Ukrainian officials fear that part of the 5-6 million departed Ukrainians may not return

Ukrainian officials are concerned that out of the 5-6 million Ukrainians who fled abroad due to the war, a portion might not return.

Such concerns were voiced to a Financial Times correspondent, notably by Mayor Igor Terekhov of Kharkiv and Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov.

“They are worried that the relative prosperity of life in the West and the uncertainty back home will hinder citizens from coming back,” the journalist writes.

Other interviewees shared insights about growing disparities between those who left and those who remained.

“They don’t understand what we feel and we don’t understand what they feel. They think everything here is destroyed. We think that rebuilding will be easier than they imagine,” says poetess Natalka Marinchak.

Additionally, as reported by the Financial Times, officials fear that the war will be “forgotten,” and Western supplies of funds and weapons will slow down, although they don’t openly discuss this.

There’s a concern that Donald Trump might win the elections and swiftly strike a deal with Putin.

“Regarding concerns about the West being fickle, Ukrainians have no illusions: this has happened before. Western leaders made a deal with Putin after 2015, then turned away,” writes the Financial Times.