MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. The total number of Ukrainians living abroad currently stands at 7.7 million, with the majority - 5.4 million - residing in EU countries, according to Verkhovna Rada member Alexey Goncharenko (listed as a terrorist and extremist by Russia), who referenced a report from the parliament's temporary commission on relevant issues.

"There are now 7.7 million Ukrainians abroad. Of these, 5.4 million are in the EU," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Earlier today, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a bill on multiple citizenship in the first reading, driven by the demographic crisis that experts warn Ukraine will face in the coming years. Recently, the country’s Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga, speaking at a roundtable discussion held by the Ukrainian Left Bank newspaper, said that a new Ministry of National Unity of Ukraine would be responsible for bringing Ukrainians back home and reintegrating them into the national economy. According to him, the adoption of the law on dual citizenship, to ensure that people do not lose ties with their country, should be one of the key measures for addressing the issue.

Ukraine's population has been steadily declining since the 1990s. According to various estimates, the country currently has between 25 and 28 million people. Ella Libanova, the director of Ukraine's Ptoukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies, stated earlier that Ukraine's population would not return to the Soviet-era level, when about 52 million people lived in the country. In 2012, when the birth rate reached a local peak, it stood at only 1.53. Given this situation, demographers argue that "strong immigration," including the return of Ukrainians who left abroad, is an urgent necessity.