Daunting new life forces some Ukrainians back
Lviv – The station in the west Ukraine city of Lviv teems with outgoing passengers, vying for seats on trains leaving the wartorn nation.
But on a desolate platform, far from the main hall, carriages disgorge small huddles of refugees returning home, despite the conflict still raging with Russia.
While grateful for Europe’s welcome, many find themselves unable to start a new life abroad.
Wiping a tear from her grandson’s eye, Svitlana Natalukha, 60, says her family travelled for a total of five days, first escaping Ukraine, then turning back.
The grandmother, her 28-yearold daughter Galyna Kanuka and two grandsons left home in the eastern Kharkiv region and arrived safely in Poland, but came to Lviv on Wednesday.
The family praised Poland’s hospitality but were paralysed by the mammoth prospect of a rootless new life abroad.
“Volunteers helped a lot, but only at the place where they are located,” said Kanuka.
“They were telling us to carry on to other cities and find more volunteers there.”
The family also cited a language barrier, complicating the treatment of one son’s illness for their decision to return.
Three million have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began three weeks ago, according to the United Nations.
There are no official figures for the numbers choosing to return as the conflict grinds on.
But this week, AFP witnessed three trains carrying between 100 and 250 passengers from the Polish city of Przemysl for Lviv.
Some were foreign volunteers answering Ukraine’s call for military support, others ferried aid supplies, but most were women and children bearing indigo Ukrainian passports.
At the Lviv station, a handwritten sign above a stairwell where travellers are waved aboard trains heading for the border tells them: “Come back home, the motherland is waiting for you.”
Conductor Oleksandr, who declined to give his surname, said as many as 300 sometimes make the return trip – about a third the number crammed into his train preparing to make the outward journey.