Ukraine has a problem no one is talking about – young women are leaving in droves

In a classroom in western Ukraine, a group of teenagers are thinking about their futures.
Seventeen-year-old Kira Yukhymenko had always planned to go to university in her home country, but in between sitting her final exams this month, she has been dreaming of leaving to study abroad.
'The war has helped us understand who we are,' she said during a discussion in an English lesson at her school, Lyceum 88, in Lviv. 'It has broadened our horizons and also made us more independent.'
Since the war broke out and martial law was introduced, young men have been banned from leaving Ukraine after they turn 18, but young women like Ms Yukhymenko are free to leave.
In three years of conflict, large numbers of them have chosen to do so, swapping war-torn Ukraine for European cities far from the threat of Vladimir Putin's drones and bombs.
Few have returned, and more are leaving with every passing year.
As well as being a brain drain – some of Ukraine's brightest and best are among those leaving the country – the emigration wave is also a demographic time bomb.
Locked in a costly war of attrition against Russia, there are real concerns over who will rebuild the country once the war is over, if the nation's youth does not return.
The group of 30 final year pupils, seated at desks in pairs, had chosen the topic for debate themselves: education and future career opportunities in Ukraine.
Their teacher, Liudmila Makohin, said many were considering emigrating.
'The situation is getting worse every day due to the war making young people choose universities in Europe not Ukraine,' she told The Telegraph.
Ms Makohin asked the group to raise their hands if they planned to leave Ukraine after completing their exams. Three girls reacted quickly, before several other students – boys and girls – laughed nervously and tentatively raised their arms.
Sofia, a student in the front row wearing a cream jumper and gold, hooped earrings, said the longer the war goes on, the more people want to leave.
'When the war started people were very enthusiastic,' she began. 'But a lot of time has gone by and people are more depressed. They think there's a better life in another country.'
English teacher Halyna Pidhrebelna agrees. Commenting on the discussion later in a small staff room over coffee, she said girls who leave Ukraine 'don't see a future here' and believe better career opportunities lie abroad. She hoped a ceasefire might change the situation, but has lost faith in America's commitment to support Ukraine since Donald Trump was elected.
Kira, seated a few rows back, said that being forced to flee Zaporizhzhia for the relative safety of Ukraine's western Lviv Region had changed her perspective.
'Before the war I wasn't thinking about leaving at all,' she said. 'My native city was small – not like Lviv, no such buildings and historical monuments. I thought I would go to university in Kyiv or Kharkiv.'
'A better life in another country'
With Poland just a few miles away, Kira and her family began visiting the country regularly. This exposure helped her to imagine studying in the similarly historic Polish city of Kraków.
Poland has taken in more Ukrainian undergraduate students than any other European country. In 2023, almost 45 per cent of Poland's total foreign university student population was Ukrainian, according to data published by press agency Ukrinform.
But the data also reveals a concerning surge in the numbers of young women choosing to leave Ukraine to study abroad.
The number of female Ukrainian students entering Polish universities almost doubled in the year after the invasion, according to figures from the country's Radon data agency. The increase in the number of young men arriving was even greater.
The allure of prestigious institutions in Europe is certainly a draw for young Ukrainians. But mostly, they just want to escape the war.
'When you have air raid alarms or bombing, there's no studying. You have to go online or in the bomb shelter – I want to achieve,' she said, adding that her best friend, who fled to Lviv from the Eastern Sumy Region, has also applied to university in Kraków.
Classmate Tetiana Marvii, 17, had planned to stay in Lviv but changed her plans after a cousin received worse-than-expected grades – owing partly to air raid sirens during her exams.
'It's really stressful in Ukraine,' she said.
A trip to see friends in nearby Lithuania inspired her to try and study international relations in the capital Vilnius – if she can pass an English language test for her course.
'It has been difficult to make this decision,' she admits, pressing her hands together. 'My parents said: you can do this, you are bright, you can go abroad. But I was not sure. My idea was just to have a life here – find a job, help my parents. But because the situation has changed, so have our plans.'
Lithuania is a less common destination for Ukrainian students, with its national broadcaster LRT reporting that in 2024 there were 1,100 Ukrainians in total studying at its country's higher education institutions.
Austrian public and private universities have seen large Ukrainian uptake in bachelor degree programmes. The number of female students doubled between 2021 and 2023, according to data provided by Statistics Austria from 223 to 447.
Taras Hryvniak, 17, a former student at Lviv Physics and Maths Lyceum, left his family to study at the University of Vienna, Austria. When he turns 18, if he crosses the border back into Ukraine, he will not be allowed to return.
Taras denied that Ukraine's conscription laws influenced his choice, but admits: 'My family loved this decision very much because my mum is scared for me.'
Taras said half of the boys in his school class left for Europe, and almost as many girls. 'It's a really big amount,' he said. 'But my class was a good class. One of my friends studies at Cambridge University now. People are leaving because they want to gain new knowledge.'
Angelina Kalyniuk, 18, finished school in Ukraine's Ivano-Frankivsk Region in 2023 before starting her degree at Kraków University of Economics.
She said parents often try to push their children to leave Ukraine.
'I've heard situations where a child doesn't want to go but the parents said it was the best choice,' she said, pointing out that Ukraine has been at war since 2014.
'There is always something flying through the sky in Ukraine,' she said. 'Parents just want their children to have the best life.'
Svitlana Bozhko, a teacher from Lviv, still has lessons with Angelina over Zoom and worries about who will rebuild the country after the war.
'She's a smart girl, and I'd like such people to be here,' she said, affectionately. 'We lose a lot of students, it is so upsetting.' Of the 34 students in her grade 11 class, eight girls and ten boys plan to leave this year.
Tackling youth emigration is high on the agenda of Ukraine's Ministry of Education and Sciences (MoES).
Yevhen Kudriavets, Ukraine's First Deputy Minister of Education and Science, told The Telegraph that efforts to retain the country's human capital would determine 'whether we can survive, rebuild the economy, and develop the state'.
While there is no specific mechanism capturing the number of young women leaving Ukraine, various indicators show Ukraine's child population is sharply decreasing.
There are now about 2.3 million Ukrainian child refugees living outside Ukraine, the majority of them in Europe, according to the United Nations.
Ukraine's birth rate is falling, and MoES statistics show that the number of pupils starting school has fallen by almost a third nationally since 2021.
'This trend will continue and by 2029, the number of first graders will decrease by another 30 per cent,' Mr Kudriavets said.
At least 701 children have been killed, and more than 19,000 deported or forcibly displaced.
Tito Boeri, professor of economics at Bocconi University and the co-author of a 2022 study on Ukraine's labour market says Ukraine's emigration issue is 'very serious'.
'You can reconstruct physical capital – it takes time, but still can be done,' he told The Telegraph. 'Reconstructing human capital is way more challenging and may actually not succeed.'
With an eye on the country's future, the Ukrainian government has made education a priority second only to defence.
In 2024, the state budget allocated 171.2bn UAH (almost £3.3bn) to education – more than a fifth higher than the previous year.
Much of this investment is aimed at school-level education, particularly on building underground schools so children in frontline areas can still be taught in-person.
But the MoES is also investing heavily in higher education. Last year it introduced a state grant to help students cover the expenses of studying for bachelors degrees inside the country.
More than 13,000 first year students received grants of up to 32,000 UAH (£608), and can continue to claim support annually.
In 2021, the World Bank awarded Ukraine $200m (£156m) over five years to modernise teaching and research facilities in higher education. This includes merging and reducing the number of universities.
Mr Kudriavets said the funding is crucial to increasing the sector's competitiveness.
'The current network of HE institutions in Ukraine was designed for the planned economy of the former Soviet Union,' he said. 'It must be restructured to align with new economic and geopolitical realities.'
The government's efforts on education appeared to be working – at least for a time.
Between 2021 and 2023, the total number of students starting bachelor level degree courses in Ukraine actually increased by almost a fifth from 203,452 to 239,008.
One reason for the upswing was a change in the country's mobilisation law that offered exemption from military conscription for full-time male students.
Another factor were financial benefits offered to children of military personnel, including tuition fees, free dormitory accommodation and textbooks, which encouraged more school-leavers to apply.
But in 2024, the number of students on bachelor's courses fell dramatically by almost 51,700 students. This was partly because more than a tenth of applicants failed to pass entrance exams, raising concerns about the quality of school-level education.
As well as trying to encourage students to stay in Ukraine, the MoES is investing in career opportunities to tempt Ukrainians left back after studies abroad.
For example, it is developing a network of 'science parks' to promote innovation, and attract investment and job creation in high-tech industries. The newest one opened in Kyiv last month.
Mr Kudriavets added that these efforts came while the ministry is also having to rebuild bombed schools – 3,676 education institutions have been damaged or destroyed since 2022.
He is confident that the government can staunch the emigration flow: 'We can make Ukraine a country where young people see their future.'
With no end to the fighting in sight, Kira is unsure whether she will return – Poland is a doorway to the rest of Europe.
But war in Ukraine has made uncertainty her new normal.
'Life is so difficult,' she sighs. 'I don't know what tomorrow will be.'

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