Rebuilding Ukraine after one year of Russia’s war will cost $411 billion, with the conflict’s cost growing as it continues, the World Bank said in a report released on Thursday.

The new figure represents a substantial increase from one the bank released in September when it estimated the cost of rebuilding at $349 billion.

Since autumn, Russia has stepped up targeted attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure, leaving civilians without access to power, heating or water.

Destruction from the war and the loss of lives and livelihoods have pushed more than seven million Ukrainians into poverty, undoing 15 years of development, according to the report.

The segment of the population living in poverty increased to 24 per cent from 5.5 per cent in the first year of the war, the bank said. High inflation, particularly for food costs, disproportionately affects low-income households, the report said.

In the Kherson region on the front lines along the Black Sea coast, the price of food and nonalcoholic beverages had increased 74 per cent in December compared with a year earlier, the report said.

The financial assessment is “just the beginning of the estimation of loss. But some things can’t be rebuilt”, Denise Brown, the UN resident coordinator in Ukraine, said in a statement.

“Behind every home or hospital or school destroyed, a Ukrainian life is affected.”

Direct damage to sectors including housing, transport and energy amount to $135 billion. Disruption to production and other indirect losses total $290 billion, according to the report, a joint effort by the World Bank, the Ukrainian government, the European Commission and the UN.

The most urgent needs for 2023 — including energy, housing, critical infrastructure and basic services — will cost $14 billion, the report estimated.

This week, the IMF said it had reached a preliminary agreement to provide Ukraine with a $15.6 billion financing package over four years to help close a fiscal deficit and pay for recovery efforts.

Surprise William visit

Prince William of Britain made an unannounced trip to Poland on Wednesday to “personally thank” British and Polish troops supporting Ukraine’s armed forces as part of a two-day visit intended to highlight Britain’s support for Ukraine.

William arrived in Warsaw and then travelled to the southeastern city of Rzeszow, roughly 50 miles from Poland’s border, where he told troops that “everyone back home thoroughly supports you”.