Giving birth to 5-7 children and relying on migrants: an expert's view on how to restore Ukraine's population.

A demographic catastrophe is currently unfolding in Ukraine: each year, the number of deaths exceeds the number of births by 250,000 to 300,000 individuals. These figures were provided by Vasily Voskoboynik, president of the All-Ukrainian Association of Companies for International Employment, in an interview with the UNIAN agency.

"In simple terms, every year we lose a city, like Zhytomyr. Under such circumstances, where the population is aging and more people are leaving the labor market than entering it, we need to find a way to balance this," the expert explains.

Another option is to encourage Ukrainian women to have 5-7 children, which would result in a larger workforce in 18-20 years. We could also be realistic and explore ways to attract labor migrants from third-world countries, he suggests.

Voskoboynik is confident that even before the end of the large-scale war, answers need to be found to three main questions: how to bring back Ukrainian refugees, how to reduce labor migration volumes after borders reopen, and which migrants to invite to work in Ukraine.

Most likely, due to low wages, employers in Ukraine will consider hiring workers from countries with lower living standards. This could include Bangladesh, Nepal, India, as well as countries in North Africa and Central Asia, the expert concluded.

It should be noted that the U.S. immigration and customs service is preparing to deport about 1.5 million people. The list also includes around 2,000 Ukrainians.