Throughout Ukraine’s thorny history, millions of residents left the country in search of a better life.
Some escaped the authoritarian regimes of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Some were labor migrants leaving behind the economic instability of newly-independent Ukraine. Others moved in pursuit of a better education.
Numbering nearly 5 million people, the Ukrainian diaspora is the eighth largest in the world, according to the 2019 migration report by the United Nations.
Ukraine and its emigrants have historically had a strong bond. Despite leaving, the diaspora has been of great help to Ukraine, advocating for international support for the country and aiding educational programs for Ukrainians abroad.
Very recently, President Volodymyr Zelensky encouraged Ukrainians around the world to return home and initiated the process of legalizing dual citizenships in Ukraine.
While that process is still underway, another development made Ukrainians abroad turn their eyes to home: the pandemic, which prompted the world to move online.
Some migrants used this chance to stay home longer and rediscover Ukraine.
The Kyiv Post talked to four Ukrainians who reconnected with their home in the past year.
Ukrainian designer and DJ Tetyana Borshch, who has been living in Germany for more than 20 years, poses for a photograph in Kyiv’s historic center, the area where she stayed during her recent visit to the capital, on March 30, 2021. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Tetyana Borshch, 39
Designer and DJ based in Munich
Before coming to Ukraine in the fall of 2020, Tetyana Borshch felt extremely anxious. It was her second visit home since she moved to Germany more than 20 years ago. She had “an irrational fear” of what she might find.
She was born in the tiny village of Daleke in northern Crimea. In a small rural community where everyone knew each other and depended on each other, the introverted and nerdy Borshch felt like an outsider.
“There must be a place where I could feel like myself,” she thought back then.
After studying literature in Crimea, Borshch craved more knowledge and opportunities, so she moved to Germany. In Munich, she started as an au pair, learning German all along, until she resumed studying literature and later pursued publishing.
Over the years, Borshch changed a number of occupations, shifting from publishing to interface design, while also DJing on the side.
Though Germany quickly became her home, the immigrant life wasn’t serene. Dealing with countless visa applications and facing legal limitations as a foreigner, she couldn’t wait to get German citizenship.
In 2019, her request was finally considered, requiring her to drop the Ukrainian passport. For that, Borshch had to come to Kyiv.
Since she hasn’t traveled around Ukraine much before leaving it and her memories were of the village life, modern Kyiv surprised her a great deal with its “capital vibe,” exactly what she was used to in Europe.
She soon got familiar with the electronic music community, occasionally giving gigs and taking DJ classes.
But most importantly, she connected with “friendly and caring” locals.
“People take care of you, as soon as you know someone, even not close friends, and especially in groups,” Borshch says. “In Germany, people are very individualistic.”
Since that first trip in September, Borshch came back several times in 2020, only to return again in February to stay here for half a year, continuing to work online. Having not maintained the connection to Ukraine for two decades, now she’s eager to rediscover its culture. And though she carries on with her German citizenship paperwork, Borshch says that it will not change her Ukrainian identity.
She says she feels grateful to the people who stayed in Ukraine building the country it became. Now Borshch would like to make her own contribution or at least spread the word about her home country abroad. She started by promoting Ukrainian DJs on her two radio shows airing in Germany.
“There is a feeling that I could have done more,” she says.
Kirill Panduro, a Ukrainian-Peruvian financial analyst based in London, sits on a swing in his native neighborhood in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district on April 1, 2021. During his visits to the capital during the pandemic, Panduro has stayed in the same area where he grew up before relocating to Peru with his family at the age of 13. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Kirill Panduro, 25
Financial analyst based in London
It was supposed to be just another one of his many once-a-year trips to Ukraine.
Ever since his family relocated abroad 12 years ago, Kirill Panduro would come to visit his elder brother for several weeks in Kyiv, his hometown.
But his recent February trip was different. He stayed in Kyiv longer than planned, and when the time to hit the airport arrived, he didn’t really want to return to his current home, London.
“I felt a bit down,” Panduro says. “I was like ‘Why would I go there? It’s so cool here.”
The eventful life in relatively quarantine-free Kyiv at the time beat London with its strict lockdown. But it wasn’t just that. Moving back to the Ukrainian capital has always been on Panduro’s mind, and after rediscovering the city in all its vibrancy, the idea grew stronger.
Half Ukrainian and half Peruvian, Panduro spent most of his childhood in Kyiv and most of his adulthood in Lima. Despite all the benefits of living in two completely different corners of the world, like learning several languages, in the end, Panduro says, he has cultural gaps in both countries.
“I still feel like I don’t belong anywhere,” he says.
When he moved to London several years ago to pursue a master’s in finance, the international city gave him that multicultural environment where he perfectly fit in. Still, he says he’s sometimes tired of being a foreigner. Just a month after coming back to London from Kyiv, Panduro packed again and returned, working remotely from Ukraine.
He observed how the country has changed gradually through the years, experiencing a revival in every sphere including the zesty electronic music scene Panduro very much enjoys. But it wasn’t until now that he could appreciate that shift to the fullest.
“After living in London, I grew personally,” he says. “I came back with different eyes.”
With that new look at his native city, Panduro rediscovered its architectural diversity and rich food culture. He also made multiple new connections with locals, finding them “extremely interesting, down-to-earth and very genuine.”
Even now, when Kyiv went into lockdown, while London is opening up, Panduro doesn’t want to go back to the U. K. Though he will have to return for work, his story with Kyiv will resume at some point, he says, and it has more to do with his self-exploration beyond everything else. One long-lasting idée fixe is relearning Ukrainian, which he understands but can’t speak since he hasn’t practiced it in years.
“I know that Ukrainian is in some part of my brain,” he says. “I just need to unlock it somehow.”
Panduro says that learning the language will be the first step in “putting together the puzzle of who Kirill is” in terms of identity.
Ukrainian designer and DJ Diana Turchak crosses the street in central Kyiv on April 7, 2021. She has been abroad for years, living between several countries and juggling jobs, before she returned to the Ukrainian capital during the pandemic. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Diana Turchak, 27
Digital clothing designer and DJ based in Paris
Diana Turchak changed five professions and three countries in quest of opportunities.
Born in Odesa Oblast, she studied acting in Kyiv but soon realized she was unlikely to make a living from it in Ukraine. The country was going through a turbulent time, dealing with the consequences of the 2013–2014 EuroMaidan Revolution and the start of Russian aggression. Many were looking for ways to escape the crisis, Turchak remembers, and she was no exception.
After briefly doing some acting in Russia, she went on a series of short-term contract jobs in China, dancing, DJing and modeling. Many youths from post-Soviet countries go to China for creative labor, making better income but often working pretty much non-stop. Performing in hotels, Turchak would do shows till late every night, with several rehearsals during the week on top of that.
In between the Chinese trips, she lived in Paris, DJing and enjoying the chic lifestyle of the French capital. But her last stay coincided with the start of the pandemic, putting the entertainment on hold and pushing Turchak to requalify into a digital clothing designer through online courses.
She came to Kyiv in early 2021 to prolong her visa, but as the process was taking longer than expected, Turchak started to engage with the local life, impressed by how much the cultural scene has grown.
She also found fertile ground for career development, following her recent passion for fashion by joining the Ksenia Schneider brand and 3D-modelling clothing for various labels on the side. Turchak decided to stay at least till the end of summer.
Used to relocating often, she knows that the allure of architecture or nightlife only lasts a month or two.
“What makes you happy is people,” she says.
After years of mingling with strangers of different cultures and backgrounds, she says she is finally staying in a like-minded circle, and the contrast is striking.
“It gives you the sense of home,” she says.
Ukrainian-Russian student Agatha Gorski, now based in France, poses for a photograph on the rooftop in front of Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral in summer 2020. Gorski developed love for the Ukrainian capital’s architecture while staying here and studying remotely during the pandemic. (Courtesy)
Agatha Gorski, 20
Student based in Paris
Agatha Gorski never had much hope for Ukraine. Seeing the country as a highly corrupt state with ignorant authorities, even as a school kid, she was looking forward to moving west.
“I didn’t see a potential for a change,” Gorski says.
She was born in the United States to a Ukrainian-Russian family and spent her early years in Moscow and California. After graduating from a high school in Kyiv, Gorski happily moved to Paris to study political science.
By the end of her first year at Sciences Po, the pandemic pushed all classes online, as France went into harsh lockdown. Gorski first relocated to Moscow to study remotely and stay with her then-boyfriend who lived there.
She has always had warm feelings towards the Russian capital. But after studies deepened her understanding of democracy and civil society, Gorski’s view of Moscow and the local circle she used to consider progressive has changed drastically.
“I started to notice how ignorant everyone was,” she says.
She soon ended up in Kyiv with her parents. During a summer break, she made use of time by interning at the local branch of the United Nations. Later, she also was an intern for the progressive Voice party that has 20 seats in parliament.
Through work and social life, Gorski met civic activists, new-generation officials, startup founders and creative leaders, whose daily efforts are pushing Ukraine to a better tomorrow.
“There are many young up-and-coming people who not simply aim to make money, but bring a change in the country,” she says.
Gorski is now back in France to enjoy a bit of normal student life. In the future, she wants to gain some work experience abroad, bring it back to Ukraine, and get a job in the public sector to help the country tackle domestic issues.
Though she has never had a Ukrainian passport, Gorski is now considering dropping her both American and Russian citizenship in favor of the place she now calls home.
“I’ve developed love for this country,” she says.
