Ukraine already needs 8.5 million migrants – Migration Policy Office
Vasyl Voskoboinyk says Ukraine’s economy faces collapse without large-scale labor migration.
Ukraine is already short of millions of workers, and once the war ends, that shortage will become catastrophic. Vasyl Voskoboinyk, head of the Migration Policy Office and president of the All-Ukrainian Association of International Employment Companies, said this in an interview with the Dumai YouTube channel.
He said that, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy in December 2023, the country would need an additional 4.5 million workers over the next ten years – on top of the prewar level – in order to sustain annual economic growth of 7 percent. But in December 2025, the International Labour Organization issued an even more alarming estimate, putting the labor shortfall at between 8.2 and 8.6 million people.
“Seventy-five percent of domestic businesses said as early as 2024 that they could not fill vacancies. Wages in some sectors rose by 20 percent not because productivity increased, but simply because there are no people,” Voskoboinyk said.
As priority sources of labor migration, the expert named Central Asian countries and India. At the same time, he said, the final decision should rest with the security authorities. According to Voskoboinyk, Ukraine is headed for “a major shock” because of the cultural and worldview gap between migrants and Ukrainians.
“There will be major social upheavals in our country over migrants – that is simply guaranteed,” the head of the Migration Policy Office said. According to him, the authorities are currently drafting legislation to simplify the employment of foreign workers in Ukraine.
Earlier, the UOJ reported that a bill aimed at simplifying the employment of migrants had been submitted to parliament.
