2020, these values were down to US$ 9.1 billion and US$ 4.7 billion, respectively .

As tourism destinations, Russia and Ukraine account for 4% of international tourist arrivals in Europe but only 1% of Europe’s international tourism receipts .

The importance of both markets is significant for neighboring countries, but also for European sun and sea destinations. The Russian market gained significant weight during the crisis in long-haul destinations such as Maldives, Seychelles and Sri Lanka.

Russia and Ukraine's international tourism spending (% of world total)

Destinations with highest share of russian visitors (%) (various indicators) 2019-2021, european flights, january - april 2022 (% change vs. 2019), european countries with largest decline in number of flights 24 feb - 11 may 2022 (% change vs. 2019), air bookings for intra-european travel, january to may 2022 (index)*, air bookings for all outbound travel from russia january to may 2022 (index)*.

International tourist arrivals: 2020, 2021 and Scenarios for 2022 (monthly % change over 2019)

•   Impact assessment, Issue 4 · 16 May 2022 (PDF)
•   Impact assessment, Issue 3 · 28 April 2022 (PDF)
•   Impact assessment, Issue 2 · 11 April 2022 (PDF)
•   Impact assessment, Issue 1 · 24 March 2022 (PDF)

How Russia’s War on Ukraine Changed Travel One Year Later

Rashaad Jorden , Skift

February 23rd, 2023 at 12:00 PM EST

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has disrupted the travel industry in significant ways, and its impact will continue to be felt for many years. Here is Skift's look at how the war has altered the business of travel.

Rashaad Jorden

Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a cataclysmic act that has significantly impacted travel worldwide. In just 12 months, 19 million refugees have crossed the border out of Ukraine, 7,200 innocent civilians have been killed, including 438 children, and countless lives are still being put at risk day and night by a war that shows no signs of ending.

That is how all of us try to put the tragedy into perspective. Still, our job is to report on the travel industry and how this war has upended business. 

Major travel brands in all sectors of the industry have been disrupted. Skift has thoroughly covered the impact of the war on the travel industry, including changes travel brands have had to make in response to the invasion as well as how it has impeded travel’s ongoing recovery from the pandemic. Here is a look at major changes in travel brought about by the war.

Airlines Faced Surging Fuel Costs

The airline industry was perhaps the first sector of travel to feel immediate effects of the war. Still largely yet to make a complete recovery from the pandemic, airlines had to quickly encounter surging fuel prices . Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary predicted the 12 months after the invasion would be difficult for most airlines in large part because of the jump in oil prices. Some carriers either introduced or raised fuel surcharges , which airlines typically pass onto customers in the form of higher airfares .

Russia’s Travel Industry Hasn’t Recovered

Russian travelers spent $36 billion on international travel and took more than 40 million overseas trips in 2019 , making the country one of the world’s largest outbound markets. The Russian travel industry had initially been one of the strongest performers according to the according to the Travel Health Index launched by Skift Research, which measures the performance of the global travel industry compared to pre-pandemic levels.  

But moves by U.S. , Canada, and nations across Europe to close their airspace to Russian planes have pummeled Russia’s travel performance as calculated by Skift Research. Russia’s score in the Skift Travel Health Index, which reveals the extent of its recovery from the pandemic, decreased roughly 28 points from February 2022 to the following month. The country’s December 2022 performance trailed its score from the same month in 2020.

The War Drove Major Travel Brands to Retreat From Russia

Many major Western travel companies announced shortly after Russia invading Ukraine that they were pulling business out of Russia . Travel industry heavyweights like Airbnb, Booking Holdings and Marriott were among the corporations to announce they were pulling operations out of Russia. In addition, several tour operators committed to cancelling trips to Russia for the rest of 2022.

However, some prominent global brands are still doing business in Russia, including Accor. CEO Sebastien Bazin said during last year’s Skift Forum Europe that the Paris-based hotel company has never stopped operating in a war-torn country in its history. Bazin added that issues pertaining profitability didn’t drive Accor’s decision, noting that Russia has been far from a lucrative market from the company. Meanwhile, despite blocking advertising from Russian companies, Google Travel is still listing information about hotels in Russia provided by advertisers from outside of the country.

Skift published this list in March 2022 documenting companies that had announced they were curtailing business from Russia.

Russian Travelers Forced to Move on From Long-Time Popular Destinations

Countries like Estonia, Latvia and Finland that long relied on Russian travelers took steps to restrict visitors from one of their top source markets. Estonia banned entry to Russian citizens who had previously issued tourist visas while Latvia stopped granting its own tourist visas to Russian travelers. Meanwhile, Finland limited the number of tourist visas it issued to Russian citizens. Skift Global Tourism Reporter Dawit Habtemariam writes those measures were part of a collective strategy to exert pressure on Russia’s government to end the invasion of Ukraine. In addition, Poland barred Russian tourists from entering the country .

The war also accelerated Cyprus’ plans to diversify its tourism base as the Mediterranean island nation banned flights from Russia. Cypriot Deputy Tourism estimated Savvas Perdios estimated the Russian and Ukrainian markets had represented roughly 22 percent of his country’s tourist arrivals, a figure he said went down to zero.

However, Thailand , the Maldives and Dubai have welcomed Russian visitors. The resumption of direct flights from Russia to Thailand sparked a nearly sevenfold increase in Russian visitors from September to November last year, and Thai authorities expect more than 1 million Russian travelers to visit in 2023.

And Dubai and Maldives have grown in popularity for Russian travelers, with Russia serving as among the top source market for both destinations. One Russian national living in the United Arab Emirates said the country was one of the few nations were Russians could travel without difficulty.

Companies and Destinations Hit Hard by the Absence of Russian Travelers

Aleksander Karpetsky, CEO of Dominicana Pro , a Dominican Republic-based tour operator specializing in trips for Russian and Ukrainian travelers, said the lack of visitors from his company’s markets had left his workers unemployed. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s travel industry and economy took a major hit after the state-owned Vietnam Airlines suspended flights to and from Russia shortly after the start of the war. Less than 40,000 Russians traveled to Vietnam in 2022, a nearly 94 percent drop from roughly 650,000 in 2019. In addition, Russian travelers typically spend more than visitors from other countries, according to data gathered from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

Turkey Becomes Business Travel Hub for Displaced Russian Corporations

Turkey’s decision not to issue sanctions against Russia drove a large number of Russian companies to set up shop in the country . Close to 1,400 Russian business opened offices in 2022, more than any other nation. Corporate Travel Editor Matthew Parsons wrote that Russian corporations view Turkey as a neutral trading location because the country enables them to trade with firms prohibited from engaging directly with Russia, especially U.S. businesses. Hundreds of U.S. corporations set up in Turkey after closing their Russian operations.

The number of flights between the two countries has also increased in recent years. Flights from Russia to Turkey rose 45 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year. And Turkish Airlines is upping the number of seats to and from Russia for the upcoming April-to-June quarter 55 percent from 2019 levels.  

Foreign Visitation to Ukraine Rendered Impossible

Although domestic tourism has started to rebound , reaching up to 50 percent of pre-invasion levels , the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine is still urging foreign travelers not to visit the country until the end of the war because it can’t guarantee their safety .

Mariana Oleskiv, chairperson of the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine, is adamant though that Ukraine will be successful in its efforts to rebuild its tourism industry. She delivered an emotional speech on the subject at Skift Global Forum in New York last September, explaining why she’s hopeful about a brighter tourism future for Ukraine. Oleskiv cited Ukraine’s plans to use Crimea, a region currently occupied by Russia, as a destination that could spark Ukraine’s tourism recover.

Russia Looks to Fill Tourism Void With Indian Travelers

Seeking ways to rebound from the enormous tourism hit, Russian tourism authorities turned their focus to wooing visitors from what Moscow perceived as friendly nations — one of them being India . Russia increased their efforts to attract Indian tourists, sending officials to events in India such the Outbound Travel Mart in Mumbai in September. Russian President Vladimir Putin had also proposed visa-free travel between the two countries.

Corporate Travel Agency Relationships Made Complicated

Not only did corporate travel agencies have to conduct emergency repatriations of staff based in Ukraine , they had the thorny issue of how to handle relationships with Russian partners . Many corporate travel agencies have long had ties in Russia because they viewed a presence in the world’s largest country as crucial. While CWT and FCM Travel said they would continue to maintain ties with their Russian partners, Corporate Travel Management suspended its partnership with Moscow-based Unifest and TripActions, which later rebranded as Navan, said it was is no longer supporting travel to Russia and Belarus. 

The Daily Newsletter

Our daily coverage of the global travel industry. Written by editors and analysts from across Skift’s brands.

Tags: russia , russia outbound , ukraine , ukraine national tourism organization , Ukraine War

Photo credit: A collage created by Skift Creative Strategist Aishwarya Agarwal Aishwarya Agarwal

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‘Shock therapy:’ War tourism in Ukraine attracts foreigners to see scars of Russia's invasion

Driving out of Kyiv the roads tell the dark history of the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion. A low buzzing sound echoes across the highway as hundreds of cars drive toward the suburb of Bucha. “It’s from tanks and heavy vehicles. They left these cuts in the asphalt that produce this creepy sound,” tour guide Svet Moiseev told the Kyiv Independent on a tour on Feb. 27. Moiseev has told the same fact to dozens of tourists since launching a war tourism excursion shortly after Russian troops retreated from Kyiv Oblast on April 3, 2022, leaving behind decimated towns and villages . The Kyiv local, who works for Capital Tours, saw an opportunity to utilize his decade-long experience as a guide to inform foreigners about Russia’s brutal invasion and raise money for the war effort. He crafted an emotional route through the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel, and Borodyanka telling intricate stories of Russia’s attempt to capture the capital and the brutal occupation.

Read also: Prosecutor General: Russian troops committed 9,000 war crimes in Bucha district

He also mixes into the tours Ukraine’s history explaining the country’s centuries-long struggle against Moscow to a largely North American and western European audience. It’s important that people understand that Kyiv is not part of a “big Moscow,” he said.

Ukraine’s tourism industry predictably plummeted after Russia’s invasion. The initial flurry of journalists and political delegations who came to the country following the invasion have also migrated elsewhere.

But as tourists gradually begin to return, the sector has adapted by offering war tourism opportunities. Not everyone is excited about showing foreigners the scars of war — some locals balk at the idea of displaying their most vulnerable moments to tourists. Already Moiseev said he’s noted an uptick in tourists. The first wave arrived in the summer of 2022 and peaked in the summer of 2023 with one or two tours a day. His clientele is a mix of business professionals, political figures, people visiting friends, and curious tourists, he told the Kyiv Independent. “People want to understand how (this war) could happen in the 21st century.  And, of course, they want to pay tribute to those who were killed and those who defended.”

‘Shock therapy’

As business is currently not profitable, Moiseev said he sees himself more as a volunteer doing important work by informing visitors about the Russian occupation.

Tours start at $120, half of which is donated to the Ukrainian army, and the company operates without any support from organizations. While some of his guests purely want a historical tour of Kyiv, others are eager to spend half a day in the capital’s liberated suburbs. Most tourists are empathetic and genuinely want to learn about the war but Moiseev admitted that a few were simply thrill seekers.

For Moiseev, it's important to show the reality of war to those who have never experienced it in the hopes it will educate people about Ukraine’s plight and increase support for the country abroad.

“This destroyed apartment block is a bucket of ice-cold water on your head to bring it back into reality,” Moiseev said, pointing to a five-story apartment building torn apart by an aerial bomb.

“It's shock therapy for those who forget that the war in Ukraine is still ongoing.”

Reconstruction work has largely brought these formerly-occupied areas back to life, but Moiseev believes in keeping some of the damaged buildings as a “sad museum.” He draws parallels to Chernobyl, one of Ukraine’s most popular tourist destinations which Capital Tours would visit pre-2022. Both serve as informal museums that remind people of horrific incidents, he said. For tourist Daniel Hosie, Moiseev’s tour was an opportunity to better understand a war he had been following daily from his native Scotland. Seeing with his own eyes the destroyed bridge in Irpin that Ukraine blew up to prevent Russia’s advance across the Irpin River was a striking moment. “It was surreal. That bridge is a memorable one for me, because I saw it fall, and I remember thinking that this is crazy. And then I’m there, seeing it,” he told the Kyiv Independent.

Uncomfortable stares

Moiseev interweaves personal stories from locals alongside technical battle details. In one story he tells on the tour, a family in the town of Hostomel outside of Kyiv were forced to hide in a Soviet-era bunker next to their house, braving the 30-meter dash home to gather supplies as shells rained down.

Not everyone wants their life to be turned into a tourist attraction. Signs have appeared on derelict houses warning visitors not to enter or take photographs. Standing inside the charred remains of his kitchen, Hostomel resident Serhii Ahiyev said that he is wary of guides capitalizing on his bombed-out street. “Sometimes they bring tourists on purpose to make money from it. Not to talk about what happened,” he told the Kyiv Independent. Ahiyev does, however, support the idea of drawing attention to the Russian occupation. While he was irritated by the flocks of journalists and visitors in the early days of the liberation, he has since changed his mind and believes people should see the “terrible actions of the Russians,” including tourists.

As a visitor, Hosie believed it was important to visit the satellite towns to get the full experience of Ukraine during the war. But he noted feeling uncomfortable when faced with the grim reality of occupation. “I didn't want it to be an Instagram photo shoot. You have to show respect,” he said.

“These are people's lives, people's homes. I was aware to keep that in the back of my mind, that this isn't a holiday. You're here to see what's going on and experience it.”

Moiseev himself is often conscious of the stares from locals during tours but still believes that it is important to show foreigners, comparing it to a tour of Auschwitz. “Most people understand that international support comes from knowledge and information. So (locals), for the most part, tolerate the visitors.”

Humanitarianism and tourism

Tourism can also provide tangible help by supporting salaries and bringing in foreign currency, according to project manager Mykhailo Cherevyk from Visit Ukraine , one of Ukraine’s foremost tourism websites. In 2022, the company regularly assisted journalists and political delegations, connecting them with locals and charity organizations. But with attention shifting away from Ukraine, tourists now make up 80% of Visit Ukraine’s clients. In the high season last year, 20 to 30 people per month used Visit Ukraine’s services which range from insurance to tours. Three months ago, the company launched an experimental project called “ Donation Tours .” For just under $2,000, the project combines traditional tourism with a humanitarian mission while partnered with a local guide in southern Ukraine. Visitors are shown around the city of Mykolaiv, before undertaking a medical training course in the afternoon. The next day, local guides take them to the oblast’s formerly occupied territories where they distribute aid to either medical facilities, children's centers, animal shelters, or provide heating equipment and construction materials, depending on their choice.

The idea was born out of a conversation between Visit Ukraine and a humanitarian center in Mykolaiv, to help meet the needs of residents. Many of the local guides have no prior experience in tourism but know the safe routes to ensure guests are well protected. “It is one of the ways to resolve the problems that we have with tourism and life in the south of Ukraine,” Cherevyk said, adding that the region has suffered immensely from the invasion.

Read also: ‘We can’t wait for peace:’ Reluctant at first, Denmark takes on rebuilding war-torn Mykolaiv Oblast

For now, the idea is too radical for most, with only one or two bookings a month. But Visit Ukraine plans to increase marketing and collaborate with international organizations to attract more people. “We are working to make sure that more people can see the things that the Russian army does to Ukrainian lands and people. And provide help for southern regions,” Cherevyk said.

The future of Ukrainian tourism

The State Agency for Tourism Development is not actively encouraging international tourism at the moment. But it is using the break to develop domestic tourism, which has increased in western Ukraine. “We have huge losses, but at the same time we have possibilities for some new destinations to enter the tourism market,” Chairperson of the agency Mariana Oleskiv told the Kyiv Independent. The agency calculated that tourist taxes contributed Hr. 1.89 billion ($49.2 million) in the first six months of 2021, making up roughly 3% of Ukraine’s GDP that year. Now, western regions primarily hold up the tourism sector as Ukrainians opt to vacation in the Carpathian mountains or previously little-visited cities like Chernivtsi in the southwest. Developing western regions for Ukrainian tourists will in turn prepare Ukraine for the eventual return of foreigners, according to Oleskiv. She noted that popular destinations like Lviv became successful following a steady influx of Ukrainian tourists over the years which built its reputation as a hotspot for foreigners. By 2019, international tourists amounted to 50% of Lviv’s tourism market. The agency believes that war tourism will be a major attraction once travel is safe. Currently, they are developing commemoration routes to mark the horrors inflicted by Russia, from the massacres in Bucha to torture chambers and destroyed infrastructure, like the Irpin bridge.

“If you see it on TV, it's a completely different feeling to when you are there. We want to attract a lot of tourists from all around the world to visit those sites to understand a little bit more about this war to prevent such wars in the future,” Oleskiv stressed. “It’s something we need to do.” A memorial to fallen soldiers has already opened on the outskirts of Moschun, a village in Kyiv Oblast. Located in a woodland clearing, dozens of photographs of men and women adorn the trees surrounded by shrines, letters, and a large tapestry of an Orthodox Icon.

Shrapnel-damaged mugs and a metal plate also sit in a nearby trench once used by the defenders battling Russian troops. More of these memorials could soon be established all over Ukraine, particularly in the east, according to Moiseev. They serve both as a reminder for locals and as an educational site for tourists, he said. But Oleksiv doesn’t want the sole focus to be on the war. The agency is taking inspiration from countries like Croatia which overcame its war-torn reputation to become a tourist destination, selling its culture and landscape while still telling its troubled history. Ukraine could do something similar, she said, by attracting visitors to its mountains and seaside while injecting stories of the war into tours. For now, war tours like the one offered by Moiseev are likely to be a brief snapshot of the current time rather than a long-lasting option. Reconstruction has already erased much of Bucha and Irpin’s scars, while Moiseev notes that it also takes an emotional toil. “It is working now, not as a business, but basically as a remembrance,” he said. “After it's all finished, we will come back to Kyiv culture, borscht, and normal things.”

Read also: Reconstruction in Kyiv suburb sabotaged by local officials, discouraging foreign investors

We’ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent .

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Ukraine war: international tourism hit as Russian travellers disappear

Senior Lecturer in International Tourism Management, Glasgow Caledonian University

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Michael O'Regan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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• Bahasa Indonesia

Tourism destinations globally are seeing a significant hit to their economies as Russians stay at home due to war-related sanctions , with possible long-term effects on international tourism.

This comes as European countries with Russian borders say they may ban all Russian tourists.

Russians were the world’s seventh biggest tourist spenders before the pandemic, splashing out US$36 billion (£31 billion) annually.

Vietnam’s Nha Trang , nicknamed “Little Russia” , attracted a large number of Russian tourists before the war. The beach resort saw a fast post-pandemic recovery thanks to the return of Russian tourists in 2019. Russian tourists spent an average of US$1,600 per stay in Vietnam, while the average for foreign visitors is US$900 .

Upmarket Vietnamese hotels, previously popular with Russian tourists, are almost empty or have been sold . The tour guide business has also been affected .

Nha Trang isn’t alone. In Thailand’s resort Phuket , shops and bazaars would normally be bustling with Russian tourists. Hotel companies remain uncertain about their future after many Russians cancelled their holidays when Russian airlines suspended flights to Phuket in March 2022. While foreign arrivals represented 59% of arrivals in Phuket airport before the pandemic, this figure was 35% in the first half of 2022 .

Read more: Ukraine war prompts Baltic states to remove Soviet memorials

Now resorts dotted around the globe, from Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt to Varadero in Cuba, are all suffering economic hits with low hotel occupancy levels , resulting in lost jobs, bankruptcies and falls in income .

Disappearing visitors

Turkey attracted seven million Russian visitors in 2019 to tourist destinations such as the Mediterranean resort of Antalya. It was popular with Russians because of its beaches, all-inclusive tours packages, and easy-to-obtain tourist visas on arrival . The city saw more than 3.5 million Russian visitors in 2021.

With forecasts of fewer than 2 million Russian tourists in 2022 and a US$3 billion to US$4 billion drop in tourism revenues, the change has led to job losses , just as fuel and other prices increase.

It’s an economic blow , as each tourist in Turkey generates roughly three temporary jobs and each tourism dollar generates up to US$2.50 worth of revenue for industries supplying tourist resorts , according to Al Jazeera.

The fall in tourist receipts and hard currency is putting pressure on the Turkish economy and its currency, as tourism accounted for 13% of GDP before the war and the pandemic.

Tourism issues

The EU has already suspended the European Union-Russia visa facilitation agreement, which made it relatively easy for Russians to obtain travel documents. Earlier sanctions had included bans on EU and Russian airlines flying to and from Russia. They also limited Russian tourists access to international credit overseas.

Many wealthy Russian tourists have switched to trips to Dubai. However, high-end shops in New York, London and Milan, and in glitzy destinations like St. Moritz and Sölden and popular spa towns such as Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic, are missing the business of the wealthiest Russian visitors.

On the French Côte d’Azur , luxury boutique hotels and expensive seafood restaurants have experienced a drop in business. They have not been able to replace wealthy Russian tourists with enough travellers from countries such as Bahrain .

Smaller countries, which hosted large numbers of Russian tourists as lockdowns eased, including Cyprus, the Maldives, Seychelles and the Dominican Republic found their post-pandemic tourism recovery short-lived. Cyprus, whose service industry including tourism, accounts for more than 80% of the economy is at risk of losing up to 2% of annual GDP if Russian and Ukrainian tourists do not return to the country.

Cuba saw an increase of 97.5% in Russian tourists in 2021, according to the country’s National Office of Statistics and Information . When that market collapsed , Cuba’s economic recovery plans were hit . Russians were expected to account for 20% of Cuba’s visitors in 2022, with far fewer tourists visiting the resort of Varadero .

Finding alternative visitors

Thai resorts are hoping for a growth in Middle Eastern visitors and Indians to help fill their hotels. Egypt is looking to increase visitor numbers from Latin America, Israel and Asia. Germans and others , including Iranians, are already replacing Russians in Antalya. In Vietnam, there are efforts to increase visitors from Korea, Japan, western Europe and Australia.

However, many destinations were unprepared for the shortfall in Russian tourists, and are not capable of replacing 30-40% of their market with new travellers.

Now that Russian tourists are cancelling trips to the resorts of Crimea as it comes under fire in the Ukraine war, some destinations are hoping Russians seek an escape by transiting through Serbia , Dubai and Qatar. Destinations such as Armenia, Vietnam and Turkey are also embracing the Russian payment system Mir to make it easier for Russian tourists to pay.

The efforts that destinations are making to replace Russian visitors will take considerable diversification, marketing and time, as tourists from new markets look for different activities. While Vietnam hopes for 5 million tourists in 2022, this is far from the 18 million visitors they received in 2019.

Even when the war ends, there is little likelihood that tourism will return to normal. Many European countries may not want to welcome Russian tourists for some time.

It will be interesting to see whether signs written in Russian in the Egyptian beach town of Sharm el-Sheikh or Varadero in Cuba will remain, or be replaced with Chinese or other languages in the upcoming tourist seasons.

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US aid to Ukraine: What difference will it make in war with Russia?

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• US aid may help Kyiv avert big Russian breakthrough - experts
• But Ukrainian manpower, fortifications remain weaknesses
• New mobilisation law will take time to have impact
• Zelenskiy says Russia may be preparing big summer push

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US intelligence believes Putin probably didn't order Navalny to be killed, Wall Street Journal reports

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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 788

As the war enters its 788th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Monday, April 22, 2024.

• One person was killed and four others were injured in Russian shelling in the town of Ukrainsk, according to the prosecutor’s office in the partially-occupied Donetsk region. In the Odesa region, four people were injured in a Russian missile attack, Governor Oleh Kiper said.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces had taken control of the settlement of Bohdanivka in the Donetsk region. Bohdanivka is located just to the west of the Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut.
• The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, in its evening report, mentioned Bohdanivka as one of a series of villages where it said Ukrainian forces repelled 13 enemy attacks. It gave no specific details.
• Ukraine’s Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said the navy had struck and damaged the Kommuna, a Russian rescue vessel, in Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea. The Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol said Russian forces had repelled an antiship missile attack on one of its vessels in the port, and that there was a small fire.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the US House of Representatives’ passage of a long-delayed bill to provide $61bn in foreign aid for Ukraine and urged the United States to quickly turn the bill into law and start the transfer of weapons.
• European Union foreign ministers will meet in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss bolstering Ukraine’s air defences.
• Global military spending rose by 6.8 percent to an all-time high of $2.4 trillion, driven by conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Russia boosted spending by 24 percent, reaching $109bn in 2023, according to SIPRI’s estimates. Ukraine’s military spending rose by 51 percent, reaching $64.8bn, while it also received $35bn in military aid from its allies, mostly the US.

Russia may ramp up attacks on Ukraine to capitalize on the limited window it has before new US aid arrives: ISW

• Ukraine may face more attacks from Russia even as the US has approved more aid, says the ISW.
• The ISW says Russia can "take advantage of the limited window before the arrival of new US aid."
• The House finally passed more than $60 billion of aid to Ukraine after months of delays.

The House of Representatives might have finally approved more than $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, but the country could still face increased attacks from Russia in the meantime, says the Institute for the Study of War .

"The frontline situation will therefore likely continue to deteriorate in that time, particularly if Russian forces increase their attacks to take advantage of the limited window before the arrival of new US aid," the ISW wrote in a report on Saturday.

The passage of the Ukraine aid bill was delayed for months due to staunch opposition from House Republicans . The legislative package was finally passed by the House on Saturday, with 112 Republicans voting against it.

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The bill, however, will still need to be approved by the Senate and signed by the president before the aid can reach Ukraine.

"These requirements and the logistics of transporting US materiel to the frontline in Ukraine will likely mean that new US assistance will not begin to affect the situation on the front line for several weeks," the US think tank wrote.

Ukraine, the ISW said, would "suffer additional setbacks in the coming weeks," though they should still be able "to blunt the current Russian offensive assuming the resumed US assistance arrives promptly."

Although the US started out as a huge backer of Ukraine, support for the war effort has faltered, in part due to GOP opposition.

Republicans had repeatedly blocked attempts by the Biden administration to send aid to Ukraine, arguing that the money could be better spent addressing America's domestic problems.

US assistance would provide Ukraine with a critical lifeline as it grapples with an invigorated Russian army. On April 10, US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli said in a House Armed Services Committee hearing that the Russian army "is actually now larger — by 15 percent — than it was when it invaded Ukraine."

"The severity of this moment cannot be overstated: If we do not continue to support Ukraine, Ukraine could lose," said Cavoli, who is also NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.  

Representatives for Russia's defense ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Watch: Russian strike leaves 17 dead during Blinken's visit to Ukraine

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After Congress finally does pass new funding, this is how the US can rush weapons to Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the US House of Representatives for passing the foreign aid bill in his nightly video-address on Saturday.

FILE -A steel worker moves a 155 mm M795 artillery projectile during the manufacturing process at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pa., Thursday, April 13, 2023. The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days if Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That’s because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs. The House approved $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

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FILE - A steel worker manufactures 155 mm M795 artillery projectiles at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pa., Thursday, April 13, 2023. The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days if Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That’s because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs. The House approved $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE -Steel workers manufacture 155 mm M795 artillery projectiles at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pa., Thursday, April 13, 2023. The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days if Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That’s because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs. The House approved $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE -155 mm M795 artillery projectiles are stored for shipping to other facilities to complete the manufacturing process at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pa., Thursday, April 13, 2023. The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days if Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That’s because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs. The House approved $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE -A steel worker inspects a 155 mm M795 artillery projectile during the manufacturing process at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pa., Thursday, April 13, 2023. The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days if Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That’s because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs. The House approved $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE - 155 mm M795 artillery projectiles are stacked during manufacturing process at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pa., Thursday, April 13, 2023. The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days if Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That’s because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs. The House approved $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country Saturday, April 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days once Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill . That’s because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs.

Moving fast is critical, CIA Director Bill Burns said this past week, warning that without additional aid from the U.S., Ukraine could lose the war to Russia by the end of this year.

“We would like very much to be able to rush the security assistance in the volumes we think they need to be able to be successful,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

The House approved $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country Saturday after Speaker Mike Johnson , R-La., pushed a larger foreign aid bill toward a vote despite threats from within his party that doing so could cost him his job . It still needs to clear the Senate.

After the House vote, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he was grateful “for the decision that keeps history on the right track.” He said on X, formerly Twitter that the House action “will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations to become stronger.”

President Joe Biden has said he would sign it “immediately.”

If that happens, “we have a very robust logistics network that enables us to move material very quickly,” Ryder told reporters this past week. “We can move within days.”

The Pentagon has had supplies ready to go for months but hasn’t moved them because it is out of money. It has already spent all of the funding Congress had previously provided to support Ukraine, sending more than $44 billion worth of weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts since Russia’s February 2022 invasion .

By December, the Pentagon was $10 billion in the hole , because it is going to cost more now to replace the systems it sent to the battlefield in Ukraine.

As a result, the Pentagon’s frequent aid packages for Ukraine dried up because there’s been no guarantee Congress would pass the additional funding needed to replenish the weapons the U.S. has been sending to Ukraine. The legislation would include more than $20 billion to restock the Pentagon’s shelves and ensure that the military services have what they need to fight and protect America.

The lag in weapons deliveries has forced Ukrainian troops to spend months rationing their dwindling supply of munitions.

A look at how the U.S. can quickly move weapons to Ukraine:

PRESIDENTIAL DRAWDOWN AUTHORITY

When an aid package for Ukraine is announced, the weapons are either provided through presidential drawdown authority, which allows the military to immediately pull from its stockpiles, or through security assistance, which funds longer-term contracts with the defense industry to obtain the systems.

The presidential drawdown authority, or PDA, as it’s known, has allowed the military to send billions of dollars worth of ammunition, air defense missile launchers , tanks, vehicles and other equipment to Ukraine.

“In the past, we’ve seen weapons transferred via presidential drawdown authority arrive within a matter of days,” said Brad Bowman, director at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies center on military and political power.

Those stocks are pulled from bases or storage facilities in the U.S. or from European sites where the U.S. has already surged weapons to cut down on the amount of time it will take to deliver them once the funding is approved.

DWINDLING U.S. STOCKS

As the war in Ukraine has dragged on, the U.S. began to send increasingly larger, more lethal and more expensive systems to the warfront. They included entire air defense systems, armored vehicles, sophisticated missiles — even Abrams tanks .

Those systems cost more to replace , so the military — in particular, the Army — went deeper into debt. Compounding that, the military in some cases opted to replace older systems sent to Ukraine with pricier, higher-tech ones at home.

As a result, Army leaders recently told Congress that without passage of the foreign aid bill, they will begin to run out of money and have to move funds from other accounts.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Gen. Randy George, chief of staff of the Army, said the branch wouldn’t have enough money to bring home troops serving in Europe or to train units in the U.S.

U.S. WEAPONS STORAGE

The military has massive weapons storage facilities in the U.S. for millions of rounds of munitions of all sizes that would be ready to use in case of war.

For example, the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma sprawls across 45,000 acres (70 square miles) connected by rail and has a mission to surge as many as 435 shipping containers — each able to carry 15 tons (30,000 pounds) worth of munitions — if ordered by the president.

The facility is also a major storage site for one of the most used munitions on Ukraine’s battlefield, 155 mm howitzer rounds.

The demand by Ukraine for that particular shell has put pressure on U.S. stockpiles and pushed the military to see where else it could get them. As a result, tens of thousands of 155 mm rounds have been shipped back from South Korea to McAlester to be retrofitted for Ukraine.

STORING WEAPONS IN EUROPE

According to a U.S. military official, the U.S. would be able to send certain munitions “almost immediately” to Ukraine because storehouses exist in Europe.

Among the weapons that could go very quickly are the 155 mm rounds and other artillery, along with some air defense munitions. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss preparations not yet made public.

A host of sites across Germany, Poland and other European allies also are helping Ukraine maintain and train on systems sent to the front. For example, Germany set up a maintenance hub for Kyiv’s Leopard 2 tank fleet in Poland, near the Ukrainian border.

The nearby maintenance hubs hasten the turnaround time to get needed repairs done on the Western systems.

Follow the AP’s coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine .

Ukraine-Russia war latest: 'Putin did not order Navalny death,' - US report; Russian oil refinery suspends operations after 'Ukrainian drone attack'

US intelligence agencies have suggested Vladimir Putin most likely did not order Alexei Navalny to be killed, according to the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, a large fire broke out at an oil refinery it was hit with 10 Ukrainian drones, according to the Russian news agency.

Saturday 27 April 2024 11:33, UK

• 'Putin did not order Navalny death,' US report
• Russian oil refinery suspends operations after Ukrainian drone attack
• Forbes journalist placed under house arrest by Russian court
• How will Ukraine use US military aid?
• Explained : Why has Ukraine aid bill passed now, after months of delay?
• Your questions answered: Will Ukraine launch another spring offensive?
• Listen to the Sky News Daily above and  tap here  to follow wherever you get your podcasts
• Live reporting by Lauren Russell

One person has died and 14 have been injured after attacks on several regions in Ukraine, local authorities have said.

The areas of Kherson, Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk were all targeted overnight.

In the Kherson region, one person died and eight others were injured, according to governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

While in Kharkiv, Russian forces hit a psychiatric hospital, injuring a 53-year-old patient.

Governor Oleh Syniehubov said 60 patients and five employees were in the hospital at the time. 

Russian troops launched a total of 16 attacks against settlements in the Donetsk region, destroying or damaging 12 houses and five other unnamed buildings, Vadym Filashkin, the regional governor, said.

Three people were injured.

Dnipropetrovsk

An 82-year-old woman was injured during several strikes in the Dnipropetrovsk area.

Governor Serhii Lysak said seven blocks of flats, a market and a beauty salon were amongst the buildings damaged.

Following on from our last post, the Kremlin has said China and Russia will continue to develop ties after efforts by the US to curb relations between the two nations. 

It follows US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, saying he had reiterated to China's top diplomat Wang Yi the serious concerns the US has about the country providing dual-use goods that are "powering Russia's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine".

Those weapons are being used to "demolish a power grid and other civilian infrastructure and to kill innocent children, women and men", Mr Blinken said.

When asked about Mr Blinken's comments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said China is an "absolutely sovereign state".

He added: "At the same time, it [China] is our close partner. We will further develop our co-operation." 

China maintains that it has not provided weaponry to any party and is "not a producer of or party involved in the Ukraine crisis".

The Kremlin has said there are currently no grounds for peace talks with Ukraine.  

Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, said the two nations would not discuss an end to the conflict after Kyiv put in place a formal refusal to negotiate. 

The comments refer to a 2022 decree signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy which declared the prospect of any talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin "impossible".

The decree states that the possibility for a discussion is still open to what Mr Zelenskyy called "another president of Russia".

Russia launched a barrage of missiles against Ukraine overnight, appearing to target the country's energy infrastructure.

Ukraine's air force said that it had intercepted 21 out of 34 drones launched across the country.

Energy minister Herman Halushchenko said energy facilities in Dnipropetrovsk in the south of the country and Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv in the west had been attacked.

An engineer was reportedly injured, Mr Halushchenko said.

Private energy operator DTEK said four of its thermal power plants were damaged and that there were "casualties" but did not provide any further detail.

It comes after the security service of Ukraine confirmed that it had launched drones at the Slavyansk and Ilsky oil refineries in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region.

The source said drones also targeted Russia's Kushchevsk military airfield in the same region. 

Intelligence agencies in the US have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin most likely did not order opposition leader Alexei Navalny to be killed, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Mr Navalny, one of Mr Putin's fiercest critics, died at an Arctic prison camp in February at the age of 47.

His allies, including his wife, accused the Russian leader of having him murdered - an accusation the Kremlin has always denied. 

But after a recent assessment based on a range of information - including some classified intelligence and an analysis of public facts - US intelligence agencies do not believe Mr Putin ordered the death of his opponent.

The assessment also took into account the timing of the death and how it overshadowed Mr Putin's presidential re-election in March, the WSJ cited some of its sources as saying.

The paper quoted sources as saying the finding had been "broadly accepted within the intelligence community and shared by several agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the State Department's intelligence unit".

Responding to the report, Leonid Volkov, a senior Navalny aide, called the findings naive and ridiculous, the WSJ reported.

A Russian oil refinery has partially suspended operations after being damaged in a suspected Ukrainian drone attack, the Russian TASS news agency says.

A large fire broke out at the Slavyansk oil refinery in the Krasnoyarsk region after being hit with 10 Ukrainian drones, the security director at Slavyansk ECO Group, was quoted as saying. 

They said some of the damage caused may be hidden so the "work of the plant has been partially suspended".

Earlier today, Roman Siniagovskyi, head of the Slavyansk administrative district said the distillation column was damaged during the alleged strike. 

Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defence units had intercepted and destroyed 66 Ukrainian drones over the Krasnoyarsk region, and two more over the Crimean Peninsula.

A source from the Security Service of Ukraine confirmed that Ukrainian drones had been launched at the Slavyansk and Ilsky oil refineries and had caused fires at the facilities. 

A Ukrainian court has ordered the detention of the country's farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation.

The country's High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that agriculture minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias (£1.5m), a statement said.

He is alleged to have led an organised crime group that unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias (£5.87m) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias (£3.83m) between 2017 and 2021.

Over the past two years, a number of senior Ukrainian officials have lost their jobs, causing embarrassment as they receive thousands in foreign aid. 

US military aid is currently on the way to Ukraine, which may take several weeks to arrive.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says due to this, it will be a little while until any of the much-needed aid makes much of an impact on the battlefield.

It says forces in Ukraine will first have to use the aid to stabilise the frontlines and try to stop ongoing Russian advances, particularly in the areas of Avdiivka and Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region.

No matter what way Ukraine uses the new aid, the US has not claimed that it would be enough to allow the country to regain all of its territory. 

The ISW also warns of a potential summer Russian offensive operation that may begin as soon as June.

"Ukraine's ability to regain all of its territory in the long term rests on numerous future decisions in the West, in the Kremlin, and in Kyiv," the ISW says.

A Russian court has placed a journalist - who works for the Russian edition of Forbes - under house arrest, Russian state-news agency RIA has reported. 

Sergei Mingazov is believed to have been detained yesterday on suspicion of spreading false information about the Russian army, his magazine said at the time.

Forbes is an American business magazine.

It is currently owned by Hong Kong-based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments.

Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Yesterday, the US announced even more aid for Ukraine in the form of a $6bn (£4.8bn) package. 

The new package includes more Patriot missiles for the country's air defence systems.

It is in addition to the $61bn (£49bn) aid package that was finally passed by Congress following a long delay.

Before we resume our live coverage and regular updates, here is a recap of the other key moments from the last 24 hours.

• Ukrainian air defences shot down 21 out of 34 Russian missiles in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian air force said;
• A Russian oil refinery has been damaged in a suspected Ukrainian attack, local authorities said;
• A 20-year-old British man has been charged with conducting hostile state activity to benefit Russia, prosecutors have said.

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Aid to Ukraine Is on the Way. Here’s How It Might Help.

Weapons from the support package, considered “a lifeline” for Ukraine’s military, could be arriving on the battlefield within days.

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By Lara Jakes

Lara Jakes writes about weapons and military aid for Ukraine.

• Published April 24, 2024 Updated April 25, 2024

Now that the Senate has approved a nearly $61 billion aid package to Ukraine, and President Biden has signed it, desperately needed American weapons could be arriving on the battlefield within days.

The weapons package — which has been delayed over political wrangling by House Republicans since last fall — is “a lifeline” for Kyiv’s military, said Yehor Cherniev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s national security committee. Shortly after approving the funding on Wednesday, Mr. Biden said that the weapons shipments would begin in “a few hours.”

But it will not include everything that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has asked for as his military struggles to hold firm after two years of war against invading Russian forces.

Here is a look at what Ukraine says it needs, what it is expected to get in the American aid package and whether it will be enough to make an immediate difference.

What Ukraine wants.

Above all, Mr. Zelensky says Ukraine needs artillery ammunition and long-range missiles to strike Russian forces, along with air defenses to protect cities and key infrastructure like military bases, power plants and weapons factories.

“We need to inflict maximum damage on everything that Russia uses as a base for terror and for its military logistics,” Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly address to Ukrainians on Monday.

To do so, he has said, Ukraine needs more long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems — known as ATACMS and pronounced “attack'ems” — to hit behind enemy lines and deep into Russian-held territory. The United States did send a small number of ATACMS, with a range of roughly 100 miles, to Ukraine last year, and they were used to strike two Russian air bases in October .

Ukraine had been asking for a longer-range ATACMS that can strike targets about 190 miles away, and on Wednesday a senior American official confirmed that the Pentagon had already secretly shipped some that were used to strike a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian troops in the country’s southeast overnight on Tuesday.

Artillery ammunition, like the 155-millimeter caliber shells that fit NATO-standard launchers donated by the West, has been in short supply in Ukraine for more than a year, as Russian forces are firing 10 times as many rounds on the battlefield as outgunned Ukrainian troops, Mr. Zelensky said last week .

Mr. Zelensky has also described air defenses — and specifically the American-made surface-to-air antiballistic Patriot missiles system — as “crucial.” And he has been pushing for more than a year for F-16 fighter jets to provide another layer of air defense over Ukraine’s ground war.

What Ukraine will get.

The Pentagon said on Wednesday it would rush a $1 billion military aid package to Ukraine, including shoulder-fired Stinger surface-to-air missiles and other air defense munitions, 155-millimeter shells, Javelin anti-tank guided missiles, cluster munitions and battlefield vehicles.

It also contains ammunition for the so-called High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, which can launch ATACMS missiles. A U.S. official would not confirm whether ATACMS specifically would be part of the aid, and the Pentagon generally has resisted discussing the missiles’ use in Ukraine, in part out of concern that it could inflame Russia by admitting it was sending long-range weapons to the war.

But in a statement Wednesday, Mr. Zelensky confirmed that ATACMS were part of the package that he described as “exactly the kind of weapons that our soldiers need.”

It did not, however, include another Patriot air-defense system, or specify that it contained additional missiles for the ones Ukraine is already fielding. It is not clear if that could come in future shipments, as Germany and other allies are reportedly demanding. The systems are scarce and expensive, and giving one more to Ukraine could mean pulling it from protecting American assets, either domestically or internationally.

And though Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, repeated on Tuesday that NATO allies were working to deliver F-16 jets to Ukraine, the United States has so far declined to donate any of its warplanes. (The U.S. Air Force, however, has helped train some of the several dozen Ukrainian pilots who so far are learning to fly them.) Officials have said about 12 pilots should be ready to fly the F-16s in combat by July, but as few as six of the jets will have been delivered to Ukraine by then.

Will it be enough?

Although the $61 billion aid package is designated as support for Ukraine, Pentagon officials have said that as much as $48 billion will go to American weapons manufacturers either to replenish U.S. stockpiles that have been nearly emptied over the past two years of war or to build additional arms for Ukraine.

The $1 billion infusion from the Pentagon will come from the remaining funds, and Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, who is chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said it could be “in transit by the end of the week.” That could immediately help shore up Ukraine’s front line, where forces need to quickly halt Russian drones, jets and light bombers, and prevent Ukraine from losing ground, although another U.S. official cautioned on Wednesday it could take more than a week for the weapons to reach the front lines.

But Ukrainian officials seem skeptical that enough weapons will be delivered quickly or consistently over the coming months to keep up the momentum.

“When we get it, when we have it in our arms, then we do have the chance to take this initiative and to move ahead to protect Ukraine,” Mr. Zelensky told NBC News’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. But, he said, “it depends on how soon we get this aid.”

Weapons and ammunition sent to Ukraine are often drawn from Pentagon assets in Europe, with shipments coordinated from a staff of up to 500 people based in Germany .

Yet for months, American and other allies have repeatedly warned that they had few weapons to give Ukraine until weapons production could catch up with the war’s voracious demand. That led Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, to question in an interview published on Tuesday where the new package of weapons would be coming from.

“Is this equipment available?” Ms. Markarova told the Ukrainian daily Ukrainska Pravda . “Will we find, and produce, enough equipment quickly enough to get it?”

The funding helps, she said, but questioned whether all the weapons and equipment that it would pay for are “ready for delivery.”

“Unfortunately, no,” Ms. Markarova said.

Lara Jakes , based in Rome, reports on diplomatic and military efforts by the West to support Ukraine in its war with Russia. She has been a journalist for nearly 30 years. More about Lara Jakes

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Russia’s war in Ukraine remains barrier to growth, says IMF chief

Kristalina Georgieva says Kyiv will need $42bn of financial support this year as G7 considers ways to use seized Russian assets

Russia’s war with Ukraine is stoking geopolitical tensions and damaging the recovery prospects of the global economy, the head of the International Monetary Fund has warned.

Kristalina Georgieva urged an end to the two-year conflict, saying it was both a human tragedy and a barrier to growth.

As G7 finance ministers said they were looking at ways of using the almost $300bn (£240bn) of seized Russian assets to help Ukraine, the IMF managing director said support for Kyiv remained “steady and firm”. Georgieva said Ukraine would need $42bn of financial support this year.

The G7 group of leading developed countries said it would “continue working on all possible avenues by which immobilised Russian sovereign assets could be made use of to support Ukraine , consistent with international law and our respective legal systems”.

The communique released after the meeting in Washington also hinted at tougher sanctions against Iran following last weekend’s missile and drone attack on Israel.

“We will ensure close coordination of any future measure to diminish Iran’s ability to acquire, produce, or transfer weapons to support its destabilising regional activities,” the G7 said.

Most of the seized Russian assets are being held in Europe, and the European Central Bank is concerned that outright seizure would result in tit-for-tat retaliation from Moscow and may contravene international law.

One idea being pursued is to pull forward the interest payments on frozen Russian assets – estimated at between €3bn to €5bn (£2.6bn to £4.3bn) a year – so that they can be used as collateral for loans or bonds to support Ukraine.

The UK chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said the G7 had reluctantly concluded that the war in Ukraine was not going to end any time soon and would require a longer term commitment.

Georgieva said the sooner the conflicts in Ukraine and in Gaza ended the better it would be for the global economy.

“The war in Ukraine is a tragedy for its people. Having men, women and children killed and wounded is a daily occurrence. We need to end this war for their sake and for the sake of the world economy,” she said.

Six months of fighting between Israel and Hamas had meant Gaza’s economy had been “wiped out”, Georgieva said. “Eighty per cent of it is gone. The West Bank has also been impacted.”

Speaking at a press conference at the IMF’s spring meeting, Georgieva said: “The world has grappled with multiple shocks – the pandemic, a cost of living crisis, war and conflict, and climate disasters. The twenties has already been a turbulent decade.”

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Countries had acted to mitigate the impact of the shocks of the past four years, but it was now time to rebuild buffers, the IMF chief said. “Fiscal restraint is becoming more important. Countries must rebuild their fiscal resilience to be ready for the next shock.”

The IMF’s world economic outlook released this week showed the US economy was on course to grow more than three times as rapidly as the eurozone this year – 2.7% increase in gross domestic product against 0.8%. Georgieva said there were three factors that explained the disparity.

First, the US was better at harnessing innovation so that new ideas could be turned into successful businesses. There was still “work to be done” to unleash innovation in Europe, Georgieva said, citing the costs of patents in Europe compared with in the US.

Second, migration. While the record number of people coming into the US across its southern borders has become a big political issue, Georgieva said its economy was benefitting from “abundant” labour coming into the country.

“ It creates a domestic political problem, and not everyone who crosses the border adds positively to the economy,” she said. “But that labour supply also gives to the US another comparative advantage; wages are not pushing up, because there is no strong pressure because of a lack of labour on wage growth.”

Third, was that the US had benefitted from more favourable energy prices than Europe, where natural gas prices soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Georgieva said.

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