Floods of Ukrainian refugees seek new life in Russia
8 Oct 2014 5:34 AM IST
The two-day, 250-km (150-mile) car journey from the city of Slaviansk to the quiet provincial city of Belgorod in June was the most hazardous of their life, taking them across territory hit by fighting and through six checkpoints.
‘My son may never pick up a toy gun again. The children had guns pointed at them at checkpoints. They were pale with fear,’ said Svetlana Divenko, a 28-year-old housewife.
But like many other Russian-speaking east Ukrainians, discontent with the economic situation at home and resentful of Ukraine’s Western-looking leaders, the Divenko family headed to Russia not only to seek safety but in search of a better life. The United Nations says more than 1 million people have been displaced by the conflict. A Russian immigration official last week also put the number of Ukrainian refugees now in Russia at 1 million although Ukrainian officials say the number is vastly exaggerated by Moscow for political reasons.
Russia wants to use the refugee crisis to show its humane side to Western nations critical of its conduct over Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists in the Russian-speaking east rose up against government forces in mid-April.The refugees have been greeted warmly by their fellow Russian Orthodox Slavs, offered shelter and some given jobs.
Many were initially housed in tents in refugee camps near the border. Some found temporary homes in the apartments of sympathetic Russians and others have made their way to areas long distances from the border, including cities close to Moscow and in the North Caucasus and far east.
President Vladimir Putin often refers to Ukrainians as ‘brothers’ and said before the conflict that Ukrainians and Russians were one people. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says the refugees should be provided for, given jobs and educated.Some now dream of staying for good, even though a fragile ceasefire has been in force in east Ukraine since Sept. 5.
‘We don’t see any future in Slaviansk,’ Divenko said, glad to be out of the firing line in a conflict that has killed more than 3,500 people and for now in a country with a much bigger economy. Securing Russian citizenship could be beyond most refugees as it usually takes many years and this would also not augur well for eastern Ukraine’s already struggling economy. But migrant workers are in general embraced in Russia because of a decline in the birth rate since the Soviet Union collapsed, so the Ukrainians will not give up hope easily.
In Belgorod, many refugees are housed in small apartments. ‘Belgorod is a city of kindness and prosperity,’ declare banners hanging across the city of 400,000, some 40 km from the border with Ukraine and 700 km south of Moscow.
‘My son may never pick up a toy gun again. The children had guns pointed at them at checkpoints. They were pale with fear,’ said Svetlana Divenko, a 28-year-old housewife.
But like many other Russian-speaking east Ukrainians, discontent with the economic situation at home and resentful of Ukraine’s Western-looking leaders, the Divenko family headed to Russia not only to seek safety but in search of a better life. The United Nations says more than 1 million people have been displaced by the conflict. A Russian immigration official last week also put the number of Ukrainian refugees now in Russia at 1 million although Ukrainian officials say the number is vastly exaggerated by Moscow for political reasons.
Russia wants to use the refugee crisis to show its humane side to Western nations critical of its conduct over Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists in the Russian-speaking east rose up against government forces in mid-April.The refugees have been greeted warmly by their fellow Russian Orthodox Slavs, offered shelter and some given jobs.
Many were initially housed in tents in refugee camps near the border. Some found temporary homes in the apartments of sympathetic Russians and others have made their way to areas long distances from the border, including cities close to Moscow and in the North Caucasus and far east.
President Vladimir Putin often refers to Ukrainians as ‘brothers’ and said before the conflict that Ukrainians and Russians were one people. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says the refugees should be provided for, given jobs and educated.Some now dream of staying for good, even though a fragile ceasefire has been in force in east Ukraine since Sept. 5.
‘We don’t see any future in Slaviansk,’ Divenko said, glad to be out of the firing line in a conflict that has killed more than 3,500 people and for now in a country with a much bigger economy. Securing Russian citizenship could be beyond most refugees as it usually takes many years and this would also not augur well for eastern Ukraine’s already struggling economy. But migrant workers are in general embraced in Russia because of a decline in the birth rate since the Soviet Union collapsed, so the Ukrainians will not give up hope easily.
In Belgorod, many refugees are housed in small apartments. ‘Belgorod is a city of kindness and prosperity,’ declare banners hanging across the city of 400,000, some 40 km from the border with Ukraine and 700 km south of Moscow.
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