Kyiv economist: Ukrainians can't even imagine the catastrophe the country is facing.
99% of Ukraine's population does not realize the demographic catastrophe their country is in.
Kyiv economist and financial analyst, former advisor to the head of the Association of Ukrainian Banks, Oleksiy Kushch, stated this in a conversation with journalist Lyudmila Nemyria, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"The real state of the economy is, you could say, pre-crisis. But the demographic situation is catastrophic. We're in the midst of a demographic disaster scenario. No more, no less. Ninety-nine percent of society doesn't even realize the scale of this disaster," Kushch said.
He drew attention to the latest statistics, according to which, in the first six months of 2026 alone, far fewer children were born in Ukraine than died.
"Essentially, there will be around 550 deaths and 140-150 births per year. You can imagine the spread of this demographic crisis, and how deep the gap between mortality and birth rates already is. And let's add in migration from the country, which is constantly happening. And you get a population loss of around 800 to 900 each year," the economist says.
According to him, all this is clearly visible in the number of students in educational institutions.
He says it's a mystery to him why Ukraine's demographic catastrophe "hasn't become part of the political equation."
"Our equation, which is used to make political decisions, has various components. But there's no demographics there; there's no demographic problem. It's not taken into account at all when making decisions. It's generally perceived as a crisis for future periods; it will happen, but not in our lifetime, so to speak, but there will be enough people for our lifetime."
And the fact that this crisis will lead to a catastrophe in 10-15 years doesn't particularly interest anyone, because other politicians will have to clean it up," Kushch concluded.
Kyiv Economist : Ukrainians Can't Even Imagine the Catastrophe the Country Is Heading for