9.5 million Ukrainians are abroad because of war — Zelenskyy
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (photo: facebook.com_zelenskyy.official)
Russia's war against Ukraine has affected millions of people who have lost their homes and jobs and been forced to flee abroad, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during an online meeting at the Hudson Institute.
The head of state noted that the war is, first and foremost, a human tragedy, not simply a matter of territory or land percentages.
Russia's full-scale invasion has forced 9.5 million Ukrainian civilians to seek refuge abroad.
"That's 20-25% of the country's total population, which stood at 40 million. They have lost their lives, their homes, and their jobs, and this is the face of Putin's war," the president said.
Ukraine's population has fallen to 28.5 million, according to Ella Libanova, Director of the Institute for Demography and Life Quality Research.
She said the main reason for the decline was the mass exodus of Ukrainians abroad because of the war, while deaths caused by hostilities account for a smaller share of the overall population decline.
