- January 30, 2026
- 8:48 pm
- Israel
In 2025, the Ukrainian diaspora grew in number, but remittances home decreased. This is evident from NBU statistics: the inflow of private transfers is declining, especially in terms of labor income, and for Ukraine, this is not just a “minus in numbers,” but pressure on families, consumption, and stability on the home front.
According to the NBU, in November 2025, the volume of private money transfers decreased by 8.9% and amounted to about $0.6 billion. At the same time, wage receipts from abroad fell by 29%, while “other” private transfers through official channels (such as assistance to relatives) — on the contrary, increased by 9.9%. Flows are falling through both official and informal channels: official ones decreased by 7.7% over the year, informal ones by 10.7%.
Looking more broadly, for January–November 2025, total transfers decreased by 15.5% — to $7.3 billion. For the war years, this is one of the weakest results: after higher levels in 2022–2023, the decline became a steady trend, and 2024 already looked noticeably worse than pre-war “norms.”
In the geography of receipts, an important detail is noticeable for Israel: according to the NBU, in 2025, among the source countries, the largest volumes came from Poland, the USA, the UK, the Czech Republic, Germany — and Israel is also at the top of the list: $453 million for the year. This is not a “margin of error,” it is a full-fledged contribution from the community — but the overall flow is still decreasing.
In the dynamics of recent years, the picture looks like this: before the war, transfers were at the level of about $11–12 billion (2018–2020), in 2021 they increased to $14.019 billion, then in 2022–2024 they went down: $12.543 billion (2022), $11.292 billion (2023), $9.464 billion (2024). The year 2025, judging by the estimates in the material, turned out to be even weaker — about $8 billion.
Why “more left,” but transfers are less
One of the reasons is that the composition of migration and family logic have changed. In a comment to “Komersant Ukrainian“ the head of the relevant organization Vasyl Voskoboynik explains: the previous labor migration, where a significant share was men, was effectively “broken” by the war and travel restrictions. And the current departure is more often women and children, as well as men who have a legal opportunity to leave.
He formulates it harshly, but essentially: the number of people who were regularly sent money to Ukraine is decreasing, because the family moves entirely or partially, and the need for a “transfer home” dissolves in daily expenses already in the new country. Plus, wives and children often move to men who worked abroad before the war — and the money starts going not to Ukraine, but to settling in place.
Voskoboynik also talks about the fork in the future: if after the end of martial law the borders open, a new wave of labor migration and family reunification is possible. But the key question is where exactly the families will reunite. If in Ukraine — the flow of transfers may partially revive. If abroad — the number of recipients of transfers within the country will continue to decrease.
Israeli perspective: money is there, but motivation changes
For Israel, there are two important layers in this story.
The first is purely statistical: $453 million in transfers from Israel per year is a sign of a stable support channel. In Israeli cities where the Ukrainian community is particularly noticeable (Tel Aviv, Haifa, Bat Yam, Ashdod, Netanya), money often goes not “into the abstract economy,” but to specific people — parents, elderly relatives, children left in Ukraine.
The second layer is psychological and everyday: many people who left in 2022–2023, in 2024–2025 no longer live in a “temporary suitcase” mode. They pay rent, kindergartens, insurance, education, close loans, arrange life. And at this moment, the regular transfer “home” begins to compete with reality on the spot — especially when incomes do not grow.
That is why for the Israeli reader, this topic is not about “why don’t you help,” but about how quickly the structure of diaspora life is changing — and how this affects Ukraine’s resilience.
Not only desire, but also economy: people have less free money
Economists in the material note: the surge in 2022 was partly related not to “classic labor transfers,” but to emergency support — diaspora, volunteers, collections for the army, refugees, rebuilding the destroyed. It was a mobilization of resources that cannot be maintained at the same level for years.
Financial analyst Ivan Sklyar in a comment to “Komersant Ukrainian” adds another factor: the labor market situation in Europe has worsened, high inflation and economic slowdown leave migrants with less free money. Plus, people who left at the beginning of the war have “grown into” a new life and spend more where they live, rather than sending to Ukraine. He also talks about the decline in the incomes of Ukrainians abroad and, as a result, the reduction in the ability to help with regular transfers.
This is compounded by the relocation of some Ukrainian specialists abroad — in particular, IT. The logic is simple: customers want stability, the risks of outages and mobilization factors push for relocation. And when a person receives payment already outside Ukraine and spends it there, this salary statistically ceases to look like a “transfer to Ukraine”, and the overall indicator decreases.
In the middle of this picture is what NAnews readers usually see in comments and letters: families are “cut” by the war and forced to make decisions not from strategies, but from everyday crises. This is exactly what “NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency” regularly writes and talks about — when personal routes of the diaspora become part of the big economy, even if people do not call it that.
What this threatens Ukraine: less money — more internal burdens
When the flow of transfers falls, it is not “macro indicators” that feel it first, but household budgets. Transfers often covered medicines, rent, utilities, children’s education, repairs after shelling, support for the elderly.
If labor income from abroad decreases, Ukraine faces a double effect:
consumption within the country decreases, which means — weaker small businesses and local budgets;
the vulnerability of households that lived “on the support” of relatives increases.
And this is happening against the backdrop of ongoing pressure on infrastructure and everyday life, when people make the decision to leave not out of a dream of Europe, but because living becomes physically difficult.
Migration balance 2025: more left than returned
A separate metric is how many people leave and how many return. According to the Center for Economic Strategy, in 2025 the number of those who left exceeded the number of those who returned by 303 thousand (this is less than the difference in 2024 — 459 thousand). But experts warn: winter factors can sharply change the dynamics.
The text also provides a resonant estimate voiced by the mayor of Kyiv: the city could have been left by hundreds of thousands of people during the period of winter stresses. Even if these estimates will be clarified, the trend itself is clear: when the number of those who “move life” abroad increases, transfers within Ukraine may decrease not because of greed, but because the recipient moves with the sender.
What is important for the Israeli reader to understand
Israel in this statistic is not an “exotic,” but one of the noticeable sources of transfers. But the main conclusion is different: 2025 shows how the diaspora is transitioning from “helping urgently” to “living here for the long term.” And this automatically changes financial flows, even if the emotional connection with Ukraine remains.
The paradox of 2025 is that there are more people abroad, but less money at home — because migration has become family-oriented, expenses have become permanent, incomes for many have fallen, and part of the 2022 assistance was a one-time mobilization, not a sustainable model.
And yes, this is a serious problem for Ukraine. But its root is not in “disappeared sympathy,” but in the restructuring of the lives of millions of people, including those who ended up in Israel and are forced to balance between supporting relatives and their own stability.