Majority of Ukrainians abroad ready to return home after shelling stops – social study
More than half of Ukrainians currently living abroad do not plan to purchase or invest in real estate in their host countries and intend to return to Ukraine. According to the "Ukrainians Abroad" sociological study by Think Ukraine presented at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday, 58.4% of displaced persons plan to return home, while 26.2% are not ready to return, and 4.5% wish to move to a different country.
Conditions for returning include cessation of shelling (53.2%), signing of peace agreement (41.6%), availability of jobs (27.2%), and NATO membership or security guarantees from US and EU (24.5%). Currently, 56.7% of Ukrainians abroad have no plans to invest in local real estate, while 27.2% view it as a potential possibility without concrete plans.
Vast majority of displaced persons still own property in Ukraine: 54.5% report it is in satisfactory condition, 12.6% have damaged housing, and 12.6% lack information on its status. Meanwhile, only 41.7% of Ukrainians remaining in country believe their relatives or friends abroad will return.
Regarding integration, 54.2% of Ukrainians abroad have satisfactory or good command of host country's language. Some 53.7% are already employed, and 28.7% plan to find work soon. Most children attend local kindergartens or schools, with only 11.6% studying in Ukrainian online schools and 5.0% in local Ukrainian-language schools.
Top priorities for authorities according to displaced persons include economic development (44.6%), fighting corruption (38.1%), and return of prisoners of war (34.7%). Strengthening Ukrainian military-industrial complex ranks fifth for those abroad (26.2%), whereas it is a top-three priority (31.9%) for those remaining in Ukraine.
Refugees identified territorial recruitment and social support centers (38.1%) as most corrupt institution, whereas residents in Ukraine view central authorities as primary source. Language use also differs: 30.7% of those abroad speak mostly Russian at home compared to 17.0% in Ukraine, while 50.0% abroad and 67.2% in Ukraine speak mostly Ukrainian.
Study was conducted April 14-18, 2026, among 404 adult respondents in 29 countries via CATI method with 4.88% margin of error.
