Researchers in Ukraine face mounting risks as war curtails academic freedom and mobility

KUALA LUMPUR, 29 SEPTEMBER 2026 —

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 (Reuters) – A new study tracing the institutional affiliations of Ukrainian scholars from 2009 to 2022 shows that regions hit by Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of fighting in the Donbas began losing researchers long before the full‑scale invasion in February 2022, while other parts of the country and abroad became increasingly important destinations for displaced academics.

“The full‑scale invasion made the displacement of Ukrainian researchers particularly visible, but our study shows that they were already leaving affected regions for other parts of Ukraine and abroad after Russia illegally annexed Crimea and fighting began in the Donbas in 2014,” said co‑author Aliakbar Akbaritabar of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and the University of Rostock.

Akbaritabar and Michael Zaslavsky of the University of Wisconsin‑Madison reconstructed scholars’ movements by analysing the affiliation data recorded in tens of thousands of scientific publications. Each paper lists the university, research institute or other organisation to which an author is attached, allowing the researchers to estimate mobility at a fine geographical level over more than a decade.

The analysis reveals a “redrawing of Ukraine’s scholarly map” after 2014, but the pattern is not uniform. Between 2015 and 2017, the two main Donbas provinces – Donetsk and Luhansk – experienced net outflows of researchers to other Ukrainian regions. For every 1,000 actively publishing scholars, Donetsk saw about 54 more leaving than arriving, while Luhansk recorded a net loss of roughly 46 per 1,000.

Cross‑border migration was even more pronounced in Crimea, where the net loss amounted to about 117 researchers per 1,000, and in Donetsk, which recorded an international net loss of roughly 66 per 1,000. The study notes that these losses stem from different dynamics: some regions saw more scholars depart for institutions abroad, while others registered fewer arrivals from foreign institutions. In all cases, more scholars left than arrived in the eastern part of the country.

The authors were surprised to find that “more developed regions” did not simply retain their own researchers or attract new ones. “Instead, we found that they could also be places from which scholars were better able to relocate,” Zaslavsky explained. He suggested that stronger links to other research institutions in these regions may have provided greater opportunities for relocation when crisis struck.

While the bibliometric approach can identify where scholars’ institutional bases changed, it cannot reveal the personal reasons behind each move. Nonetheless, the authors argue that wartime scholarly migration cannot be reduced to a story of voluntary “brain drain”. Qualifications and international networks do not automatically shield researchers from forced displacement, nor do they guarantee that those who wish to leave can do so.

The study shows the broader implications of scholarly mobility for research systems. Researchers carry knowledge, professional networks and collaborative opportunities; where they move influences both the institutions they leave and those that receive them. Publicly available publication data, the authors say, can complement surveys, administrative records and qualitative research to map where research ecosystems lose talent and where they gain it during crises.

Understanding these patterns is especially relevant for countries that will eventually need to rebuild their research communities and institutions after conflict. The authors’ work provides a data‑driven foundation for policymakers and university leaders in Ukraine and elsewhere to assess the impact of armed conflict on scientific capacity and to design strategies for recovery.

The paper, titled “Internal and International Migration of Scholars in Times of Conflict: The Case of Ukraine, 2009‑2022,” appears in the September 2026 issue of Population and Development Review (doi:10.1111/padr.70088).