Vitalii Kim: Our task is to ensure that Ukrainians return and stay to live at home

The economy depends on people, and issues such as jobs, housing, schools, kindergartens, and hospitals are not separate from the economy but form its foundation. People return to places where they can live normally, work, raise children, and feel confident about the future.
This was stated by Vitalii Kim, Head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

“That is why the return of Ukrainians and demographics are not an abstract issue for us, but a concrete task. We must create normal living conditions here. And this is exactly what we are working on,” Kim emphasized.

According to him, Mykolaiv region has almost restored its pre-war population, from 1.2 million to 1.15 million people. At the same time, this has largely been due to 120,000 forcibly displaced persons from Kherson region. The main problem, he noted, is the loss of active and qualified personnel who have left abroad or moved to safer regions.

The key task of the government, he said, is to create conditions so that Ukrainians want to return.

“I very much want our people to return from abroad. Unfortunately, time is working against us: some have married, some have found jobs, some have adapted, and so on. But I am certain that at least once they will come back to see whether the situation here has changed in terms of authorities, conditions, and so on. They should come and say: ‘Oh, things are already different here, you can work and live here, it is fair and just, let me stay here.’ This is our task: to create such conditions that when people return, they see, are positively surprised, and stay to work,” Vitalii Kim concluded.