Putin reveals impact of Ukrainian strikes on shipping on Russian GDP

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has stated that Ukraine's armed forces have damaged approximately 100 commercial vessels over the past 40 days in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, with losses estimated at 1% of Russia's GDP.

Source: The Moscow Times, an independent Amsterdam-based news outlet

Details: "The total losses, according to our early calculations, amounted to, overall, quite a lot – approximately 1% of GDP, but these are not critical losses for us," Putin assured journalists.

"They cannot inflict critical damage on us. But there is damage nonetheless," he said.

"They have inflicted real damage on us, because during the first two weeks they damaged around 40 of our ships. They did not destroy them, they damaged them. And over all these 40 days they damaged around 100 of our ships," Putin said, answering questions from the press.

Putin does not consider Russia's own earlier strikes on civilian shipping to be a crime, claiming that they struck exclusively those vessels that were transporting military cargo.

"Essentially, we did not target civilian vessels. Yes, we carried out precision strikes on some vessels, but these were truly precision strikes," he claims, referring to strikes on "certain watercraft".

Notably, Russian media outlets write about weapons being unloaded from vessels even in Mykolaiv, although unlike the ports of Greater Odesa, the port of Mykolaiv does not receive vessels due to the direct threat from Russian forces at the exit to the sea. All vessels in the port have been blocked since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Background:

• The monitoring group of the Institute of Black Sea Strategic Studies previously calculated that over 20 days of August, exports of crude Russian oil from Black Sea ports decreased 3.2-fold to approximately 1.7 million tonnes, compared with 5.5 million tonnes in July.
• Russian grain exports, which bring its economy approximately US$15 billion annually, have been virtually completely paralysed by Ukrainian strikes on the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea ports.
• Russian grain exporters have begun redirecting shipments from the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the Baltic Sea following Ukrainian attacks on port infrastructure and vessels.
• Russian shipowners have reportedly been refused military risk insurance amid the significant number of Ukrainian drone attacks in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.
• At Russian ports in the Sea of Azov, vessels have begun returning cargo to shore due to the blockage of exit routes: some shipowners have decided to return cargo until the situation changes.

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