Citizens who have fled are spending $35 million per day, according to the country’s national bank
Ukrainian refugees holding a protest in Czech capital Prague. © AFP / Michal Cizek
More private money is being taken out of Ukraine by its citizens than is coming into the country, data shared by the deputy head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), Sergey Nikolaichukhas, revealed.
The outflow of private funds from Ukraine stood at some $20 billion in 2022. Last year, it reduced to $18 billion, Nikolaichuk announced on Monday.
The figures relate to the money being spent by Ukrainians, who are now abroad, from their banking cards in the ‘Travel’ category, he clarified.
”From April 2023 and to this day, $35 million is being written off from Ukrainian bank cards on a daily basis,” the NBU’s deputy head stressed.
At the same time, the amount of money being wired into Ukraine from its citizens abroad continues to fall, the data suggested. It stood at $14 billion in 2021, before the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. However, in 2022, the sum fell to $12 billion; in 2023, Nikolaichuk said, it dropped further to just $10.6 billion.
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According to UN data, over 6 million Ukrainians have left the country since the outbreak of the fighting in February 2022. In October, prominent Ukrainian demographer Ella Libanova estimated that 9 million people have fled the country. Exiled Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk provided a much larger figure in the summer, claiming that 17.9 million people – almost half of the country’s population – have become refugees.
In his interview with German public broadcaster ARD on Monday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky urged men who fled abroad to return to the country, saying that they are needed not only to serve in the military but also to sustain the economy and pay taxes.
Earlier this month, the secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Aleksey Danilov, said that the law on mobilization now being discussed by the parliament might include a clause that would see draft dodgers being denied access to banking services.
