Loading... Please wait...

商務通訊


As Russia’s invasion stalls, Ukraine’s refugees return home

發佈時間 25th May 2022 @ 11:21 AM

More Ukrainians are leaving Poland than entering

A woman and her children, one of the thousands of women and children who fled the Ukraine after Russia invaded, is helped by a family member with her luggage upon her arrival from Poland, at Kyiv's railway station on May 12, 2022. - For the first time since the start of the war, the flow was reversed on May 10 with 29,000 departures for 34,000 returns according to official figures from border guards, even if the balance remains largely negative overall with 5.9 million departures for 1.56 million back. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP) (Photo by SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
May 24th 2022 | WARSAW

Valeria, a fashion consultant, and her mother, a housewife, escaped to Poland in early March, a week after Russian missiles began falling on Kyiv, their home town. Three months later they are returning. “It’s hard to live a normal life when all you think of is your country,” Valeria says, standing alongside a bundle of bags, and hundreds of other Ukrainians, at a train station in Warsaw, the Polish capital.

With Russian troops forced to retreat from the outskirts of Kyiv and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s two biggest cities, many refugees reckon it is safe, or at least safer than before, to come back. In the two weeks to May 23rd, the number of Ukrainians heading back home from Poland (345,000) exceeded the number of those entering Poland (253,000). Neighbouring countries are seeing a similar trend. Many of those returning say they simply want to see loved ones. Men of fighting age have not been allowed to leave Ukraine. As a result, 94% of the refugees in Poland are women and children. “I’m a bit scared,” Valeria says, “but I need to see my dad and my grandma.”