The United Nations Calls Ukraine's Population Down About 10 Million Since Russian Invasion

The impact of Russian airstrikes on Ukraine. (Twitter/@ZelenskyyUa)

JAKARTA - Ukraine has experienced a decline in the population of about 10 million people since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion as a result of refugees leaving, declining birth and death rates from war, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Florence Bauer, head of Eastern Europe at the United Nations Population Fund, said the invasion in February 2022 had turned already difficult demographic situations into something even more severe.

"The birth rate has plummeted and is currently around one child per woman, which is one of the lowest in the world," he said.

It is said that the birth rate of 2.1 children per woman is needed to maintain a stable population.

The largest part of the decline in Ukraine's population was caused by 6.7 million refugees who now live abroad, mainly in Europe. Deaths from war are also one of the factors.

"It's hard to get an exact figure, but the estimate is around tens of thousands of victims," he said.

Ukraine, which has a population of more than 50 million when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, like nearly all of its neighbors in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, has experienced a severe population decline.

In 2021, in the last year before the massive Russian invasion, the population was around 40 million.

Bauer said the exact tally of the impact of the war on the Ukrainian population had to wait until after the conflict ended when the complete census was finally possible.

"The direct impact is on areas that are almost uninhabited, villages inhabited by only parents, and couples who cannot start families," he said.

Russia, which is much larger, with a pre-war population of more than 140 million, is also experiencing a demographic situation that has been dire since invading Ukraine: Russia recorded its lowest birth rate since 1999 in the first six months of this year, a rate the Kremlin has even described as "disaster".