Ukraine faces shortage of young men to replenish depleted military ranks amid Russian aggression

CARING FOR A RAPIDLY-AGEING POPULATION

Most of the Ukrainians who fled the country during the conflict are young and of working age, observers pointed out. 

Now, Ukraine has to look after one of the world’s fastest-ageing populations, where around a quarter of its people are over the age of 60. 

Ukraine is a social welfare country, and 60 per cent of its population are socially dependent on the state, said Lyudmila Kostyuk, deputy director of the Kyiv Nursing Home of Labor Veterans. 

About 20 per cent are children, and the remaining 20 per cent are the working population, according to figures from the Ministry of Social Policy.

“In the future, there will be a need to provide assistance to more people,” said Kostyuk. “I do not see an improvement in this situation.”

Since the war started, all of Ukraine’s tax income has gone to its defence. 

Observers have highlighted a need for more Ukrainian refugees to return and help raise its tax income. 

Analyst Serhiy Fursa told CNA that “almost half of the younger Ukrainian population who should pay taxes didn’t do it”. 

Unless the war ends, few foreigners may want to settle and more Ukrainians will continue to be displaced, said analysts. 

Since the war started, millions of elderly Ukrainians have had to flee their homes and leave everything behind. 

“All of my clothes, everything that I had, nothing is left,” said 85-year-old nursing home resident Anastasia Zheltonog, who fled the eastern Donetsk region during the first year of conflict and now lives in a nursing home in Kyiv.

“I lived well. While my husband was alive, I had everything – a car, a house, and everything else. Everything has gone to pieces, nothing is left, not even clothes.”