Ukraine, and Eastern Europe more generally, have long had a demographic problem. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and independence across the region, labour migration and other trends have seen millions of working age people migrate to the West or to Russia in search of work. Combined with the demographic catastrophe brought on by the war since 2014 and the full scale invasion, the number of young people in Ukraine can make for a bleak demographic picture.

In this episode, we analyse the reasons why this demographic shift in Ukraine has happened over decades, as well as looking forward to Ukrainian reconstruction following the war, to see what programmes and processes the Ukrainian government can put in to improve the situation.

And to help us do this, this week we invited Maria Piechowska onto Power Lines. Maria is cultural anthropologist from Poland who works on political and societal analyses that focus on the relationship between Poland and Ukraine. She currently works for the Polish institute for International Affairs, a think tank who work in public analysis on the international issues and processes that affect the Polish position in the world.

Check out insights.Kyivindependent.com for more in depth analysis of the War in Ukraine, and follow The Kyiv Independent on Twitter and Facebook, and Instagram to get latest news and to stay up to date with our coverage.

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