The United Nations announced Tuesday that since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the country’s population has decreased by about 10 million, causing a migration and a sharp reduction in birth rates.

Despite the lack of a census, the UN Population Fund stated that war-torn Ukraine had seen a sharp drop in population.

UNFPA’s regional director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Florence Bauer, told reporters in Geneva that the country’s population had decreased by more than 10 million since the start of the conflict.

She emphasised that “a combination of factors” were responsible for the reduction, which had been observed “since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.”

According to Bauer, Ukraine already had one of the lowest birth rates in Europe prior to the conflict, and like many Eastern European nations, its population was dwindling as young people migrated abroad in quest of better prospects.

However, the birth rate has dropped to about one kid per woman since the war, and some 6.7 million people have left the nation as refugees, she added.

She emphasised that this was much below the theoretical replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman, which is required on average to sustain the population level, and that it was “one of the lowest in the world.”

Additionally, she stated that there are “many tens of thousands of casualties (from the war), which naturally add to the equation.”