MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. Head of Ukraine’s Migration Policy Office Vasily Voskoboynik has stated that Ukraine’s population is falling at an alarming rate, calling it a catastrophe.

"Every year, Ukraine’s population is shrinking by 300,000 people, without taking military casualties into account," he said during an appearance on the YouTube channel Superposition. "I believe this is a dire situation," he noted.

In addition, he said that millions of Ukrainians are currently abroad and are unlikely to return because they have already settled there; furthermore, a new wave of labor migration is expected once the hostilities end. "Many men will leave to join their families and will not want to return either, which will lead to a shortage of workers," the expert noted.

"Who will be working in Ukraine in 10 to 20 years? The government needs to establish transparent rules and controlled conditions to attract migrant workers from abroad," Voskoboynik noted.

Earlier, Verkhovna Rada member Dmitry Razumkov said that only 10% of Ukrainian refugees are willing to return to the country once hostilities end.

Since gaining independence in 1991, Ukraine has been facing serious demographic challenges. According to data from the press office of the UN headquarters in Geneva as of fall 2024, the country’s population has dropped by eight million people since February 2022. In late October 2025, Ella Libanova, director of the Ukrainian Institute of Demography and Social Research, reported that, based on the results of studies conducted in 2024, the country’s population ranged from 28 million to 30 million. The most recent census in Ukraine was conducted in 2001. At that time, the population stood at 48,457,000 people.