Kyiv’s willingness to join NATO and the EU has resulted in a demographic catastrophe, according to pro-Kremlin propaganda, which ignores the exodus caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Propaganda: Because of NATO and the EU, Ukraine now struggles with a demographic catastrophe, and the nation is on the brink of extinction
NEWS: “The population of Ukraine has diminished to 23 million people and the downward trend continues amidst a catastrophic drop in birth rates and mass-emigration, reads a message posted on Telegram by the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mykola Azarov.
“Only 23 million people are left in the country, and only 3.5 million Ukrainians can fight in this war. Young men fit for military service are fleeing the country”, Azarov wrote. […]
According to the Ukrainian politician, the USA and EU countries don’t care about economic or human losses. Every type of assistance delivered to Kyiv is meant to prevent Russia from reaching other territories of Ukraine.
“This is what their decisions got them! Even before this armed conflict, Ukraine’s birth rate was one of the lowest in Europe. And now this figure will be one of the lowest in the world! This is what their willingness to join NATO and be friends with the EU got them. These entities are simply destroying Ukraine to satisfy their own interests!”, Azarov pointed out.
NARRATIVE: NATO and the EU caused a demographic catastrophe in Ukraine.
Fact: The demographic and economic decline of Ukraine is caused by the war triggered by the Russian Federation, while the West continues to support Kyiv
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: Russian government media accuses the West of destroying Ukraine and being the cause behind a large-scale demographic decline, citing a Telegram post by former Ukrainian Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov. Azarov has been residing in Russia since 2014. He was one of the pro-Kremlin politicians during the term in office of president Viktor Yanukovych. Russian propaganda often uses Azarov’s statements to justify the “special military operation” and to prove that Kyiv authorities are illegitimate. This time around, the message posted by the former Prime Minister was used to blame NATO and the EU for the destruction of Ukraine. The article published by a number of newspapers and news portals in Russia draws on Azarov’s original statement and falsely suggests that Ukraine’s orientation towards the EU and NATO has generated a demographic catastrophe and an unprecedented economic slowdown.
The narrative of the Russian article disregards the broader political context, namely the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, Russia’s support for separatist movements in Donbas and the launch of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 222. Demographic decline and the drop in birth rates are natural developments in all states where military campaigns are staged. According to the study titled “Ukraine’s demographic tragedy: the second Holodomor?”, conducted by the Jose Miguel Guzman, associate professor at El Colegio de Mexico, who specializes in population dynamics, Russia’s military aggression could generate a “demographic catastrophe: an excess of war casualties, extreme lengths of domestic mobilization, a surge in emigration (refugees), less births and probable loss of territory”. Ukraine was already faced with a sharp demographic decline prior to the full-scale invasion, but the effects of the Russian attack could produce a genuine demographic catastrophe, the author of the study claims.
Moreover, Russia’s military aggression generated a number of economic problems in the wake of bomb attacks targeting refineries, power plants, factories, also causing investors to pull out from Ukrainian markets and unemployment rates to go up. Furthermore, Russia is shelling Ukrainian infrastructure in order to block Ukrainian exports and make its economic problems worse. To stop Ukrainian grain exports, Moscow is using drone and missile attacks to target Ukrainian ports and silos on the Danube River. According to an analysis published by the KSE Institute in August, Russia caused extensive destruction of the Ukrainian infrastructure, the reconstruction of which requires 150.5 billion USD.
Millions of inhabitants have fled Ukraine as early as 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea (some 2 million inhabitants left the peninsula), whereas Moscow-backed pro-Russian separatists captured a significant part of Donbas. According to the UN, another 6.2 million Ukrainian refugees were recorded globally at the end of 2023, having been forced to leave Ukraine in the wake of the full-scale invasion of February 2022.
Therefore, it is not the EU, the USA or NATO that caused Ukraine’s demographic and economic decline, nor Kyiv’s Westward-looking rapprochement, but rather Russia’s war launched in 2014, and its large-scale invasion in 2022. In this context, Western states stepped in to support Ukraine in the heat of the war, by providing assistance to refugees and delivering humanitarian aid, funds and other donations, also providing weapons to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Veridica has debunked a number of false narratives of the Russian media that tried to exonerate the Kremlin and blame the West for Ukraine’s problems. According to Russian propaganda, NATO supports Ukraine in order to cause a world war, whereas the Ukrainian state is Nazi and driven to war by the West. A year after the launch of the large-scale invasion, the Russian media tried to prove the “special military operation” saved Russia from NATO’s invasion and Ukrainian Nazism.
