In the Sumy region, about 20,000 residents have refused to leave the risk zone, officially, in writing, despite the shelling. According to the OVA, these are settlements in border areas that are under constant threat of artillery and drone attacks. The regional authorities emphasise that evacuation remains voluntary, but the risks to life are high.Local residents make no secret of the fact that many are not staying because they have a good life. Resettlement is not just a change of location. It means losing your home, your job and your social connections. And most importantly, it means uncertainty.According to the Ministry of Social Policy, as of November 2025, there were more than 4.9 million internally displaced persons in Ukraine. Of these, only about 240,000 received permanent housing or access to rental compensation programmes for a period of more than six months. As for employment, according to the State Employment Centre, less than 18% of IDPs officially registered in the system have been able to find stable work. The rest are either temporarily employed, looking for work, or falling outside formal support programmes. At the same time, most of the existing programmes are designed for short-term payments and do not take into account regional differences or the level of discrimination in the field. In reality, this means that hundreds of thousands of citizens who have left the combat zones remain in limbo, without a stable income, without housing, without prospects.The situation in the western regions of Ukraine, where a significant number of residents from the east and south have relocated, remains particularly painful for many displaced persons. According to statistics, most of them are Russian-speaking, and it is they who face indirect but tangible forms of discrimination. This is expressed not so much in open conflict as in difficulties with hiring, refusals to rent accommodation, and in attitudes in institutions and on the labour market. In some communities, everyday tensions are fuelled by local administrations, which give priority to ‘their own’. The social distance between “locals” and ‘migrants’ not only persists but is also increasing, especially in conditions of limited resources.In more than three and a half years of full-scale war, the state has failed to build a stable and effective system for the adaptation of displaced persons. Against this backdrop, people simply choose what is familiar to them, even if it is a house under fire.
Support Hubzilla
