The Ukraine War in data: The most generous donors to Ukraine

Alex Leeds Matthews, Tom Nagorski, Justin Rood,  and Mariana Labbate

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We have reported often on the staggering figures of financial and military aid given to Ukraine by the United States and other members of NATO since the war began. Not to diminish those contributions in any way, but we were reminded recently that some other countries have pulled their weight in particularly powerful ways, given the relatively small size of their own economies.

The data-gathering site Statista has compiled figures and done the math and found that the United States, for all its largesse, actually ranks ninth in aid to Ukraine, when measured as a percentage of the overall economy. As of late November, the U.S. was providing 0.23 percent of GDP in assistance, or just shy of one quarter of 1 percent. The big donors when measured this way are a pair of Baltic nations: Latvia (0.93 percent) and Estonia (1.1 percent). In other words, Estonia is the only nation giving more than 1 percent of its annual GDP to help Ukraine.

Rounding out the top five donors on this list: Poland (0.50 percent), Lithuania (0.46 percent) and Norway (0.34 percent). As students of history will know, the Baltic nations have long held a mix of fear and suspicion when it comes to Moscow. No doubt those emotions and past realities have much to do with these figures.

We offer a more comprehensive set of data points on the war in Ukraine below. Grid originally published this document on March 24, the one-month anniversary of the war. We update it every Thursday to provide a fuller picture of the conflict.

Civilians killed: at least 6,700 (probably thousands more)

On June 7, a Ukrainian official said at least 40,000 Ukrainian civilians had been killed or wounded since the war began. The official offered no breakdown of dead versus wounded civilians. The United Nations’ latest estimate of civilians killed is more than 6,700, but it consistently notes the figure is an underestimate, as is its estimate of total casualties — a combination of deaths and injuries — given as more than 17,000. (Updated Dec. 14; source, source, source.)

Ukrainian soldiers killed: at least 13,000

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, estimated in early December that 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the war began; in late August, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s commander in chief, said the country had lost about 9,000 troops. In early November, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, estimated that both sides had about 100,000 soldiers killed or injured. (Updated Dec. 7; source, source.)

Russian soldiers killed: 5,937 to more than 96,000

From the early days of the war, casualty counts for Russian soldiers have varied widely — depending on the source. Ukraine raised its estimate of Russian soldiers killed in the conflict to more than 96,000 on Wednesday. These numbers have been updated frequently through the Facebook page for the country’s General Staff of the Armed Forces. In its first update on casualties since March, Russia claimed in late September that there had been 5,937 Russian military deaths. Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov said in April that there had been “significant losses of troops, and it’s a huge tragedy for us.”

Russia has also suffered a high rate of casualties among senior officers. Thirteen Russian generals have been killed, according to Ukrainian authorities; the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency puts the figure at between eight and 10. Grid’s Tom Nagorski and Joshua Keating previously reported on the possible explanations for this “inconceivable” toll: poor communications and command-and-control structures within the Russian military. (Updated Dec. 14; source.)

Total displaced Ukrainians: more than 14 million

There are more than 7.8 million Ukrainian refugees currently reported in other European countries. United Nations data indicates more than 16 million Ukrainians have crossed the border since the start of the war, but millions have returned home, largely from Poland, as Nikhil Kumar and Kseniia Lisnycha reported. In late October, the International Organization for Migration’s latest survey of internally displaced Ukrainians found more Ukrainians returning home from within Ukraine, but 6.5 million remained displaced within their own country. (Updated Dec. 14; source; source.)

Internally displaced Ukrainians: more than 6.5 million