Refugee or Citizen? Who will win in the Facebook “war”?

Everyone capable of reflection and self-analysis, both in Ukraine and beyond its borders, should now ask themselves – what am I doing to ensure Ukraine continues to exist?

We are digging a pit for ourselves. Deeper and wider than Russian propaganda does. They only need to spread our ‘efforts’ on the internet and draw the attention of foreign media to write about yet another dissatisfaction and quarrel within the country. Do we really ‘need’ this amidst the expectation of Western assistance?

In the New Year’s address to Ukrainians abroad, the phrase offended: “I know that one day you will have to ask yourself a question: who am I? Make a choice, who do I want to be. A victim or a winner? A refugee or a citizen? It offended that they allegedly called them refugees and erased them from citizens.

But in the address, just a sentence later, there was another phrase that, due to emotions, they probably didn’t notice. “Ukrainians are stronger together. So, it’s time to be together!”

Refugees or citizens? This is not a question of division, not about supposed deserters who left the country because of the war and patriots who stayed. The question is whether we will all be refugees if we don’t stand firm, or citizens wherever we are if we protect Ukraine. And here is the choice for everyone.

Everyone capable of reflection and self-analysis, both in Ukraine and beyond its borders, should now ask themselves – what am I doing to ensure Ukraine continues to exist? Frontline service, volunteering, donations, advocacy of Ukrainian interests abroad, actions to support Ukraine?

You can be a refugee, but not become a citizen even within the country. Or you can be a citizen of Ukraine wherever you are.

I am a ‘reverse refugee.’ I fled from Poland, where I lived and had a good job for the last 7 years, in the first months of the full-scale invasion. I simply couldn’t stay there despite all the support and solidarity shown by Poles and Ukrainians abroad. I saw Ukrainian men getting on buses in Gdansk and going to the front in Ukraine. I saw the eyes of women after a few days at the border with children in their arms, tired and hopeful that it would only be for a few weeks. I saw how my friend, a strong and independent ‘iron lady’ capable of moving mountains, came to Poland with her children and cried for the first time. I had never seen her cry before: ‘You can’t imagine how much I want to go home’… And I could imagine because I was equally irresistibly drawn home.

I couldn’t bear the distance that separated me from family and friends in Ukraine. I wanted to be with my own despite everything: despite the danger in Ukraine and the comfortable life in Poland with a professional job, a good salary, and the prospect of European residency in a year.

For 7 years, I built my migrant life in Poland. I sought my path of self-realization, my place in that society, my social environment among strangers. With knowledge of Polish, with immersion, understanding what and how – it was difficult. And sometimes despair overwhelmed me that I couldn’t do it.

It’s much harder for those whom the war seized from a peaceful life and carried abroad, where everything is foreign and unknown. When there are children in your arms, when the city is occupied, when the house is destroyed, when your husband is at the front, when you remember the first days of the war and the fear never leaves you, it’s hard to return home even for a few days.

I understand those who are now ‘holding on’ in Ukraine. I see how my friends’ children sleep in the corridors every night so as not to wake them when sirens wail. I know the uncontrollable fear when everything is shelled simultaneously with all existing weapons. How many feel this emotional abyss afterward: when you don’t know if it’s worth planning something for more than a day or a week. But in the next moment, you go back to your diaries with goals and outline your life for years because you really want to live.

Rocket attacks and gloomy prospects for the next year are a good catalyst to hurry. But now, after New Year’s shelling amid delays with Western aid, there is no mood at all. There is a choice – ‘be a victim or a winner? A refugee or a citizen?’

Victory is not a gift; it’s everyone’s contribution. It doesn’t come out of thin air. Yes, someone may manage to ride on the shoulders of others like a hare. But who are they then? A citizen?

Let’s leave insults, quarrels, and division after the holidays. The holidays of victory. Let’s, as in the first months of the invasion when we managed to hold on and not tear each other apart on Facebook. Can we do that? Quarrels are a contribution to victory. Patriots are not fueled by them, and the sky is not covered by them. When time is ticking away, when the fight is for every Republican vote, for a ‘yes’ from the Slovak prime minister or seconds until Orban finishes his coffee? Are we sure we have this time? Or that a sudden ‘black swan’ will come? Or finally, Putin will make us happy with his demise? We might still have time to devour each other. For that, the country must survive. The countdown is in months, days.

What can everyone do, as Valeriy Pekar wrote in the scenarios for 2024-2025?

What to do for each and every one of us in 2024:

1. Keep a cool head and help others to do the same. Assist those facing greater challenges: Ukrainian soldiers, their families, residents of frontline areas, internally displaced persons, veterans, etc.
2. Contribute to victory with your own money (donations) and time (volunteering, participating in civic teams working for victory, etc.).
3. Be prepared for mobilization, both psychologically and practically.
4. Do not fall for Russian disinformation, do not spread it. Remember that the world is complex, not black and white, and there are no simple answers to complex questions.
5. Resist attempts by authorities to restrict democracy, halt the economy, and increase corruption – through opinion polls, petitions, social media waves (hopefully, it won’t come to citizens being forced to violate martial law restrictions and take to the streets).
6. Cleanse the Ukrainian space for which each of us is personally responsible, namely – our own minds. Remove all remnants of the Russian-Soviet empire: communism, totalitarianism, colonialism, paternalism, closed-mindedness, economic dirigisme, inferiority complexes, Soviet stereotypes, etc.
7. Support Ukrainian products, small local producers, culture, books, independent media, etc.
8. Think about others. Respect. Express gratitude.

Ukrainians abroad, those who are citizens, not refugees, we need your help. Donate, volunteer, support Ukraine as you did in the first months of the invasion, use the Ukrainian language instead of Russian, advocate for Ukrainian interests in host countries, exert pressure on European governments, and contribute through your publications in global media.

January 22 – Unity Day. It’s a wonderful opportunity to unite those who left due to the war, those who returned because of the war, and those who have been and remain here in Ukraine.

Let’s build living chains in all possible communities abroad as a symbol that we are together because we are one people. And let’s invite politicians, journalists, activists, and citizens from those countries that have accepted displaced persons from Ukraine to join. My colleague Irina Fedoriv and I discussed before the holidays how this could be done.

Everyone has a chance to become not a fugitive from war, not a refugee with resentment and guilt, and not just a citizen, but an ambassador of Ukraine and make their contribution to victory.

Specially for “Glavkom.”