Kraschuk is a railway worker from Kupiansk, a city in the northeastern Kharkiv region which was seized by Russia in the first days of the invasion. When Ukrainian troops liberated the city seven months later and it came under Russian shelling, she fled with her 4-year-old son for the Czech Republic. Although she was provided free accommodation there, she did not feel welcome, and returned to Kupiansk.
“In spite of everything, home is home,” she said.
But in August 2023, her apartment block was shelled, and she was evacuated to Kharkiv. She and her son now live in a student hostel-turned-collective center for IDPs, where the government has said she can stay for free until the end of the war.
Kraschuk’s reasoning is pragmatic as well as emotional. From Kharkiv she can check on property she owns in Kupiansk. She rejected an offer to move to Poltava, further from the front line, as rent-free housing was guaranteed only for six months.
“Then afterward you’re on your own,” she said. “Before, I was confident. I had my own flat, my child went to kindergarten, I had a job, I knew what would be tomorrow. Now I don’t know. I can’t go to work because I have a small child to look after. And so we live as IDPs.”
Over 85,000 IDPs like Kraschuk are still living in collective centers initially established as an emergency measure, according to UNHCR. And new waves are coming, as the government calls for mandatory evacuation from frontline areas.