Where we are not | Ukrainian Truth

Someone will remind this headline of the debut studio album « Ocean of Elsa ». Someone only mentions the famous saying. And someone can remember the Soviet anecdote about Rabinovich, whom KGB staff refuse to emigrate to Israel: « You think you will be well? You will be mistaken! Do you say, as they say, where we are gone! – That’s where I go where you are not there. »

Like the hero of the old anecdote, many of our compatriots also left their homeland, looking for a better life. Mass emigration became a serious challenge for Kiev long before the full -scale Russian invasion.

By 2022, the main antidote against this scourge was a belief in Ukrainian civilization perspectives. Ukrainians tried to prove that soon a better life would come at home. It makes no sense to go to the EU, as the whole country moves to Europe. That the economic, social and household gap between Ukraine and the Western countries will be steadily declining, and every year it really became smaller.

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Unfortunately, these efforts were actually crossed by full -scale aggression of the Russian Federation against our country. After 24.02.2022, the gap between Ukraine and the West increased sharply.

Safety, comfort, personal rights and freedoms – we have been rejected far from all these parameters. Today, in any of the European countries, it is impossible to imagine either the arrival of an enemy rocket in the city center, no destruction of critical infrastructure with hostile drones, nor even street « bellies ». Millions of Ukrainian refugees abroad have become a living illustration of these sad realities.

However, the same full -scale war gave our country an alternative tool that allows you to keep hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in Ukraine: the closure of borders for most men from 18 to 60 years.

This extraordinary measure, which has been in operation for over three years, is designed to preserve not only a sufficient mobilization resource, but also labor.

At the same time, this prohibition does not interfere with the outflow of young, able -bodied and fertile women, which further exacerbates the domestic demographic crisis. In addition, the partial closure of the borders even pushes someone to leave: many young men leave the country before they turn eighteen, and they will be closed in Ukraine.

In order for closed borders to become a truly effective depopulation remedy, they must be closed almost completely-as in the USSR and the Social Center. But for such a radical step, modern Ukraine is unlikely to be decided. And in the case of freezing hostilities, even existing restrictions will have to be abolished sooner or later. Despite the fact that the living conditions in our long -suffering state will not remain too attractive.

One way or another, Kiev will need a new strategy for how to keep their citizens from mass emigration. And it is likely that our country will resort to another recipe known since the Soviet times: discrediting foreign life.

The Ukrainian inhabitant will try to prove that it is good only where it is not. And in fact, he will be much worse in the foreign country than in his homeland.

It is this propaganda campaign that can expect us in the near future. And it is easy to imagine its basic narratives now.

The first narrative: « Ukrainians abroad do not need anyone. »

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After February 24, 2022, the Western countries adopted a critical mass of our compatriots and compatriots. All the best that the collective event could offer Ukrainians, had already won the first waves of refugees. He who did not have time – he became recognized.

Now the priority of the event is the salvation from unnecessary Ukrainians, which are gradually turning into a burden for European countries. In the case of any even a short truce in Ukraine, this trend will increase dramatically. The starting capabilities of new immigrants will be extremely unfavorable. Therefore, there is no point in looking for happiness in a foreign country.

The narrative is second: « Ukrainians abroad have no prospects. »

An ordinary Ukrainian in a foreign country is tight by many restrictions: from the language barrier to the absence of the necessary social ties. He has virtually no chance of finding prestigious and profitable work. He has no chance of advanced career ladders. He will not be able to achieve high social status. He will not be able to provide a decent life with his loved ones.

His fate abroad is a heavy, low -paid and humiliating work that does not attract local. Let our compatriots try there, let them do, they are equally doomed to remain people in the second grade.

The narrative is the third: « Ukrainians abroad do not like. »

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The influx of our refugees to Europe has already caused a surge in xenophobia. Non -working Ukrainians are reproached that they are sitting on their necks in Europeans. Ukrainians who work are accused of taking their jobs from Europeans. Men of conscript age are charged with cowardice. Young Ukrainian women are suspected of destroying European families. Ukrainian children are faced with bullying in schools.

The longer the war lasts, the less compassion abroad is caused by our compatriots. And in the case of termination of active fighting, this sympathy is altered at all, giving way to open hostility.

There are many illustrations to describe the horror of foreign life: both news about the cutting of state aid to Ukrainian refugees and reports of anti -Ukrainian incidents in the EU countries, and the sad stories of our fellow citizens who failed to adapt to other people’s orders and returned to their homeland.

However, the fourth narrative is able to provide this propaganda campaign: « Life conditions abroad will not only worsen for Ukrainians. »

By the 2020s, it was believed that the gap between Ukraine and the West would decrease as domestic westernization and European integration. But, as it turns out, this gap can be reduced by the peculiar « Ukrainianization » of Western countries. We will not have a more similarity to peaceful, liberal and comfortable Europe, and Europeans may face the same challenges that Ukraine is already experiencing.

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The world has entered the time of turbulence, the scale and prospects of which is still difficult to evaluate.

Trump’s new presidency demonstrates that even an exemplary Western democracy may be almost defenseless against the pressure of an unpredictable and selfish populist. Erosion of international law proves that anyone can be the victim of armed aggression.

The Third World War moves from the category of fantastic to the category of probable and discussed. Countries that have not recently been thinking about safety at all are evaluating their readiness for a hypothetical military invasion. And this is another opportunity to prove to a simple Ukrainian that « well where we are gone. »

Are you upset that the Ukrainian state is at the epicenter of the devastating historical storm? But this storm has every chance to spread to neighboring Europe!

Do you think it is dangerous to live in Ukraine? But in the near future, the EU territory can be as dangerous!

You do not like that now a citizen of Ukraine is restricted in personal rights and freedoms? But if the war comes to European countries, then the nuts will inevitably start there!

And if so, why change the dangerous, uncomfortable and not enough free homeland to a potentially dangerous, potentially uncomfortable and potentially free foreign country? ..

It is difficult to say this argument to keep hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians from traveling abroad. But in the fact that Ukraine is using this argument, there is almost no doubt.

Mikhail Dubinyansky