Ukraine's economy minister: air-raid sirens cost $45 million per hour
Ukraine's economy minister estimates that air-raid alerts, which can last up to 10 hours a day, cost the country around $45 million an hour as businesses halt operations. A new two-tier alert system aims to limit the damage.
Ukrainian Economy and Environment Minister Oleksandr Kravchenko told The Guardian that air-raid alerts triggered by Russian attacks cost Ukraine roughly $45 million per hour. Alerts can last up to 10 hours a day, regularly forcing most businesses to suspend operations while workers take shelter.
To limit the economic toll, Ukraine's government introduced a two-tier alert system. A "red" alert signals a missile threat and requires people to shelter, while a "yellow" alert signals a drone threat and lets businesses keep operating. Kravchenko said more than half of businesses continue operating during yellow alerts, though danger persists — on the afternoon of September 28, during such an alert, a Russian drone struck a building belonging to Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv, killing two people.
The Economist has reported that the Kremlin intends to paralyze Kyiv before winter, with senior Ukrainian officials saying Vladimir Putin ordered strikes on civilian sites. Russia did intensify attacks on civilian infrastructure in August and September, which Kravchenko described as an attempt to destroy nearly the entire Ukrainian economy. He estimated that strikes on factories, warehouses and data centers have caused about $10 billion in damage since the start of the year.
These losses are straining the state budget. President Volodymyr Zelensky recently estimated the 2026 budget shortfall at around $27 billion, a figure that alarmed EU leaders. Kravchenko said spending cuts have reduced the deficit to $20 billion, but Kyiv will still need $52.6 billion in external financing next year, less than half of which has been secured so far. He maintained the deficit stems not from mismanagement but from the rising cost of war, and said Ukraine needs stronger air defenses and faster development of drones capable of intercepting Russia's new jet-powered drones.
Overnight on September 30, Russia struck Kyiv and the surrounding region with drones and missiles, killing two people in the capital and a child in Vyshhorod.
