Quarter of Ukrainian refugees in Europe do not plan to return to Ukraine – survey

Survey results show that about 35 percent of Ukrainian refugees in Europe do not want to return home in the long term.

"Around 35 percent of Ukrainian refugees want to return to Ukraine as soon as it is safe there again," the survey by the Munich-based ifo Institute showed.

Four percent of refugees plan to return in the near future, regardless of the security situation. Almost 11 percent have already returned to Ukraine, and another 25 percent have yet to decide.

The longer Russia wages war in Ukraine, the more refugees can imagine a future abroad, the authors of the study noted.

"Shortly after fleeing, only 10 percent of the Ukrainians stated that they intended to settle outside Ukraine in the long term," the ifo Institute reported.

Immediately after fleeing, almost 60 percent of refugees wanted to return to Ukraine as soon as they felt safe again. 

"Over time, this figure has fallen sharply by an average of 4.7 percentage points per 100 days," the survey indicated.

Recently, Germany has started talking about cutting aid to refugees from Ukraine.

About 266,000 of the 700,000 Ukrainians of working age who came to Germany were employed as of July 2024.

Recent polls have shown that support for accepting refugees from Ukraine has reached a new low in Poland.