From the article:
“The paper says the demographic collapse goes all the way back to the time of independence in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. At that time, Ukraine’s population stood at 52 million. By 2001, it had dropped to 48.5 million, and right before the invasion, it stood at only 42 million, a fall of 10 million since 1991.
“These figures are consistent with population declines in all former Soviet republics, but the biggest blow came in the opening weeks of the war, which caused women and children to flee abroad en masse, given that the government had immediately banned the departures of men between the ages of 18 and 65. And today, the resident population is estimated at between 28 and 31 million,” writes the Italian newspaper.”
““My wife with our two children aged 5 and 7 had left for Germany in the first days of the war. Since then, we were in contact less and less. And now I’ve discovered that she’s found a new companion,” said 40-year-old Alexei to Italian journalists. Despite the man fighting for his country near Bakhmut, he was abandoned for another man.”
Their fearless leader Zelensky has vowed to fight to the last man. It is a suicide pact. The wife has made the decision to start a new life with the very real possibility that her 40 year old husband will not make it back.
Did they use the same borders or is this the result of Russia chopping off parts?