How Ukrainian refugees are living in different countries

Ukrainian refugees in Georgia and Europe

For more than a year there has been a war in Ukraine. Since February 24, 2022, people have been dying every day due to Russian aggression, cities have been destroyed, families have been destroyed. Millions of Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes, fleeing war and terror. Some have returned, some are waiting for it to be over.

According to the UN, by the beginning of March 2023 there were more than eight million Ukrainian refugees in Europe. How did they choose their destination country and how have they been received?

Georgia: stop for a while

During the first year of the war, 160,000 Ukrainians entered Georgia. Most of them are from eastern Ukraine, from the territory occupied by Russia. These people actually fled through Russia itself.

Ekaterina Talalay from Mariupol together with her family managed to leave Kiev on March 19, and went through vetting in Novoazovsk. There, he says, it wasn’t so bad — they just looked at the documents; but at the Russian border they had to go through a more serious check.

“The men were taken out one at a time, checked for traces of weapons, tattoos, phones, computers, and asked a lot of questions, mostly provocative: did they fight or not, what do you think about the war, etc. Then another person came, he even took people away separately and asked the same questions again — maybe someone will get confused, give a different answer and get caught,” Ekaterina says.

For the first few months, Ukrainians who arrived in Georgia were put up in hotels provided by the state, and some were helped by individuals and private hotels. Some of them went to friends or relatives.

In August 2022, the program for providing housing and food for Ukrainian refugees in Georgia was stopped.

The authorities are relying to another program — social and economic support for Ukrainian citizens living in Georgia, which has been in effect since July 15.

The program allocates 300 lari [about $105] per family and 45 lari [about $16] per person per month. But renting an apartment in Georgia for this much money is almost impossible.

There is no special status for Ukrainian refugees in Georgia. Ukrainians can apply for refugee status, but there is not much point in this, at least for those who are not going to live here for years.

So very few Ukrainians stay in Georgia for long, and the majority travels further to other countries.

Ekaterina and her husband are leaving for Canada. Her husband already has a job there.

“He will work on the installation of windows. I will find something too. My son will come later with our neighbors. We were together here, we will be together there. It will happen,” Ekaterina says.

Read the stories of Ukrainian refugees in Georgia in a JAMnews article.

• One year since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.Chronology of main events
• Escape from Severodonetsk: a Ukrainian family’s experience of the horrors of war
• Large-scale actions held in Tbilisi and Yerevan in support of Ukraine and against Russia. Video and photo

Moldova: Volunteers play an important role

Since the beginning of the war, more than 600,000 citizens of Ukraine have passed through Moldova. This is the highest percentage of accepted refugees per capita. About 100,000 refugees remained in Moldova.

Among the advantages of Moldova for Ukrainians is, of course, geographical proximity, especially for people from the Odessa region; language; and most importantly, the desire of Moldovans to help refugees from a neighboring country.

“We want to thank the Moldovans for such a warm welcome. They received us in their homes, fed us, gave us comfort and a roof over our heads. At the border people approached us, knocked on the car window and asked if we wanted tea, coffee, if we wanted to eat, if we had somewhere to go. You know, it was so nice and touching. Every person we met asked how he could help us,” Alexey from Odessa says.

Moldovan families settled about 80% of Ukrainians fleeing the war at home. Many took refugees home right at the border.

Several thousand more people ended up in refugee accommodation centers. Moldova was not ready for such an influx of refugees, but thanks to volunteers it successfully coped with the crisis, Dmitry Lekartsev, chairman of the National Congress of Ukrainians in Moldova, said.

“Volunteers in our country have shown strength because such a huge number of people have come together. And so many people wanted to help, receive at home, bring things, blankets,” Dmitry says.

Long-term assistance mechanisms were created, benefits were introduced, the right to free medical care in the field of reproductive health, and a simplified employment procedure was created. Now the country is in the process of introducing temporary protection status.

What happened to refugees from Ukraine in Moldova during the year of the war, read in the material Ziarul de Gardă

• Can Transnistria be reintegrated with Moldova? How it might work
• Hundreds of Russian media clones still operating in Europe

Poland: leader in the number of accepted Ukrainians

Since February 24, 2022, 9.9 million people have entered Poland. Some of them went to other European countries, more than 7.9 million people returned home to Ukraine.

Poland attracts not only by geographical proximity, but also by the system of assistance to refugees. There is a status of temporary protection, an allowance of 40 zlotys [about 8 euros] per day, and a lot of work.

“There are jobs in Poland. For those who have a desire, there is a lot of work,” Evgenia from Dnipro says.

Now she is looking for a live-in job — there is no money to rent an apartment. Evgenia lives in Europe’s largest refugee accommodation center, the PTAK EXPO exhibition complex.

Six huge pavilions of the center were created to hold conferences, fairs, fashion shows. When the war started, PTAK EXPO promptly converted its premises into a camp for Ukrainian refugees.

At its peak, it accommodated 8,000 people.

In the living quarters of the camp there are folding beds one and a half meters from each other. Someone has hung a sheet to protect personal space. Every day in the camp they have free breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“You know, only those who leave western Ukraine are horrified by these living conditions. And those who survived the bombing with a child, sitting in the basement, they rejoice when they get here. There are no bombs here,” Anna, who came from Izyum, says.

Part of the free assistance to refugees in Poland is receding. Starting this month, an amendment to the law went into effect, according to which Ukrainian refugees in Poland will pay part of their accommodation and meals in such centers.

Read the Euroradio report from the largest refugee reception center in Europe.

• Who votes “pro-Russia” in the EU parliament and how
• South Ossetia to join Russia after all?
• Russian law forbids calling Putin names

Lithuania

Lithuania has received more than 74,000 Ukrainian refugees. The peak moment was March last year, when about two thousand people a day entered the country.

Lithuania is not in the top countries in terms of the number of refugees accepted. Unlike Ukraine’s neighbors Moldova and Poland, Lithuania is usually the choice of those with work or personal connections in the country.

Alena Podolinnaya arrived in Lithuania on March 5 with her three-year-old daughter and 75-year-old mother. Alena worked for nine years at a shipping company with an office in Lithuania. Her old boss met her at the airpot.

Due to the war and the closure of all ports, Alena had to leave her pre-war career and start a new one – to open a sushi restaurant “7 Seas Sushi” in Vilnius.

“There was both a desire and a need,” Alena says.

Opening my business in Vilnius took only two and a half months and did not cause any problems. The status of temporary protection for Ukrainians provides a huge number of rights and opportunities, ranging from the right to work, medical care, self-employment, and even the establishment of enterprises.

Read the stories of two Ukrainian women who fled to Lithuania from the war a year ago, in Novaya Gazeta Baltiya.

Authors: Svetlana Kozlova, Olga Bulat, Andrey Voitovich, Nino Narimanishvili, Maradia Tsaava, Nino Memanishvili, Euroradio and Meydan TV