Ukraine’s economy never recovered and its population fell by seven million since 1991

Evidence

By 2013, Ukraine was one of only two former Soviet republics (along with Kyrgyzstan) where the GDP had not recovered since the fall of the USSR—the former economic powerhouse was now about as rich as Iraq or El Salvador. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, millions of people left the country, and the total population had shrunk from fifty-two million in 1991 to only forty-five million in 2013. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 481

Categorization

• CANDY: Striking concrete numbers: Ukraine was as poor as Iraq and lost 7 million people.