On May 22, 2023, a Georgian-language Facebook user published a Russian-dubbed video of the YouTube channel Judging Freedom featuring an interview with the retired United States Army Colonel and government official Douglas Macgregor. In the interview, Douglas Macgregor states that ”Ukrainian morale is at an all-time low right now. I was shown evidence yesterday that there are fewer than 20 million Ukrainians left in Ukraine.” The retired US army colonel states that around 10 million Ukrainians have migrated to the West and have never returned.
The claims that fewer than 20 million Ukrainians remain in Ukraine is false. As of 2023, the total population of Ukraine is estimated at 36.7 million. According to the February 15, 2023 data of the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, since February 24, 2022, 21,929,212 people left Ukraine, and 13,060,039 returned home. The official data from the United Nations Refugee agency (UNHCR) confirm that while 8 million refugees have fled to Europe, only 5.1 million have registered for temporary protection.
According to the February 15, 2023 data of the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, since February 24, 21,929,212 people left Ukraine, while 13,060,039 returned home. Since the beginning of the war, around 8,2 million refugees have fled to Europe, but only 5 million have registered for temporary protection. The majority of Ukrainians, 1.6 million temporarily moved to neighboring Poland.
According to UNHCR’s official data, out of 5.1 million Ukrainian migrants, 2.7 million Ukrainian refugees registered for temporary protection in the countries included in the Refugee Response Plan. The agency clarifies that the number may include multiple registrations of the same individual in two or more EU+ countries; Therefore, the actual number is likely to be less than 2.7 million. 2.4 million Ukrainians requested asylum in other European countries.
Source: unhcr.org
Source: unhcr.org
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fled to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania or Moldova in the early days of the war. Ukrainians have also fled to Russia and Belarus. In Russia, nearly 2.8 million Ukrainian refugees have been recorded.
Macgregor’s claim that there are fewer than 20 million Ukrainians left in Ukraine is also false. According to the United Nations Population Fund, the total population of Ukraine in 2023 is 36.7 million.
About the Source
Douglas Macgregor is a retired colonel in the US Army and a government official. After the emergence of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Macgregor appeared frequently on Fox News, Russia Today, and YouTube’s Judging Freedom program. Notably, three days after the start of the war, Macgregor stated that “The battle in eastern Ukraine was really almost over.”
The Facebook user Gaia Tiamat regularly publishes posts of anti-vaxx content and amplifies conspiracy theories. The user has published a number of false claims in the past.
Sona Hovsepyan
Myth Detector Lab
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