Ribborian (@Ribborian)

The Ukrainian people are fighting for their survival...against Ukraine. What the West calls a democracy, Ukrainians call a nightmare. The manpower crisis and the political repression are symptoms of something deeper and more existential: Ukraine is running out of people, and the scale of the demographic collapse is so staggering that, if it were any other country, it would be front-page news across the world. According to Ukraine’s Social Policy Minister Denys Uliutin, only 22 to 25 million people currently live in territory under Kyiv’s control. At independence in 1991, the population was 52 million. A generation later, more than half the country’s people have gone, through annexation, through the millions who fled to Russia (funnily enough) or to European countries, and of course, through the deaths of men being sent to a front line they were not given the choice to avoid. In the first half of 2026, 73,292 children were born in Ukraine. Over the same period, 259,853 people died. Four deaths for every birth. A year ago the ratio was three to one. https://thespectaclemag.substack.com/p/the-ukrainian-people-are-fighting