Economic frontlines: Ukraine and Russia’s war economies

After more than 800 days of Russian aggression, the war in Ukraine has turned into a war of attrition that is depleting resources on both sides. New research by our speakers provides critical economic insights and data to gauge Russia's capacity to sustain its warfare. Understanding the economic realities of both Russia and Ukraine is essential as Europe continues to debate strategies to support Ukraine. By juxtaposing Russia’s economic endurance with Ukraine’s resilience, and incorporating data from the Ukraine Support Tracker, the event aims to inform and guide economic measures to back Ukraine and beat the Russian war economy.

Elina Ribakova (Peterson Institute for International Economics, Kyiv School of Economics) will present insights on the state of the Russian economy, as published in the CEPR Policy Insight “Russian economy on war footing: A new reality financed by commodity exports” (May 2024). Yuriy Gorodnichenko (University of California – Berkeley) will present the latest findings on the Ukrainian war economy and Christoph Trebesch (Kiel Institute) will present the June updates for the Ukraine Support Tracker, followed by comments from Polina Ivanova (Financial Times correspondent Ukraine and Russia) and an open discussion.