MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Ukrainian citizens are beyond the control of the country's President Vladimir Zelensky or US leader Joe Biden, who arrived Monday for a visit to Kiev and is holding talks on arms deliveries. Residents are leaving Ukraine, and that is the answer to the question of to whom the future belongs, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said.

"Tanks and shells are important, of course. But people are certainly more important. Their mass departure is the answer to the question of to whom the future belongs," he wrote on his Telegram channel on Monday.

Medvedev said he had recently spoken with natives of the Ukrainian territories, and they shared some uncomplicated statistics with him. "In 2001, the population of Ukraine, according to the census, was about 48.5 million people (including those who were working abroad even then). Then, in 2014, Crimea and Donbass broke away. Then Russia’s special military and active emigration began. Both to Europe and Russia," he listed the events of the recent past.

According to estimates of various experts, a total of 15 to 20 million people left. "So the population of <…> [Ukraine] is now about 20-25 million people, no more. And it is on the decline," the politician concluded.