Ukraine is experiencing a demographic crisis, but it is not only caused by the war. Ella Libanova, a sociologist and head of the Ptukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies, said this in an interview with the BBC.
Details [1
Ella Libanova noted that there is a demographic crisis in Ukraine and this is normal for a country at war. The only question is how the country will deal with it.
Depopulation was also characteristic of Ukraine before the war. But it did not have the same scale and pace as today. And now it has been multiplied by external migration and the occupation of the territory. If you look at the graph, there are two strong ledges. The first ledge is 2014, of course, and the second ledge is 2022
The sociologist also refuted the forecasts that the population would increase to 25 million by 2025.
There is no need to read forecasts now, because they are all completely uncertain. The demographic forecast, like the economic forecast in this situation, is based on the military forecast. If we knew for sure that the war, at least the hot phase, would end on such and such terms, a compromise would be reached here, a compromise would not be reached there... Whether the danger of further aggressive actions by our neighbors remains or not depends on this. Therefore, when they say 25 - or maybe 40 - who knows how many there will be
Ella Libanova added that it is impossible to overcome the demographic crisis naturally. The growth can only be achieved through large-scale immigration to Ukraine.
Recall
Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets predicts that Ukraine's population will decline from 42 million in 2022 to 35.8 million this year. To prevent a demographic crisis, the government is implementing reproductive medicine programs.