Ukraine’s population has shrunk by more than 10 million since Russia launched its brutal invasion in February 2022, the UN said on Tuesday.
The UN Population Fund said no census had taken place but there was clearly a dramatic population decline in war-torn Ukraine.
“Ukraine’s population has declined by more than 10 million since the start of the war,” Florence Bauer, UNFPA regional director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, told reporters in Geneva.
She emphasized that the decline had occurred “since the beginning of the large-scale invasion” and was due to “a combination of factors.”
Even before the war, Ukraine had one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, and like many other countries in Eastern Europe, it had seen a declining population as young people left in search of greater opportunities, Bauer said.
But since the war, some 6.7 million people have fled the country as refugees, while the birth rate fell to just about one child per woman, she said.
Since the war broke out in February 2022, countless people have fled Ukraine
Ukrainian soldiers shoot a tank while checking it after a maintenance job not far from Bakhmut in the Donetsk region on February 5, 2024
A law enforcement officer stands next to a residential building damaged as a result of a rocket attack in Kiev on February 7, 2024
“That is one of the lowest in the world,” she said, emphasizing that this is well below the theoretical replacement rate of 2.1 children that each woman needs on average to maintain population size.
At the same time, she said, there are “several tens of thousands of casualties (from the war), which obviously add to the equation.”
The UN announcement came as Ukrainian officials revealed that Russian drone and artillery strikes have killed five people, including a child, in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Sumy and Donetsk.
Sumy lies across the border from Kursk in Russia, where Ukrainian forces launched a major offensive in August and control parts of the territory.
“Three people, including one child, were killed as a result of a nighttime attack by enemy drones on residential buildings,” regional authorities said, referring to the city of Sumy.
“This Russian terror can only be overcome through unity with the world,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in response, urging his allies to supply more weapons, including air defense systems.
A group of Ukrainian soldiers rest after firing a howitzer at Russian positions in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on October 21, 2024
Heavy construction equipment is used to remove rubble after a double attack by Russian forces on a hospital in Sumy, Ukraine on September 28, 2024
Ammunition of a Ukrainian artillery unit in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on October 21, 2024
He also called for “investments in weapons production in Ukraine” and “long-range attacks on Russian military logistics, military airfields and bases of Russian forces.”
In addition, emergency services in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have been steadily advancing, said two people were killed and another injured by Russian shelling on the city of Myrnograd.
The Ukrainian Air Force said a total of 60 Russian drones had been detected in Ukrainian airspace overnight and Tuesday morning and 42 had been destroyed.
Sumy, which borders Russia, has been under constant bombardment since the war began in 2022, when Russian forces briefly captured parts of the industrial area before being pushed back.
Authorities there said more than 20 Russian drones had been shot down there overnight.
The Ukrainian operation in Kursk is part of a broader roadmap to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine recently outlined by President Volodymyr Zelensky.