How many Ukrainians have not returned home since the beginning of the year
The State Border Guard Service recorded more than 7.8 million border crossings by Ukrainians in the first 4 months of 2024. This is significantly less than in the same period last year. About 69 thousand people left and did not return.
Ukrainians crossed the border 7.8 million times in the first months of this year. Overall, citizens began to travel abroad 10% less often.
Almost 69 thousand citizens – 1.5% of the total number of people who left the country – have not returned to the country since the beginning of the year. In April, for the first time since the beginning of the year, more citizens returned home than left – by 56 thousand. Overall, this year the number of those who have not returned has slightly increased compared to last year – 62 thousand Ukrainians did not return.
For comparison, 14.1 million Ukrainians left Ukraine last year. Of these, only 142 thousand remained abroad. This is 15 times less than in the first year of the full-scale war.
It is worth noting that the difference between those who left and entered Ukraine does not give an accurate understanding of the number of people who emigrated.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/emigration-trend-2024-4
The number of bankrupts since the beginning of the year
343 Ukrainians filed for bankruptcy in the first 5 months of 2024, according to the Supreme Court. This is 2.2 times more than last year. In total, almost 2,000 bankruptcy cases have been opened in Ukraine over the past 5 years.
Since the beginning of the year, 343 Ukrainians have filed for insolvency. The number of bankruptcy cases increased by 2.2 times compared to the same period last year. By the way, 575 people received this status last year.
The fewest bankruptcy cases were opened in 2019. It was the first year when the law allowed citizens to declare themselves insolvent in court. Back then, 22 bankruptcy cases were opened. Since then, the number of people who wanted to declare themselves insolvent has been steadily increasing: 8.3 times in 2020 and 2.7 times in 2021.
“In my opinion, court statistics do not reflect the real number of debtors in difficulty who could benefit from bankruptcy proceedings. However, this procedure is not well-known and widespread among Ukrainians, and there are several reasons for this: it is expensive, complicated and incomprehensible without the help of a lawyer, for whom the debtor may simply not have the funds. In addition, creditors and financial institutions are not very willing to file their claims in such court cases, hoping to collect the debt after the person’s solvency is restored and save on legal fees, or vice versa, trying to torpedo the procedure by discrediting the debtor. On the other hand, citizens also need to realize that this procedure is not about writing off debts, but about trying to find an agreement with creditors through the court procedure and the insolvency officer,” comments Denys Likhopiok, attorney at law, insolvency officer, member of the Qualification Commission of Insolvency Officers, bankruptcy specialist.
In total, 1,993 bankruptcy cases have been opened against Ukrainians. Every second bankrupt is between the ages of 25 and 45: 58% or more than 1.1 thousand. A third of bankrupts are over 45 years old – 38.3% or 764 people. The lowest number of bankrupts is among young people under 25 – only 3.7%.
The gender distribution was almost equal. 54% of all bankrupts are men, and 46% are women.
Context.
The Verkhovna Rada allowed individuals to become bankrupt in October 2018. The procedure became fully operational in 2019. Since then, a person in a difficult financial situation can initiate bankruptcy and, after going through the entire procedure, get rid of debts.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/people-bankrupts-2024
At the end of 2023, they accounted for 18.6 percent of the total 181,370 foreigners in the state, as reported by the State Statistics Office in Halle on Thursday. Based on data from the Central Register of Foreigners. The second and third largest groups are people from Syria (15.9 percent) and Poland (7.8 percent). The number of foreigners in Saxony-Anhalt increased by 12,150 people from the end of 2022 to the end of 2023.
https://www.zeit.de/news/2024-05/02/ukrainer-sind-groesste-auslaendische-bevoelkerungsgruppe
Ukrainian refugees, almost a million of whom are currently living and working in Germany, are a great opportunity for German companies to both solve the labor shortage and create a foundation for future closer cooperation with Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at the opening of the 6th Ukrainian-German Business Forum in Berlin on Tuesday.
“Take advantage of this huge potential. Integrate Ukrainians who are here with us into your companies. Even if these women and men return to Ukraine after the war, they will become a valuable asset for their companies. Because then they form “human bridges” with a country that, as a candidate for EU membership, has enormous economic potential,” the Chancellor emphasized.
According to him, many of the Ukrainian refugees in these weeks and months are completing integration courses, many now speak German, and almost all of them are well educated.
“This is a guarantee that the economic relations between Germany and Ukraine will develop even better and more dynamically in the future,” Scholz said of the integration of Ukrainians into German companies.
He noted that Ukraine is a country with millions of hardworking, well-educated citizens. “A country with which we are more closely connected than ever before, thanks to the Ukrainians who now live here with us,” the German Chancellor emphasized.
According to the organizers of the forum, including the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), the Eastern Committee of the German Economy (OA) and the German-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK Ukraine), the event brought together more than 500 participants who wanted to learn about Ukraine’s economic development during the war, as well as about available opportunities for cooperation and investment. This year’s conference is titled “Ukraine’s economy is growing again despite the war / Demand from German companies”. Three panel discussions will focus on infrastructure, energy, and defense.
“Regardless of the war, a dozen investment projects have already been launched, and German companies are currently applying for investment guarantees from the federal government for another 30 projects. Reconstruction has begun, and German companies have joined it,” emphasized Christian Bruch, Deputy Chairman of the OA.
According to him, the risk of war can be controlled, especially in the western and central parts of the country, but more attractive offers of public and private financing, as well as insurance solutions, are needed.
Rainer Perau, Managing Director of AHK Ukraine, also believes that the security situation allows business travel to resume in most regions to start doing business.
It is noted that in the first eight months of 2023, German-Ukrainian trade increased by about 30% to EUR 6.2 billion: imports to Germany decreased slightly again – by 5.5% to EUR 1.8 billion, while exports increased by 52% to EUR 4.4 billion.
As reported with reference to Eurostat, as of August 31, 2023, 4 million 155.6 thousand non-EU citizens who fled Ukraine as a result of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, 98% of whom were Ukrainian citizens, had temporary protection status in the EU.
According to Eurostat, as of the end of August, the main EU countries that received temporary protection recipients from Ukraine were Germany (1 million 175.70 thousand people; 28.3% of the total), Poland (960.55 thousand people; 23.1%) and the Czech Republic (365.09 thousand people; 8.8%). The total share of these three countries is 60.2%. At the same time, over the past five months, the number of beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine in Germany increased by 108 thousand people, in the Czech Republic – by 39.8 thousand, while in Poland it decreased by 39.2 thousand.
Moldova’s National Commission for Emergency Situations has simplified the rules of entry into the country for Ukrainians, the Moldovan newspaper Newsmaker has reported.
It is said that the simplification will affect the entry procedure for the Ukrainians, who will now be able to enter Moldova through the Moldovan-Romanian border and Chisinau airport on the basis of ID-card, internal passport and other identity documents.
The decision of the National Commission comes in addition to the February 24 decision on the entry procedure for Ukrainian citizens, which allowed Ukrainians entering Moldova from Ukraine to enter the country under a simplified procedure.
It is specified that Ukrainians will also be able to leave Moldova for Ukraine based on the same documents.
Citizens of Ukraine who arrived in Azerbaijan will be able to stay in the country indefinitely, said Rufat Ibrahimov, chief of the Migration Control Department of the State Migration Service of Azerbaijan, apa.az reported.
“Period of stay is again 90 days. However, given the situation, expulsion does not apply after the period expiration. That is, citizens of Ukraine after 90 days can stay in our country,” Ibrahimov was quoted as saying by apa.az.
