How Did the Ukrainian Economy Manage to Grow

And Why It Will Continue to Grow

Shankar Narayan
4 min readSep 24, 2023

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People clapping their hands (Licensed Image)

As the Russian economy stumbles its way through excessive wartime spending and sky-high interest rates to avoid a recession, Ukraine is slowly making its way back to growth.

“Ukraine’s war-battered economy climbed for the first time on an annual basis since Russia invaded last year as it clawed back from a steep drop, and spending rose among consumers adjusting to the conflict. After plummeting in the months following the Kremlin’s February 2022 attack and further in 2023, gross domestic product jumped 19.5% year-on-year in the second quarter, according to data published by the State Statistics Service.”

“Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to plunge Ukraine into darkness and cold this winter. But the country’s economy continues to survive, and supermarket shelves are full. How has Ukraine managed to do it?” asked the German publication Spiegel earlier this year.

It’s an interesting question, I thought.

Neither the Ukrainian government, or the Ukrainian armed forces, nor the Ukrainian people were ready to accept the slavery Putin’s army wanted to impose on their shoulders.

When Putin launched his special military operation, he presumed that he would swiftly conquer Ukraine within a…

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Shankar Narayan

He didn't care what he had or what he had left, he cared only about what he must do.