Migration of Ukrainian citizens to Poland caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022

Abstract

As a result of the war – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022 – a huge number of refugees began to flee to the countries bordering with Ukraine in the west – including mainly to Poland. This regarded women, children and the elderly, because due to the ordered mobilization of men aged 18–60–years old, they could not, with some exceptions, leave Ukraine. This is a completely new situation – no such large European nation has been forced to migrate so violently since World War II. The aim of the article is to present and analyze the migration of Ukrainian citizens to Poland caused by the Russian invasion – the course of this migration and the places where refugees stayed on the territory of Poland. Since Russia’s activities had increased anxiety already before the invasion began, the analysis also covers the earlier period. Therefore, migration has been presented in detail since 1 January 2022, while 31 July 2022 has been adopted as the end date of the analyzed data.