Society
'Unity hubs' to help Ukrainian refugees return home
Over the next few months, the hubs in Poland, Czechia and Germany will become operational and facilitate Ukrainians' return home, officials in Kyiv say.
![Members of the Ukrainian diaspora unfurl a 100-meter-long Ukrainian flag to mark their homeland's Independence Day in Katowice, Poland, on August 24. [Sergei Gapon/AFP]](/gc6/images/2025/02/12/49096-refugee_1-370_237.webp)
By Olha Hembik |
WARSAW -- Poland, Czechia and Germany plan to open "unity hubs" to support Ukrainian refugees and help them return home, according to Ukraine's newly created Ministry of National Unity.
The Ukrainian government on January 24 approved regulations for the new ministry, which is authorized to enable Ukrainian refugees to voluntarily return to their homeland.
The three countries that will host the hubs were chosen based on the number of refugees who have settled in them after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Over the next few months, the hubs will become operational and encourage Ukrainians to return home.
![A woman stands next to a map displaying the cities hosting Ukrainian refugees in France, at the office of Caritas Catholic charity at the Metropole Hotel, which houses 150 Ukrainian refugees, in Lourdes, France, on August 23. [Ed Jones/AFP]](/gc6/images/2025/02/12/49129-afp__20240824__36el9mz__v1__highres__franceukraineconflictrefugeespoliticsreligion-370_237.webp)
![Paulina Skrzypek runs classes for 7- to 9-year-old Ukrainian children in Lublin, Poland, on August 6, at the headquarters of the NGO Homo Faber, which launched language courses for Ukrainian pupils who have begun attending Polish schools. [Wojtek Radwanski/AFP]](/gc6/images/2025/02/12/49098-refugee_3-370_237.webp)
Voluntary return
Germany leads among European Union (EU) countries that have accepted the largest number of Ukrainians with temporary protection status -- 1.14 million Ukrainians (27.2% of the EU total), followed by Poland -- more than 983,000 (23.4%) and Czechia -- about 380,000 (9.0%), according to Eurostat.
In all, as of October 31, almost 4.2 million Ukrainians who fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion had received temporary protection status in the EU.
"According to our estimates, there are 20 to 25 million Ukrainians abroad, and about 32 million in Ukraine," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Unity Oleksiy Chernyshov said January 6 according to the Polish Press Agency.
"This is a large, powerful nation that is today partially forced to go abroad, and we are beginning the process of returning Ukrainians home," he said.
"I want to emphasize that this return is completely voluntary. No coercive methods will be used," he added.
Ukraine does not intend to forcibly repatriate citizens or create artificial restrictions for Ukrainians abroad, particularly by withholding consular services or canceling social assistance, the ministry clarified on Telegram.
The main goal is to create the conditions for Ukrainians to voluntarily return, by ensuring security, economic opportunities, and access to housing and social services.
The ministry plans to launch a recruitment center pilot project where Ukrainians living abroad will be recruited remotely into the defense, energy and other industries, Chernyshov said January 8 during a visit to Warsaw, as reported by Our Choice, a website for Ukrainians in Poland.
Integration instead of assimilation
As long as the war continues, the Foreign Ministry and National Unity Ministry will work to preserve the national and cultural identity of Ukrainians living abroad.
Their efforts will focus on satisfying the ethnic, cultural, educational and linguistic needs of the Ukrainians who have left the country.
The National Unity Ministry also plans to cooperate closely with Ukrainian social organizations abroad.
"If there are no Ukrainian cultural centers and support for teaching the Ukrainian language, there will be rapid assimilation, Polonization, especially of children and youth," Myroslava Keryk, director of the Ukrainian House Foundation in Warsaw, told Kontur.
"Children should know that they are Ukrainians, that they can speak Ukrainian freely, that there are places [in Poland] where they can be in a Ukrainian environment."
The "unity hubs" serve this purpose as well; they are expected to include a language school and an educational and cultural space with programs for children and youth.
'Ukrainians will return home'
It is still too early to predict how many Ukrainian refugees will choose to permanently settle abroad.
Ukrainian refugees living in Moldova and Romania, for example, are likelier than those in the Netherlands and Germany to express intent to return to Ukraine, according to a OneUA study published June 22.
The main motivations are social attachment and economic factors, the survey, conducted between July and August 2022, shows.
Pollsters queried more than 18,000 respondents in eight European countries: Poland, Germany, Czechia, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Hungary and Moldova. They focused on Ukrainian women, who make up the majority of Ukrainian refugees as most Ukrainian men were banned from leaving the country.
"Ukraine is currently experiencing a serious demographic crisis," said Ella Libanova of Kyiv, director of the Ptoukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies and academician of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences.
"It will be very good if we bring back 50% of those who left. It would be even better if 60% come back," she told Kontur. "The issue of bringing back the Ukrainian refugees from abroad who left because of the war will be one of the most important challenges in the near future."
"When the war ends in victory, there will be real security guarantees, and Ukraine will restore effective statehood -- then as many as 80% of Ukrainians will return home," said Piotr Kulpa, a former Polish deputy minister of labor.
"Someone will have to deal with the country's postwar reconstruction," he told Kontur. "I'm confident that Ukraine will have growth potential, new jobs will be created and there will be movement."