Those who fled Putin caught in economic tug of war

As Zelenskyy calls on Ukrainians to return home, those sheltering abroad face a tough choice

- ANDREA DUDIK, KRYSTOF CHAMONIKOLAS AND NATALIA OJEWSKA

A flag is presented as Ukrainian soldiers' visit Warsaw in July to meet with compatriots living abroad.

Lidiia Vasylevska was working as an accountant in Kyiv when Russian forces invaded Ukraine. She fled to Prague, found a different job and settled in a small apartment in a quiet district of the Czech capital.

But more than two years after escaping the bombs, she finds herself caught in potentially a different kind of conflict: an economic tug-of-war between her home country and the country that’s sheltered her.

The decision to relocate with her two daughters and pets more than 1,000 kilometres away now finds Vasylevska at odds with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He wants refugees to return to keep the war-torn economy running and resist Russia. Much of central and eastern Europe, meanwhile, is enduring a labour shortage, and countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic are reticent to lose people.

The pressure has been increasing since Zelenskyy told Ukrainians in his New Year address they should decide whether they are refugees or citizens — or, as he put it, victims or winners — and it was time for the country to be together. A recent incursion into Russian territory has put Moscow on the backfoot and bolstered morale in Ukraine.

“When you hear this, you are made to feel that you didn’t just leave, but you abandoned your country and you are a bad person,” said Vasylevska, 51, who works as a project manager for a non-governmental organization helping refugees. “It shouldn’t matter where you are, every one of us can help in this situation from where they are right now.”

Countries in the region took in millions of refugees in the wake of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February 2022.