Ukrainian refugees returning home on the rise

Mariia Seniuk (left) and her two daughters at the main bus station in Lviv, Ukraine. They returned from Szczecin, Poland - Photo: NEW YORK TIMES

Oksana, one of millions of Ukrainian refugees, waits at a bus stop in Lvov, western Ukraine. After two weeks of asylum in Poland and the Czech Republic with her daughter and one-year-old grandson, she decided to return to Ukraine.

"Nobody needed us. Nobody needed a university lecturer there. Knowing Czech was a must. They agreed to hire me as a cleaner, but I needed a place to stay," she explained.

For Oksana, life as a refugee was even more difficult than living under shells. "We wandered for more than two weeks, from Poland to the Czech Republic, back to Poland and back here," she said.

Oksana's family lived in a refugee center in the Czech Republic, had to do everything themselves, but no one understood what to do because they didn't understand Czech.

In Poland, after two days in a shelter, they were moved to a hotel, but the family began to run out of money.

Oksana’s daughter, Halyna, who is also a university lecturer, said life as a refugee was difficult. Many people shared a room. Fortunately, Poland provided food and other necessities, but they had no private accommodation.

Other Ukrainian returnees also said that Poles had been welcoming, but the country was overwhelmed by the number of refugees. "In the end, there is no place like home and everyone there wants to go home," Oksana said.

According to Ukrainian residents and officials, the increased flow of people returning home shows that many Ukrainians believe the war will drag on, so they are willing to live with the danger rather than seek refuge in another country where they have no family and familiar community.

"Recent statistics show a change. At the beginning of the fighting, 10 times more people left than returned. Now, on some days, half of the people passing through Lvov are going to Ukraine instead of leaving," said Yurii Buchko, deputy manager at the Lvov military administrative headquarters.

These returnees were mostly women and children because most men of military age in Ukraine were banned from leaving the country when the fighting began.

"People understood what war was like. Even when there was a war, you could stay and live in Ukraine, in Lvov. At first they left because they were so scared, but they still had relatives in Ukraine," Mr Buchko said.

In addition, he said Ukrainians also returned to resume work as many shops and businesses had reopened.

At the Lvov military administration headquarters, Mr. Buchko and other officials are planning to reopen more businesses so that Ukrainians can return to work.

"When the war started, we thought or hoped it would last only a few days or at most a week. Now we see that the war will probably last not just a few months but a few years. We have to live with it."

According to Mr. Buchko, April 2 was a fairly typical day. There were 18,000 Ukrainians who left the country and 9,000 who returned through border posts. Some of those who returned were traders transporting goods, many others were Ukrainian families returning home. According to the New York Times, figures from Ukraine’s border guards confirmed this trend.

More than 4.2 million Ukrainians leave the country

Since Russia began its special military operation in Ukraine, more than 4.2 million Ukrainians have fled abroad for asylum and more than 7 million have left their homes to seek safety in Ukraine. Many of them have fled to Lvov and other cities and towns near the Polish border. In addition,Many Ukrainians have also returned to the capital Kiev because Russian forces have withdrawn from here.

According to Tuoi Tre