Years of stability needed before Ukrainians return en masse / The New Voice of Ukraine

Kyiv should lower expectations for a rapid return of refugees and focus on providing services and security in communities to encourage repatriation, Poland’s chargé d’affaires to Ukraine, Piotr Lukasiewicz, said on June 10.

Speaking at the Nation’s Welfare panel hosted by NV, Lukasiewicz said tangible improvements will likely attract people more than grand promises. “People will not return very quickly,” he said.

He noted that it took about 30 years of peace and the influence of European institutions for people in Polish communities to begin feeling better, and that community-level services and safety, as opposed to patriotic slogans, motivate people to come back. Lukasiewicz acknowledged it is easy to speak from the perspective of a country that has not experienced war in decades and said the experience of Poland may not be a simple template for Ukraine.

On May 7, Denys Ulyutin, Ukraine’s Minister for Social Policy, said the government wants data on Ukrainians under temporary protection in EU countries to inform return planning and community development.

UN data show nearly 1 million of the 5.4 million Ukrainians under temporary protection in Europe are in Poland. Poland received the most Ukrainian refugees in the first year of the war before later being surpassed by Germany, and it has one of the highest employment rates among Ukrainians granted temporary protection in Europe.

Years of stability needed before Ukrainians return en masse, Polish diplomat says