Ukraine is becoming a nation of widows and orphans – CNN
Birthrates have fallen below one child per woman, millions are fleeing abroad, and thousands of children are being left without parents – the war is reshaping an entire nation.
In the fourth year of the war, Ukraine is facing one of the most severe demographic crises in the world, CNN reports, citing leading demographers. The country’s birthrate has collapsed below one – on average, fewer than one child per woman, while Europe’s figure is 1.4 and the U.S. stands at 1.6.
“This is a catastrophe,” Ukraine’s leading demographer Ella Libanova told CNN. “No country can exist without people. Even before the war, Ukraine’s population density was low (and) very unevenly spread.” According to her, since the start of the war Ukraine has lost about 10 million people – killed, driven abroad, or left behind in the occupied territories.
Most of those killed at the front are married, middle-aged men – the average age of a Ukrainian soldier is about 43. Official statistics record 59,000 children who have been left without biological parents, while an online support group for widows – created by three women who lost their husbands – already counts more than 6,000 participants.
The war is also destroying Ukrainians’ reproductive health. Doctors at the Kyiv-based clinic Nadiya report a rise in chromosomal abnormalities in embryos, more frequent cases of early menopause among young women, and a deterioration in soldiers’ sperm quality.
“Stress also affects men, but it’s not just stress, it’s also the conditions they live in,” specialists say. Even egg donors – women with no reproductive problems – are showing lower biomaterial quality than before the war.
Libanova warns that the longer the conflict lasts, the fewer the chances that those who left will return. “With each passing month, there is more and more destruction here and, on the other hand, more and more of our war migrants are adapting to their new life abroad. Fewer are returning,” she notes.
The huge exodus is also a major brain drain for Ukraine.
Earlier, the UOJ reported that, in the words of Roman Catholic Bishop Kryvitsky, what is the point of this war if in 15 years there will be no people left in Ukraine.
