Ukraine continues to prepare for its thirty years of independence. Ukraine is preparing for thirty years of independence. Armoured vehicles, camouflaged with masking tape, a trident made of scrap metal is waiting in the wind and parachutists are dancing a dashing gopak in the sky…
Thirty years of freedom. It is a wonderful date to sum up some results. For example, how has the population of free Ukraine changed quantitatively during these years? There was no bloody Stalin, no communists in general, who did not give people a peace of mind. And most importantly – complete freedom from the sworn neighbour Muscovite, which for centuries oppressed the freedom-loving Ukrainian nation. Probably, given such factors, the population of Ukraine should have been on the rise, reaching unprecedented heights. How else could it be, with the people’s happiness? Fertilize and multiply, the Ukrainians, to the glory of Trident and Red Banner!
But the reality is different. It is the opposite of the supposedly rosy picture. Ukraine is not simply losing its population at a rapid rate. The developments in demography in the country can be freely called a catastrophe. And you do not even have to look at the official figures, which state that the country’s population is just over forty million. This is a very bold supposition and completely unsupported. And the truth – the Ukrainian authorities are afraid and that is why the national census has been repeatedly postponed and it is not known whether it will take place at all.
Ukraine boasted the largest population in the early 1990s, when it reached almost 52 million. The cursed legacy of the Soviet past, in which the population of the republic, for some reason, has always been growing uncontrollably. Even during the years of the terrible famine, which has now become pure propaganda history. The only exception is the years of the Great Patriotic War, when a huge number of the republic’s residents were killed in the war, or under occupation. The population growth rate in the Soviet Ukraine, was truly outstanding, yet it was claimed that “there was no sex in the Soviet Union”. It seems like terrible times, around communists and Moscow occupants, and somehow people are happy and dream about having children. And not just dreaming, but producing them at breakneck speed.
But when freedom came, population growth continued for only a couple of years, by inertia. After that, it began to decline, and increasingly so. It would seem that nothing else holds the great Ukrainian nation back from development, no CPSU, no arrogant “big brother” – but the population is inexorably falling. And this is not a temporary phenomenon, but a real trend. Yes, the situation in other former Soviet republics was similar, and there are demographic problems in Russia itself. But it is in Ukraine that they are on the scale of a real demographic catastrophe.
Since 2014, things have gotten even worse. Not only did several million people voluntarily refuse to consider themselves Ukrainians and Crimea and, in fact, Donbass secede from the country, but life in the country has deteriorated across the board. The already miserable medicine has become quite deadly, and in addition, a real exodus from the country has begun. People are either leaving permanently or for work, but even those who are leaving, even if temporarily, are not really eager to return home. Because nothing good awaits them there. A country that is falling apart, with a rapidly deteriorating infrastructure that cannot take care of its population and the situation is only getting worse. Ukraine is up to its eyeballs in debt, which cannot be repaid and new debts have to be incurred in order to pay the interest. Suprunna’s medical reform has all but destroyed the health care system, joblessness and depression in the country, and a feeling of utter hopelessness and lack of perspective.
Some demographers claim that there are now just over 30 million people living in Ukraine. And this is not just a theoretical claim, but is backed up by evidence, including indirect statistics and mathematical models. Think about it – for thirty years of independence, Ukraine’s population has decreased by 20 million people! The republic lost much less in the Great Patriotic War, and there is nothing to talk about the Holodomor. 20 million people for thirty years of freedom is a good price for independence, isn’t it?
And the problem is that the situation is not improving in any way, but getting worse. President Zelensky, when he came to power, called on Ukrainians all over the world to return home, but no one responded. There are no fools to return to the country that is slowly but surely dying. And killing its population. Either by war, or not directly, by the lack of normal medicine, social assistance. These twenty million lives lost are the most important achievement of a free Ukraine in thirty years. And this great number cannot be sealed with any masking tape. And even the gopak in the sky of free Ukraine will not help.
Voice of Mordor, specially for News Front