Graphics: Three years of Russia-Ukraine conflict

It's been three years since the conflict broke out. Both Russia and Ukraine have faced tremendous losses and tough challenges.

In the first year of the conflict, both Russia and Ukraine experienced an economic downturn. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ukraine's GDP dropped by 28.8 percent, while Russia's GDP dropped by 1.2 percent year on year. This led to the largest recession in Ukraine's history. The export volume of Russia dropped significantly in 2023, mainly due to the EU's ban on Russian refined petroleum products, which was implemented in February 2023. In the following two years, both countries' GDP showed an upward trend. Starting in the first quarter of 2024, Russia and Ukraine's imports and exports began to recover slowly.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he was trying to get money back for the billions of dollars sent to support Ukraine's war against Russia. The U.S. has been the biggest single contributor of funding for Ukraine since the conflict began in 2022, according to the database from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

From January 24, 2022, to December 31, 2024, Europe allocated €132.3 billion assistance to Ukraine and the U.S. allocated over €100 billion. The report released by U.S. Department of State this month showed that, the U.S. has provided $65.9 billion in military assistance since February 23, 2022, and used the emergency Presidential Drawdown Authority on 55 occasions to provide military assistance to Ukraine totaling approximately $27.688 billion from the U.S. Department of Defense stockpiles since August 2021.

Missile and rocket attacks have caused widespread death, destruction of homes and businesses and severely damaged energy infrastructures across Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians have fled their homes, either to other parts of Ukraine or other countries. 

As of February 19, 2025, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) had recorded 6,346,300 refugees from Ukraine in Europe and 560,200 refugees from Ukraine outside of Europe as of February 17. The International Organization for Migration had estimated that by December 2024, around 950,000 refugees from Ukraine would return to their places of origin and remain in Ukraine for at least three months. Additionally, approximately 316,000 refugees would return to areas different from their former homes.