Putin says Ukraine “opened a Pandora's box” by hitting Russia's economyUkraine has opened a Pandora's box by attacking Russia's retail sector and should now expect the same treatment but worse, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview on August 22.
“The Kiev regime set out to damage our economy. What did it do? It opened this Pandora's box itself. Well then, expect a response targeting your most sensitive economic sectors,” Putin said in comments to Russian state television over the weekend.
He was speaking at the end of a summer in which Ukraine escalated drone strikes on Russia’s oil refineries, sparking a fuel crisis that has recently surged into a second wave of shortages. And at the end of July, Kiev launched Operation Wildberries, targeting Russia’s biggest online retailer, destroying half of its network warehouses that account for about 10% of Russia’s retail trade. Ozon, Russia’s second biggest retailer, was added to the hit list on August 21, when its first warehouse in Samara was hit, followed by a strike on another warehouse in Orenburg the next day.
The Kremlin has retaliated with a disproportional ferocity as a warehouse war gets underway, not only destroying warehouses and shopping centres, but attempting to systematically destroy Ukraine’s retail infrastructure. After only two weeks, supermarkets in Kiev are starting to empty as stores are unable to find supplies, or if they do, get them to shops to restock the shelves, according to reports. At the same time both of the combatants have targeted Black Sea grain exports and brought that business to halt just as the harvest start to come in.
It’s a one-sided fight. Russia has a deep missile inventory and a large firepower advantage. Ukraine has few missiles and its supply of interceptor missiles, the only thing that can stop Russia’s devastating ballistic missiles, has run dry. The upshot, Putin said in his interview, is the cost to Ukraine is much higher than the cost he admitted Russia is paying.
Putin was explicit about the scale of the Armed Forces of Russia (AFR) reply, in a fuller version of the remarks circulated in Russian: “You wanted to cripple our economy - now factories and warehouses are burning from Lvov to Zaporozhye. You interfered with our logistics - the Black Sea is closed, and railway junctions and lines are being systematically destroyed.” He said Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky had given Russian 40 days to announce a ceasefire, or “face the consequences” and nothing happened: “Of course, no turning point in the confrontation with Russia has occurred, and will not occur,” Putin said.
Grain is the main foreign exchange earner for the Ukrainian budget and it has already lost an estimated $2bn in grain export revenues at a time when the Ministry of Finance (MinFin) says there is already a $20bn hole in this year’s budget. Ukraine's grain exports have fallen 70% since its corridor closed in late July. The Odesa port strikes alone could cost Ukraine 5.3% of GDP by 2027, according to exports. A new global food price inflation shock is already on the cards.
https://www.intellinews.com/putin-says-ukraine-opened-a-pandora-s-box-by-hitting-russia-s-economy-462851/
