Is it true that more Ukrainians live in Russia and in the territories occupied by its territories than in Ukraine itself?

In December 2024, during a direct line, Vladimir Putin suggested that taking into account the so -called new territories in Russia now lives no less, or even more Ukrainians than in Ukraine. We decided to find out if this is so.

Fully statement by the Russian president It sounded like that: “Ukrainians already live in Russia, if not as much as in Ukraine, or maybe even more. I'm not joking, it can be quite. I mean those people who live in new territories, in the Crimea, and those who moved to us are millions of people. In general, we have about the same as in Ukraine now there are Ukrainians. ” That is, Putin took into account, in addition to the Russian regions, the annexed Crimea and the occupied territories of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions - their Kremlin calls them "new territories".

In 2013, the population of Ukraine, according to the State Statistics Service, composed 45.5 million people. This year was the last when the inhabitants of the Crimea were taken into account in 2014 annexed by Russia. As of January 1, 2022, the population of Ukraine It was 41.2 million people - without taking into account the Crimea and the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. After the Russian full -scale invasion in February 2022, the Ukrainian population continued to decline, primarily due to the territories captured by Russia.

In the strategy of demographic development of Ukraine, adopted by the government of the country in September 2024, indicatedthat as of July 2024, 35.8 million people live in Ukraine, and if you take into account only the territory in which the state authorities execute their authority in full - 31.1 million people.

Russian BBC service, which Disassembled Putin’s statements during a direct line notes that Ukrainians in Russia are not just less than in Ukraine, but several times less.

By UN data In November 2024, the total number of Ukrainian refugees in the world, including Russia, is about 6.8 million people. The organization calculated that since 2014, the population of Ukraine has declined by 10 million people, of which 8 million since 2022. This is about a quarter of the entire population, and not all of them were in Russia.

According to data All -Russian censusIn 2020–2021, 884,000 people called themselves Ukrainians - among them the descendants of Ukrainians who arrived long before the war of Russia and Ukraine. After the Russian invasion, the situation should have changed. However, the exact number of Ukrainians who arrived in Russia after February 2022 is unknown, the BBC notes. The UN speaks of 2 million people, the Russian state media with reference to sources in law enforcement agencies Reported About 5 million refugees.

In conditions of hostilities, it is difficult to calculate the number of inhabitants in new territories, as the Russian authorities call the captured Ukrainian regions. The right way to get an idea of ​​the population of these territories is to calculate the number of issued Russian passports. Ukrainian authorities more than once declaredthat in the occupied territories, forced passportation is carried out in the occupied territories. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, since 2022 there was issued More than 3.4 million passports. The livestock passporting occurred earlier in the Crimea, where the Russian authorities issued documents to almost all residents of the peninsula (from 2 million to 2.5 million people).

If you add all these numbers, some of which are overstated (5 million refugees, 2.5 million inhabitants of Crimea, 3.4 million inhabitants of the “new territories”), then no more than 11 million people will turn out in total. And in Ukraine, despite the war and loss of control over part of the country, 31 million people live, that is, almost three times more.

However, we can assume that not all citizens of Ukraine are Ukrainians. The latest data on the ethnicity of residents of Ukraine dates back to 2001, when it was carried out The census of the population. Then Ukrainians called themselves 77.8% of the inhabitants of the country, that is, 37.5 million people.

In several regions that Russia subsequently completely or partially annexed, there was a relatively low percentage Ukrainians: in Crimea - 24.3%, Sevastopol - 22.4%, Donetsk region - 56.9%, Lugansk region - 58%. In the Zaporizhzhya region, this share was 70.8%, in Kherson - 82%.

Accurate calculations in this case are impossible due to the lack of reliable data. But it can be assumed that the share of citizens who consider themselves ethnic Ukrainians grew after Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk and Lugansk regions were excluded from statistics. If we take the most modest assessment: 80% of Ukrainians out of 31 million people living now in the territory of the country controlled by Kyiv - you will get 24.8 million and even this figure is more than half the most daring and high estimates of the number of Ukrainians in Russia.

Thus, Putin’s words that Russia is no less, or even more Ukrainians than in Ukraine, do not correspond to reality.

Photo on the cover: Wikimedia Commons

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?