Whilerussian army are leaving the cities of the north to focus their efforts in the southeast of the country, thousands of people who have leftUkraine Fill in the stations with Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary go home. It is the phenomenon reported by humanitarian workers and border guards who a steady and growing stream of people returning to Ukrainealongside those of fleeing to Europe.
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If according to the estimates of Unhcr are about 4 million Ukrainians who have fled the country since the invasion began, Ukraine’s border guards said on April 2 620,000 are repatriated since the beginning of the conflict. A number that has continued to rise in recent weeks as the Russian retreat from the north and the end of the siege of Kyiv bring renewed hope.
They don’t think the war is over Russian bombing continues in many cities but especially in the north, shops are reopening and city life seems to be returning to a state of greater normality. The belief grows that the War could last for years and that living in your own home, even under Russian threat, is better than living as a refugee in another country with no home or community.
Our beautiful Kyiv is coming back to life. The subway will run, restaurants will open, and the most insignificant checkpoints will be removed to make traffic easier. The mayor asks people not to come for at least a week, but they come back. Border police confirm more people are coming back than leaving Ukraine now pic.twitter.com/sd8JPofA4U
Nataliya Gumenyuk (@ngumenyuk) April 6, 2022
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Ukraine, the stories of the returnees: “I can’t stay away from my husband”
Who goes back, wives and children “Let’s go back to their husbands”
Virtually all drivers of cars crossing the Polish border are women. The train stations and bus stops are also full women and children. They were the first to escape the war and are now returning to Ukraine to reunite their families, find elderly parents or Reunion with brothers and husbands stayed at home due to martial law. We come back for love, but also because refugee life doesn’t offer many alternatives and not everyone has the means to stay abroad for long. “Nobody needs us,” he told the New York Times Oskan, an ex university professor who did not want to give his last name and is now returning to the Czech Republic «Nobody needs teachers. Knowledge of the Czech language is mandatory. They would be willing to take me gladly cleaning womanbut then I have to find an apartment. ‘
⚡️ About 620,000 Ukrainians have returned to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began.
“In the first weeks of the war, most of the Ukrainians who returned home were men, but now we see more and more women and children returning,” said the spokesman for the state border guard service.
The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 2, 2022
The figures: Half of those who cross the border in Lviv return home
“The statistics have changed latelyhe said in an interview Yuri Buchko, the deputy military administrator of Lviv. “At the beginning of the war, the number of those who fled was ten times that of those who stayed behind. Now, in a few days, half of those crossing the border in the Lviv province will return home. On Saturday, 18,000 Ukrainians fled the country while 9,000 crossed the border to return to their cities. Data from the Ukrainian border guards confirm the trend. According to the Polish Border Police overall 364,000 people returned in Ukraine across the Polish border from February 24.
We return to Kyiv and the cities of the West
The goals of the returnees are usually the west town (considered safer) e Kyiv freed from the siege, where life begins anew. Many are merchants reopening their businesses and residents returning to see what’s left of their homes. It goes back too Lviv, which has suffered a few rocket attacks (on a military training ground and an oil facility) that have killed a few dozen people, but the city has remained mostly intact. Antiaircraft sirens often sound, but almost always only to signal the presence of Russian warplanes heading for targets in eastern Ukraine.
“Not everyone has the money abroad for a long time”
At the beginning Many fled, thinking that the The war would last a few days. Now it is clear that this is not the case, but not everyone has the money to stay abroad for long. And so the desire to go home grows, despite the ongoing conflict: «At the moment we see that it will probably not take months, but several years. AND we have to live with thatOksana said “We traveled for more than two weeks, from Poland to the Czech Republic, then back to Poland and then here, he says, and says that after days in an emergency shelter, they stayed in a hotel in Poland with many other refugees. all in the same room. “Especially Poles were very helpful with groceries, but we didn’t have an apartment.” On April 7, they both took a taxi to Lviv train station to return to their home in Dnipro, eastern Ukraine.