Ukraine Refugee Crisis: Millions in Europe stuck between return and resettlement

Maryna Bondarenko says she has three suitcases packed in her apartment in Poland, waiting for the day when peace returns ​to Ukraine.

The 51-year-old journalist fled Kyiv with her son and ​mother after Russia launched its invasion on February 24, 2022. She thought they would be abroad for a month or ​two until the war ended.

Four years later, she is still there, working in a Ukrainian‑language newsroom that caters to a community of more than 1.5 million Ukrainians living in Poland.


"There were so many moments when we thought: 'This is it, we're finally going back.' We went to the post office several times, packed our belongings into boxes, absolutely certain that we were going back," ‌she said.

Russia's full-scale invasion ⁠of Ukraine ⁠has triggered the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two. More than 5 million Ukrainians are scattered across Europe, according to UN figures, many of them in Central and Eastern Europe.

SEPARATED FROM HUSBAND

Roughly ​three-quarters of the refugees are women and children, after Ukraine imposed martial law prohibiting men of military age from leaving the country.

Bondarenko longs to be reunited with her husband, ​Andrij Dudko, a 44-year-old former TV cameraman who is serving as a drone operator on the front line. But waves of Russian air strikes - which have cut power to tens of thousands of people in Kyiv during a bitter winter - convinced her to stay.

"We get ready to leave, and then there's another massive attack. We get ​ready again, and then cold winter comes and there is no heating, no power, no water. And I ⁠just can't bring ‌my child there, under the rockets."

In Poland, large Ukrainian communities have sprung up in cities such as Warsaw and Krakow, sometimes ​prompting tensions with local residents ​who complain of the new arrivals taking welfare benefits and jobs.

"I want to go home, I really do. I know ⁠it won't be easy," said Bondarenko, adding that the country she returns to will be profoundly ​changed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's government hopes that 70% of Ukrainians abroad will return, once the war ends. But ​surveys have shown that, over time, the share of Ukrainians who say they want to go back is declining.

For many among the younger generation of Ukrainians abroad - like Bondarenko's 11-year-old son Danylo - the country is a distant memory.

He likes Poland, despite experiencing some hostility toward Ukrainians in school.

"I don't really remember anyone from Ukraine. I remember I had one friend, but I do not really remember him and I've lost contact with him," he said. "I don't think that I will return to Ukraine."

'LIFE TURNED OUT DIFFERENTLY'

Iryna Kushnir and Olga Yermolenko, who were friends at high school in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, rekindled their friendship after they both fled ‌to Istanbul at the start of the war, part of a far smaller number of Ukrainians who sought shelter in Turkey.

"I thought the war would end quickly, so I didn't plan to stay in Istanbul for long," said Kushnir, 42, who left her 19-year-old daughter ​Sofia behind in Ukraine ​to study.

But four years later, she is married ⁠to a Turkish man and has a teaching job at the Ukrainian department of Istanbul University.

"Like all Ukrainians, I planned to return home, but life turned out differently," said Kushnir, who says she is proud that her daughter has chosen to remain in Ukraine.

Her friend, Yermolenko, 43, works remotely from Istanbul as a financial ​specialist for Ukrainian clients. Her mother Tetyana, 73, still lives in Kharkiv and they are constantly in touch.

"I cannot say I am involved 100% in Turkish life. It is a bit strange feeling to be caught between your previous life and a possible future life," said Yermolenko, who has started learning Turkish. She still closely follows events in Ukraine but tries not to think about how long the war will last.

"I open the news - there's a Telegram channel that reports what's happening in Kharkiv in real time - and I see a missile flying toward my home," she said. "In that moment, the feeling is terrifying. I'm very scared. And of course, I immediately call my mom to make sure she's okay."