GENEVA: Ukraine’s population has declined by more than 10 million since Russia invaded in February 2022, sparking an exodus and sending birth rates plunging, the United Nations said Tuesday.
The UN Population Fund said there had not been a census, but that there clearly had been a dramatic population decline in war-torn Ukraine.
“The Ukraine population has declined by over 10 million since the beginning of the war,” UNFPA’s regional director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia Florence Bauer told reporters in Geneva.
She stressed that the decline had been seen “since the beginning of the full-scale invasion,” and was due to “a combination of factors.”
Already before the war, Ukraine had one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, and like many countries in Eastern Europe, it had seen a declining population, as young people left in search of more opportunities, Bauer said.
But since the war, some 6.7 million people fled the country as refugees while the birth rate fell to just around one child per woman, she said.
“That’s one of the lowest in the world,” she said, stressing that this was well below the theoretical replacement rate of 2.1 children that each woman on average must have to maintain the population size.
At the same time, she said, there are the “several tens of thousands of casualties (from the war), which of course add to the equation.”
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UN: Ukraine population 10 million less since Russia invasion
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UN: Ukraine population 10 million less since Russia invasion
- The UN Population Fund said there had not been a census, but that there clearly had been a dramatic population decline in war-torn Ukraine
Drone strike kills 1 in Russian border region ahead of Ukraine peace talks
One person was killed and two others wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a car in the Russian border region of Belgorod, local officials said Sunday, ahead of peace talks to end the nearly 4-year-old war in Paris this week.
Belgorod regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said a young child was among the wounded.
In Ukraine, three people were wounded in the Kharkiv region in drone strikes overnight into Sunday, the country’s State Emergency Service said.
Meanwhile, the death toll from a Russian missile attack on the city of Kharkiv on Friday increased to four when two other bodies were found under the rubble of a building, Kharkiv regional head Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram Sunday.
The latest attacks came after national security advisers from Europe and other allies visited Kyiv on Saturday to discuss security guarantees and economic support, as a US-led diplomatic push to end the war in Ukraine intensifies.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, preparing to travel to Paris for a meeting with partners, said Saturday that work on the peace proposals could now accelerate as Ukraine has shared all documents under discussion with the 18 national security advisers, including those on security guarantees.
He said representatives from Ukraine’s General Staff and military sector would meet on Monday in Paris, followed by a meeting Tuesday of European leaders, where he said he hoped documents on security guarantees would be finalized. He said there also would be meetings with US representatives in Paris.
Belgorod regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said a young child was among the wounded.
In Ukraine, three people were wounded in the Kharkiv region in drone strikes overnight into Sunday, the country’s State Emergency Service said.
Meanwhile, the death toll from a Russian missile attack on the city of Kharkiv on Friday increased to four when two other bodies were found under the rubble of a building, Kharkiv regional head Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram Sunday.
The latest attacks came after national security advisers from Europe and other allies visited Kyiv on Saturday to discuss security guarantees and economic support, as a US-led diplomatic push to end the war in Ukraine intensifies.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, preparing to travel to Paris for a meeting with partners, said Saturday that work on the peace proposals could now accelerate as Ukraine has shared all documents under discussion with the 18 national security advisers, including those on security guarantees.
He said representatives from Ukraine’s General Staff and military sector would meet on Monday in Paris, followed by a meeting Tuesday of European leaders, where he said he hoped documents on security guarantees would be finalized. He said there also would be meetings with US representatives in Paris.
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