MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/. Ukraine is staring down a demographic crisis and a severe labor shortage if citizens who left the country as a result of the war do not return, Alexey Antipovich, head of the Rating sociological group, said in an interview with the RBC-Ukraine news agency.

In his words, only about a third of Ukrainians who have left the country are ready to return home after the end of hostilities.

"It's far from half, but about a third, who say that yes, we have such a plan, but only after the war. <...>In the past it was two-thirds, or even more, and then it [this number] kept decreasing," he said, noting that the percentage of those who return to the country will be "insignificant."

As a result, the country will face a demographic crisis, he said.

"A drop in the birth rate, a drop in [working] hands capable of doing anything, <...> the aging of the existing population. All these problems await us," he concluded.

Since gaining independence in 1991, Ukraine has been experiencing serious demographic problems. According to the press service of the UN Geneva headquarters, as of autumn 2024, Ukraine's population has decreased by 8 million people since February 2022. Ella Libanova, head of the Ukrainian Institute of Demography and Social Research, reported that, according to research for 2024, the country's population was between 28 million and 30 million. According to her estimates, Ukraine will never return to the numbers of the Soviet era, when the republic’s population was about 52 million people. The last census in Ukraine was conducted in 2001. At that time, the country's population was 48,457,000.