Ukraine needs a national strategy to stop the outflow of young people, – Yulia Gryshyna
25 September 2025 15:34
Ukraine is already losing its future – literally. More than 115,000 Ukrainian students are studying abroad, and 1.3 million children have temporary protection status in other countries. This was stated by Yulia Gryshyna, MP, Chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, during the discussion forum “Youth cannot be let go” organized by Kommersant Ukrainian.
Every tenth student is no longer in Ukraine Hryshyna emphasized that the scale of the outflow of young people abroad is already critical.
“115 thousand Ukrainians are studying at foreign universities. This means that every tenth Ukrainian student is now studying abroad,” she said.
In addition, according to her, a significant number of Ukrainian schoolchildren are now also outside the country, and this trend continues to grow.
Among the 4.3 million Ukrainians who have received temporary protection abroad, 1.3 million are children. That is, the state is suffering double losses: not only of human capital, but also of economic potential, the MP emphasized.
“We are losing not just people. We are losing young people, that is, an able-bodied, active resource that should be the driver of our recovery. This is a direct blow to the budget, to the education system, to demographics,” she emphasized.
Yulia Gryshyna noted that there is almost no systematic discussion in Ukraine about how to stop the massive loss of the younger generation.
“For several years now, I have been drawing attention to the fact that Ukraine needs a national strategy – how to stop the outflow of young people, how to bring back children, how to keep students. Unfortunately, there are no such solutions yet,” she said.
Frontline regions are the most vulnerable The situation in the frontline regions, where parents most often decide to evacuate their children abroad, is particularly alarming.
“Unfortunately, there are no comprehensive solutions in this area. There are some coefficients, formal allowances, but this does not work systematically. I believe such approaches are just an attempt to “disguise” the problem,” the MP emphasized.
Yulia Hryshyna added that the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Education, Science and Innovation is developing practical solutions to motivate children to stay and get an education in Ukraine. Among them is the initiative on “postponed external independent evaluation”.
As "Komersant Ukrainian" wrote, on September 19, Kyiv hosted a forum “Youth cannot be let go”.
