According to Opendatabot data, 99% of Ukrainians who left the country in 2023 returned to Ukraine. About 1% of our citizens — 142,000 — are currently abroad.
The absolute majority of Ukrainians returned to their homeland in 2023
During 11 months of last year, more than 32 million border crossings were recorded.
What is essential to understand is that the difference between those who left and those who returned to Ukraine is less than 1%: 142 thousand.
32.6 million crossings of the state border were recorded in Ukraine in 11 months of 2023, according to the Administration of the State Border Guard Service (SBGS). This is 1.6 million or 5% more border crossings than in the corresponding period of 2022.
Experts draw attention to the fact that 14 million people returned to Ukraine in the incomplete year of 2023, and 14.1 million left the country.
In addition, it is emphasized that this is 15 times less than in the first year of a full-scale war.
Thus, in 2022, the difference between those who left Ukraine and those who returned was 2.2 million.
If at the beginning of the year Ukrainians left more often than returned, this trend has changed since July. The peak of returns in 2023 fell on April — +114,000 citizens and on August — +144,000 citizens of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy named one of the critical goals of the state
According to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he considers the return home of Ukrainians who were forced to go abroad due to the war to be a fundamental goal.
Everything that our state does is aimed at protecting life in Ukraine, people in Ukraine, our people, who are now not only in Ukraine, who are now in various countries of the world. We are grateful to everyone who sheltered our people, our immigrants from Ukraine, and this is truly a historical gratitude that will forever preserve warm emotions and cordiality in relations with many states. But the goal of Ukraine is to return people home, to preserve their connection with Ukraine, connection with Ukrainian culture, connection with our society.
