in Poland, the concern of the Ukrainian diaspora threatened with a return to the country to go to the front

Faced with difficulties on the front, kyiv suspended consular services for combat-age men living abroad in order to repatriate them. In Warsaw, this decision is widely criticized.

At the help center for Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, the news is surprising. While kyiv voted a new law forcing military census of all Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 living abroad, Poland said it was ready to help Ukraine repatriate nationals living on its soil to help with the war effort against Russia. It’s part of efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s military, which has struggled to maintain the front lines in part because of a lack of soldiers.

The Ukrainian government published a text on Wednesday April 24, 2024 according to which kyiv will no longer issue passports abroad to men aged 18 to 60, a new rule whose contours remain unclear. kyiv seeks to mobilize more soldiers against the Russian army. The Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kouleba, considered the situation of expatriate men unfair when their compatriots die on the front. “It doesn’t surprise me at all that the Ukrainian authorities are doing everything to send soldiers to the front“, declared Polish Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz on Thursday.

An announcement that is more than difficult to understand for the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland, as Lena. According to this fifty-year-old, sending men of fighting age back to Ukraine makes no sense: “Those who were patriotic, who could fight, are already there. Those who stay are those who can’t see themselves handling a weapon, those who can’t imagine killing someone, or are simply afraid“, she points out. A fear that Natalia also strives to understand. “These men should be defending the country, but this measure is just a way of delaying the intervention of Western countries, once all our men are dead.“.

“They are more useful here than in Ukraine”

Aleksandr is 60 years old and is therefore no longer old enough to be mobilized. But he assures us: being abroad does not make him a bad patriot. “My children have lived in Poland for over six years and I wouldn’t say they are not patriotic, because they are in all the aid groups, they raise money for the army, they weave military camouflage nets , and what they are doing is necessary. I even think they are more useful here than in Ukraine“.

As of February 2024, 952,104 Ukrainian refugees were registered in Poland, of which 16%, or 152,656 people, were men of military age, according to the United Nations refugee agency. If Poland carries out its threat, they risk being deported back across the border.