By Olha Chepil | 2025-05-30

KYIV -- Three years ago, they fled with whatever they could carry: passports, children, pets, sometimes only the clothes on their backs. Today, millions of Ukrainians displaced by war are still navigating foreign lands, not as tourists or students but as survivors trying to rebuild their lives in unfamiliar cities across Europe.

While the headlines may have moved on, the needs have not. That is where Ukrainian Unity Hubs come in.

Coordinated by Ukraine's Ministry of National Unity, each hub will serve as a lifeline, offering practical help: assistance with documents, legal consultations and access to online services, alongside programming that aims to restore a sense of normality.

There will be Ukrainian language classes for children and adults, lectures and community meetups. And beyond the logistics, the hubs will nurture the cultural roots of a nation in exile: spaces to read Ukrainian books, watch films, participate in holiday celebrations and experience exhibitions that keep the national identity alive, even far from home.

"This serves as a reminder that Ukraine isn't forgetting its citizens," Ihor Reiterovych, director of political and legal programs of the Ukrainian Center for Social Development, told Kontur.

"This is a place where they can gather, share information, interact and get the latest news, with an eye toward the end of the war and possibly returning to Ukraine, among other things."

Points of national unity

To help bring Ukrainians home, the Ministry for National Unity is working with the governments of partner countries that have accepted refugees and with the diaspora. Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov told LB.ua in January that the goal is to support integration abroad without eroding national identity.

"Our task is to help them integrate… but not to assimilate," he said, emphasizing the importance of staying connected to Ukraine and eventually facilitating voluntary return.

The initiative has backing from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose office announced that Unity Hubs will open in Germany, Spain, Poland and Czechia. Talks are proceeding about a hub in Britain.

These countries host the largest Ukrainian diasporas.

"It's important to stress that we strongly believe that after the hot stage of the war ends, Ukrainians will be able to return to Ukraine," Zelenskyy said during a May 5 news conference in Prague with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala.

In the same month, Ukraine and Czechia signed an agreement to open a Unity Hub in Prague, with funding from Ukraine, the Czech Interior Ministry and the EU. The center is expected to begin operations in June.

The mission of the Unity Hub

Plans are under way to open a Unity Hub in Warsaw.

An estimated 1.5 million Ukrainians, half of them children, reside now in Poland, according to Oleksandr Pestrikov of the Ukrainian House in Warsaw.

Many families remain uncertain about their future: about 40% are unsure whether they will return to Ukraine, depending largely on how and when the war ends, he told Kontur.

"The overwhelming mood is uncertainty," he said, noting that psychological strain is growing. "One-quarter of respondents in a survey said they've planned a life for themselves in Poland."

Pestrikov recently held discussions with officials from Ukraine's Ministry for National Unity on the Warsaw hub. He described Unity Hubs as a comprehensive concept. The planned center would offer legal help, banking support, a job search service and possibly a consular office.

"It will be a big site in rather large cities that in theory will be a one-stop shop," he said. "It will almost be like a Ukrainian government agency but in another country."

While the immediate goal of these hubs is to support Ukrainians abroad, with the secondary one of assisting with return to Ukraine, analysts see another longer-term role as well. They could eventually serve as polling stations, said Reiterovych.

"A big room in the hub could be made into a large polling place where people can come vote in the presence of observers," he said.

Going home after the war

Alla Matyushok, a journalist and former TV presenter from Kyiv, fled to Frankfurt am Main, Germany, with her twin sons at the start of the full-scale war. In Germany, she has not been able to return to her profession.

"I get offered jobs to work at the reception desk in a hotel because my German and English are good, or I get offered office jobs to write emails," Matyushok told Kontur.

"In theory those aren't bad jobs, but if you want to be a journalist, no one will give you that work here."

Many Ukrainians in Germany face similar challenges, and not just with employment, she said. Legal and psychological support is needed too.

"Like many people who have come here, I don't know all the German laws. And that kind of support is great," Matyushok explained.

In January, Ukraine and Germany agreed to open Berlin's first Unity Hub. The center will work with German employment agencies to help Ukrainians navigate the job market.

Matyushok hopes she will not need the hub. Her husband remains in Ukraine, and she plans to return.

"There are people who will definitely go home," she told Kontur. "Women who have husbands waiting for them, as I do, and people with homes or families still there."