Why won’t most Ukrainian women refugees come back? The war is no longer the main reason

Why won’t most Ukrainian women refugees come back? The war is no longer the main reason

Even if the war ended tomorrow, only 43% of Ukrainian refugees say it would motivate them to return. That single number, from late-2024 surveys in a 2025 LSE Growth Lab report, inverts the Western frame on Ukraine’s displacement. It is also the gap that defines Violetta Dvornikova’s work. She is trying to convince a generation of Ukrainian women—including, eventually, her own children’s generation—to come back. Dvornikova stayed in Irpin and ra…