A Ukrainian refugee's testimony: four years in the US and a return home
Ukrainska Pravda has published the personal account of a woman from Odesa who fled the war in 2022 and spent four years in the US before recently returning to Ukraine. According to the Center for Economic Strategy, 5.6 million Ukrainian war refugees were abroad as of early 2026, most in Europe and only about 5% in the US.
Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda has published a personal testimony from a woman from Odesa describing her flight from war and subsequent life in the United States, framed by broader statistics on Ukraine's refugee population.
According to the Center for Economic Strategy, as of early 2026 some 5.6 million Ukrainians displaced by the war were living abroad. Most found refuge in Europe, while only about 5% ended up in the United States.
The woman featured in the article left Odesa on the 44th day of the full-scale war, April 8, 2022, traveling in two cars together with her children and her husband, who was above the age subject to military mobilization. She describes an initial adaptation period in a new country that typically lasts around nine months and involves several stages resembling grief.
Over her four years as a refugee, the woman settled in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York — a multi-ethnic area she compares to Odesa's Moldavanka district. During her time in the US, she gave birth to a child. Her account also describes the psychological difficulties common among many refugees, including guilt over leaving the country and a persistent sense of not fully belonging to either her old or new environment.
After four years in the United States, the woman has now returned to Ukraine. The outlet notes that similar feelings, in varying forms and intensity, are shared by many of the millions of Ukrainians scattered around the world since the full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022.
