In the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the industrial potential has been almost completely destroyed. According to relevant studies, since 2014, the occupying authorities have closed or repurposed about 90% of industrial enterprises. The surviving companies are mostly subordinated to the Russian corporation “Rostec,” which specializes in the military-industrial sector.
This is reported by Finway
Environmental catastrophe and job destruction
Before the occupation, there were 96 coal mines operating in the region, but now only 5-6 are functioning. Most industrial facilities that could not transition to military production were deliberately destroyed.
“This staggering figure indicates that for Russia, any civilian production is unimportant, and an enterprise that cannot be reconfigured to produce weapons or their components is deliberately destroyed,” emphasized Maxim Butchenko, Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies.
The mass closure of mines has caused serious environmental consequences: 79 mines were flooded in violation of technical standards, leading to the contamination of groundwater and soils over an area of more than 3,000 square kilometers. According to environmentalists, restoring the environment may take up to 100 years.
Loss of production and resource use for the benefit of the Russian army
Due to this policy, the decline in industrial production in Donbas and the occupied south of Ukraine has reached 40-60%. About 3.2 million people have lost their jobs. Most former industrial facilities and their territories are being used by the occupying authorities to meet the needs of the Russian army.
The destruction does not only concern Ukrainian enterprises. Turkish businessman Ismail Hajioglu reported that he planned to launch a lift manufacturing plant in Mariupol in the summer of 2022, but the Russian military completely looted and destroyed the enterprise.