Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

In 2025, mortality in Ukraine tripled birth rate

In Ukraine in 2025, 168,778 births and 485,296 deaths were registered, so there were about three deaths per newborn, according to an analysis by OpenDataBot based on data from the Ministry of Justice.

Compared to 2024, the country’s death rate fell by 2%, while the birth rate fell by 4.5%. At the same time, the decline in birth rate is slowing down after a sharp drop in 2022, but there are about 1.6 times fewer children being born compared to 2021.

In terms of regions, birth rate growth was recorded in Lviv region (+1.5%, or 230 more children) and Volyn region (+0.6%, or +44 children), while the most noticeable drop, except for the territories of active hostilities, was observed in the frontline regions – in Kherson region (-16%) and Zaporizhzhya region (-11%), as well as a 9% decrease in the number of births in Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Chernivtsi regions.

The most children were traditionally born in Kyiv – 19,410 (11.5% of the total number), followed by Lviv region – 15,872 and Dnipropetrovsk region – 12,754. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (52,559), Kyiv (36,296) and Kharkiv Oblast (34,670) lead in the number of deaths.

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Almost 290 thousand citizens left Ukraine in 2025 and did not return

The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine recorded more than 37 million border crossings in 2025. The number of entries and exits is almost equal: 18.4 million times versus 18.7 million. During the year, 290,300 Ukrainians traveled abroad and never returned. This is 1.5 times less than in 2024. In total, 3.1 million citizens have officially left Ukraine over the 4 years of full-scale migration. Of these, 72% left in the first year of the great war.

37,088,261 official border crossings were recorded in Ukraine in 2025. People entered Ukraine 18.4 million times and left it 18.7 million times.

86% of crossings were made by citizens. In general, Ukrainians traveled more often: last year, the border was crossed about 2.7 million times per month. For comparison, in previous years, the figure was lower and remained at 2.5 million.

Despite the fact that the number of border crossings is increasing year by year, the number of conditional non-returns – that is, the difference between citizens who left and those who returned – is gradually decreasing. During the year, 16.1 million Ukrainians left Ukraine, and 15.8 million returned. The difference is 290 thousand citizens who did not return. This is 1.5 times less than in 2024, when almost 443,000 did not return home.

In total, 3.1 million citizens have officially left the government-controlled territory of Ukraine and have not returned in the four years of full-scale war. 72% of them did so in the first year of the full-scale invasion.

https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/ukrainians-emigration-trend-2025-12

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Ukraine, Romania, and Moldova to establish trilateral chamber of commerce and industry

Ukraine, Romania, and Moldova have agreed to establish a trilateral chamber of commerce and industry, according to Mykola Kutsak, chairman of the Chernivtsi Regional Council.

“In practice, this could mean closer cooperation between our countries and financial assistance to Moldova and Ukraine on their path to the EU. In particular, from our position, we will be talking about Ukraine’s recovery from the consequences of the hostilities,” Kutsak explained.

According to him, representatives of the three countries, the European Parliament, and the European Union are involved in the initiative. A working group has been set up to prepare for the launch of the future platform, which will coordinate further steps to form the structure and mechanisms of the chamber.

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Ukraine and Switzerland signed Memorandum of Understanding on SME support in Davos

On January 21, Ukraine and Switzerland signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Davos on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, launching a new large-scale economic sustainability program called “Competitiveness for Ukraine’s Recovery 2026-2030.”

“The total budget of the program is CHF 30 million. It is a long-term support tool for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which is particularly important for supporting SMEs in the current difficult conditions,” said Serhiy Sobolev, Minister of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture, on Facebook.

According to him, the priority areas include agribusiness and food processing, sustainable construction, woodworking, mechanical engineering, and IT.

As specified by the Ministry of Economy, the memorandum defines four strategic areas of work, including simplifying the conditions for doing business (improving the regulatory framework, digitizing public services, and reducing regulatory pressure on entrepreneurs) and strengthening institutions (supporting business associations and regional development agencies that will help SMEs enter new markets).

This list also includes the modernization of enterprises (direct technical assistance to businesses for the introduction of green technologies, automation, and EU quality standards) and the development of human capital (joint work with the International Labor Organization to involve veterans, women, and internally displaced persons in economic processes).

The program will cover 10 regions of Ukraine where Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) are already actively working, as well as those regions covered by other Swiss-funded projects. It is expected that this approach will ensure the even recovery of communities and the creation of jobs directly in the regions.

The program is fully synchronized with state strategies and the Ukraine Facility plan, the Ministry of Economy added.

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Ukraine will receive $6 bln from Japan for humanitarian and technical assistance in 2026

In 2026, Ukraine will receive $6 billion from the Japanese government for humanitarian and technical support, according to Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Olena Kondratiuk.

“The Rada at our first official meeting with Japanese Ambassador to Ukraine Masashi Nakagome… Japan has already provided Ukraine with more than 2,500 electric generators of various capacities, more than 65 transformers and 10 electric generator sets, and other critical equipment to support and restore the power system,” she wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday.

Kondratyuk also expressed gratitude for the allocation of approximately $149 million in the supplementary budget approved by the Japanese parliament at the end of 2025 for projects under the Emergency Recovery Program for Ukraine.
She noted that Japan’s total financial and humanitarian assistance has already exceeded $15 billion.

In addition, Japan is assisting with the rehabilitation of Ukrainian military personnel, has joined the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, and has voted in favor of recent pro-Ukrainian resolutions at the UN. In particular, Japan co-authored and supported the resolution “Return of Ukrainian Children.”

“It is important that Japan, as a G7 country, is putting sanctions pressure on Russia and supporting the prosecution of the aggressor country. This includes through the mechanism of the Special International Tribunal. I am convinced that only joint sanctions by all G7 countries, including the US and Europe, can force Russia to engage in peace talks,” Kondratyuk added.

As for the meeting itself, the parties discussed interparliamentary cooperation and the situation with the announcement of early parliamentary elections in Japan, which are scheduled for February 8, 2026.
In turn, Ambassador Masashi Nakagome noted that the vast majority of Japan’s key political forces support Ukraine. According to him, Japan will continue to provide financial and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

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Ukraine ranked 20th in annual Global Firepower-2025 military power ranking

Ukraine ranked 20th in the annual Global Firepower (GFP) military power ranking for 2025 among 145 countries, while in the 2024 ranking it ranked 18th, according to the resource’s data.

According to Ukraine’s GFP data, its PowerIndex (PwrIndx) in the 2025 ranking is 0.3755 (in the GFP methodology, a lower value means a higher assessment of potential).

The GFP ranking is calculated based on more than 60 factors, including the structure and size of the forces, the availability of equipment, financial parameters, logistics, and geographical characteristics.

Global Firepower is an online project that was officially launched in 2005 and publishes annual comparative reviews of countries’ military capabilities; however, the composition of factors and the assessment formula change from year to year, which means that direct comparisons between different years may be limited in their accuracy. The ranking is widely cited in the media as a benchmark for comparing “conventional” capabilities, but it is not an official assessment by government agencies and is based on publicly available statistics and assumptions about a number of parameters.

The top 20 in the GFP-2025 ranking include: the United States, Russia, China, India, South Korea, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Turkey, Italy, Brazil, Pakistan, Indonesia, Germany, Israel, Iran, Spain, Australia, Egypt, and Ukraine.

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