During the 3 years of full-scale war, about 3 million Ukrainians left the country and never returned
15 January 12:08
Last year, 443 thousand Ukrainians went abroad and stayed there. This is 3.3 times more than in 2023, when the difference between those who left and those who returned was only 134 thousand, according to data provided by the Opendatabot platform, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.
Only 3 months of last year had positive dynamics, when the number of citizens who returned to the country was higher than those who left: April – plus 58 thousand, July – plus 23 thousand and August – plus 89 thousand.
In total, according to official data from the State Border Guard Service, about 3 million citizens have not returned during the 3 years of full-scale war. This is almost as much as in the 11 years preceding the full-scale invasion, i.e. from 2011 to 2021, when 3.3 million Ukrainian citizens left the country.
It is worth noting that the data from the Border Guard Service of Ukraine only covers citizens who left at official checkpoints. There is currently no reliable data on Ukrainians who left the temporarily occupied territories or left illegally.
According to official EU data, as of August 31, 2024, 4.2 million Ukrainians had temporary protection status in the EU. 60% of the total number of our refugees were sheltered in Germany (1.1 million), Poland (975 thousand) and the Czech Republic (376 thousand).
How many Ukrainians are currently abroad?
In an interview with 1 1 TV channel a few days ago, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Unity Oleksiy Chernyshov said that 20-25 million Ukrainians are abroad, while about 32 million are in Ukraine.
Speaking about the return of Ukrainians, he emphasized that Ukrainian citizens would not be returned to their homeland using any coercive measures, and that the return would be exclusively voluntary.
The Deputy Prime Minister announced the creation of the Agency for National Unity and the opening of hubs in different countries to maintain ties with Ukrainians abroad.
