The scale of the mass exodus from Ukraine has reached incredible heights since Russia launched a new war of aggression against the country on 24 February. According to the UN, more than 6.8 million Ukrainians have so far fled the country, a number that is still increasing.
But the movement of people is not one-directional. Though millions have left for Poland, Germany, the Baltic states and other parts of Europe, many are now choosing to return home to Ukraine, irrespective of the war that continues to rage unabated in the country’s eastern Donbas region.
Panayiotis Xenophontos, a lecturer at the University of Oxford who is volunteering at the Polish border, said that from mid-March to mid-April he and other volunteers had observed “a visible increase” in people crossing over the Polish border into Ukraine.
