Could Russia’s attack on Ukraine impact the U.S. economically?

DELMARVA- While word spread that Russia invaded Ukraine Thursday, concerns also spread after seeing the impact it made. And, now there’s questions if the strike could have repercussions.

“What’s going to happen locally and nationally and worldwide is going to be messy, whatever the scenario ends up being,” Bill Chambers, CEO and President of Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce, said.

With many places dependent on Russia for oil and natural gas, we’ve already seen a jump in prices at the pump. In fact, crude oil pushing to over $100 a barrel.

“We had as the United States have become way too dependent on foreign oil, we’re importing almost $600,000 barrels of Russian oil a day in the United States,” Chambers said.

“We know that Russia supplies 40% of energy to Europe itself,” Dr.Sam Hoff, George Washington Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History and Political Science, said.

And, Chambers said we can’t forget how we’re still battling inflation and how higher oil and gas prices could translate to spending more money in other areas.

“Higher commodity prices, higher prices at the grocery store,” Chambers said.

But, the concern doesn’t stop there. Stock markets worldwide are feeling jittery.

“Our stock market was negatively effected and that’s just investors don’t like uncertainty and what is the end game, President Putin is unclear so it could continue to reverberate in the stock market,” Dr. Hoff said.

And, while the turnout of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine remain to be seen, Chambers said he has faith the business community can deal with the impacts that may lie ahead.

“They can figure out just like they did with the pandemic, just like they still are with supply chain shortages and worker shortages they’ll navigate their way through higher energy prices, higher commodities prices,” Chambers said.