A Ukrainian Life Spent Fighting and Fleeing Russia Ends in Poland – WSJ

TORUN, Poland The first time that Kateryna Lihusha fled a murderous Kremlin effort to tighten its grip on Ukraine, it was 1932 and she was a baby in her mother s arms. Her parents ran to the eastern Ukrainian city of Horlivka from a nearby village where Soviet security officials were seizing grain. Many of her relatives who stayed would die of hunger.

In 2023, Lihusha died at the age of 91 in a Polish village where she had sought refuge from the Russians again, this time with her own daughter. They were two among the millions of Ukrainians displaced by Russia s war without a clear prospect of returning.

For centuries, Russia has sought to dominate Ukraine by trying to kill, cow or force into exile anyone who openly favored the country s independence. Moscow s latest attempt, its 18-month-old invasion, presents a long-term challenge to Ukraine.

As the war drags on, those who have fled abroad are more likely to stay. Some have returned, but the violence wrought by Russia continues to kill civilians, damage infrastructure and stifle Ukraine s economy.

The United Nations tallied 5.8 million Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of August. Polls show that three-quarters of Ukrainian refugees said they would return to Ukraine, but demographer Ella Libanova, head of Ukraine s Ptoukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies, says only 50% of war refugees usually do so.

The lives and choices of Lihusha and her family over the past century show how Russia s lengthy and violent pursuit for domination of Ukraine has often left people there facing stark decisions between fighting or fleeing.

via www.wsj.com