Ukraine refugees face lasting exile as war drags on

– Iryna, Maryna, Katya – three generations from one family – fled their home in southern Ukraine just after the war started, hoping to return quickly.

But two years later, these hopes are fading. Just a few days ago, a fresh attack blew off the roofs of many buildings in their home city of Mykolaiv.

“Ukraine’s future is not clear. I think the war will not stop, even in one or two years,” said Maryna Troshchenko, 43, while showing photos of the damage sent by relatives still living in the port city.

Troshchenko, her mother and her daughter, who all now live in Vienna, are among six million Ukrainian refugees, marking the biggest exodus since World War II, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Germany and Poland host the largest populations, with about one million Ukrainian refugees in each country.

Incessant bombings and a lack of progress on the front make their return in the short term increasingly improbable.

After months of housing problems and rejected CVs, Troshchenko finally landed a job in a supermarket, enabling the trio to move into their own apartment this year.

“I started from scratch” at the bakery department before being promoted to head cashier, said the former purchasing director who did not speak a word of German when she arrived.

“We are happy to have been able to accomplish so much in two years,” the divorcee added.

Her daughter, Katya, 17, has managed to obtain her Ukrainian school graduation certificate while attending a Viennese high school.

Katya’s grandmother, Iryna Simonova, 64, has found a volleyball team to practise her favourite sport and has made friends.

But tears stream from her eyes as soon as she thinks of her home country as she recalls leaving behind her mother, who at 87 refused to join them.

At refugee help organisation Diakonie in Austria, workers note that many Ukrainian refugees have decided to try to settle after being paralysed by the “dilemma of waiting” to return home. “For a long time, it was very difficult for them to decide how to proceed further,” Sarah Brandstetter, deputy at Diakonie’s Ukrainian refugee advice centre, said.

“Two years later, the situation has changed -- people are now planning to stay in the country. They have their children here in schools. They want to build a future for themselves,” she added.

But especially mothers of young children who find themselves alone taking care of them continue to struggle. The initial surge of solidarity is also running out of steam in some places.

In Austria, which hosts some 80 000 Ukrainian refugees, “the increase of energy costs and high inflation was a game changer”, according to Christoph Riedl, a migration and integration expert at Diakonie.

In Germany, anti-migration discourse is also on the rise amid a spike in the number of asylum-seekers from outside of Europe, weighing heavily on reception capacities.

Until March 2025, under EU rules, Ukrainians are eligible for temporary protection, a status allowing them access to the labour market, housing and social and medical assistance. But what is next, experts wonder. Riedl said the EU should agree now on a lasting status.

Faced with a real demographic challenge, Ukrainian authorities fear the massive exodus and want refugees to return. –