There are about three times as many deaths as there are births in the country, data shows

FILE PHOTO. ©  Getty Images/Dmytro Varavin

 

Ukraine is experiencing the world’s worst demographic crisis as the military conflict, mass migration and falling birth rates drive its population to historic lows, EUobserver has reported.

The country’s population, which has been shrinking since the early 1990s, is shaped not only by the conflict with Russia but also by decades of demographic policy, Aleksandr Gladun, doctor of economics at Ukraine’s Institute for Demography and Social Studies, told the outlet on Thursday.

“If any truce is achieved, it will not be so long that it will be possible to influence demographic processes. Ukraine faces demographic challenges that no other country has ever faced,” Gladun said.

Gladun said migration has had the largest impact. Since 2022 almost 7 million people, mainly women and children, have left the country and many are expected to stay abroad if conditions allow. Eurostat estimates that 4.3 million Ukrainians now live in the EU.

 

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Sebastian Klusener, a researcher at the Federal Institute for Population Research in Germany, told the outlet that a peace deal might prompt some refugees to return and lead to a short-term rise in population. But he warned that in the long run, Ukraine would probably face renewed decline.

“The demographic developments of the past 35 years, and their impact on the current age structure, are likely to leave a deep and lasting mark on Ukraine’s future population trends – most likely resulting in continued population decline,” he said.

Earlier this year, exiled Ukrainian lawmaker Artyom Dmitruk accused Vladimir Zelensky of what he called an ongoing genocide. “Ukraine is being depopulated. This is not migration. This is a terrible tragedy, part of a genocide,” he said, adding that the situation was the result of Zelensky’s determination to hold on to power at any cost.