Actual figures show that while some Ukrainians have indeed crossed the border into Russia because of the war, their number does not even come close to the population of Ukrainians living in Ukraine.
During his annual press conference, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin claimed that there are now more Ukrainians living in Russia than in Ukraine itself.
“It seems to me that there are already more Ukrainians living in Russia… If not as many as in Ukraine, then perhaps even more. I’m not kidding,” Putin said. He also clarified that he was including Ukrainians living in the temporarily occupied territories.
Putin is once again spreading blatant falsehoods. Through such statements, he promotes the disinformation narrative that almost no population remains in Ukraine and that most Ukrainians are supposedly willing to voluntarily leave and live in Russia.
Such falsifications spread easily in the absence of accurate data on Ukraine’s population and difficulties in obtaining information on people living in temporarily occupied territories. According to estimates by Oleksandr Gladun, deputy director of the Institute of Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, about 34-35 million Ukrainians currently live in the territories under Ukrainian control. There are 2-3 million Ukrainians in uncontrolled territories.
According to the Institute of Demography and Social Studies, as of January 1, 2023, the population of Ukraine within its borders as of January 1, 2022, was estimated to be between 28 and 34 million people. The director of the institute, Ella Libanova, also suggested that by January 1, 2030, the population of Ukraine could range from 24 to 32 million people.
The number of Ukrainians in Russia can also only be roughly estimated. However, even the available data does not support Putin’s claim that there are more Ukrainians in Russia than in Ukraine. According to the all-Russian census of 2021, only 884,000 people identified themselves as Ukrainian. There is no precise information on the number of refugees from Ukraine who went to Russia voluntarily or by force, and the figures published by the Russian authorities are unreliable. Even Russian activists point to the manipulation of these statistics. However, even the official statistics – ranging from one million to several million people – do not come close to the population figures of those living in Ukraine.
Previously, StopFake debunked manipulations claiming that most Ukrainian refugees went to Russia, as well as fakes suggesting that all refugees “voluntarily go to Russia” and that “three million Ukrainians want to flee lawlessness to Russia.”
