About Ukraine is Home
Ukraine is Home began as a collaboration between Ukraine’s Ministry for Restoration and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, around helping people access support to repair damaged or destroyed homes or to access compensation from the Government. An MoU was signed in January 2023 launching the initative. While a safe home is the centre of family life and necessary for return to be sustainable, UNHCR also recognized that access to timely, accurate and up-to-date information is crucial to the ability of displaced families to make well-informed decisions regarding whether to remain or return. This information platform seeks to address that gap.
People need safety and security, access to needed services, jobs or livelihoods, and functioning communities. Linked to this, people need accurate information to make one of the most important, consequential decisions they face.
Return is a personal decision—and a fundamental right of everyone to make for themselves and their families.
This site was designed to provide Ukrainians with accurate and up-to-date information. It will help you to make decisions that are well informed, fully voluntary, and with an awareness of options and rights for continued stay, particularly as the war continues.
It also reflects our awareness that many of you prefer to access information online at your convenience, whenever and wherever you are. But we also understand the limits of online text.
For this reason, you can also use this site to directly call UNHCR’s Regional Call Centre to speak with someone directly — and let us know what questions we need to address via the website.
UNHCR’s position on returns
UNHCR is mandated to protect the rights of refugees and ensure all states uphold their obligations outlined under international refugee law. This includes the right of voluntary return in conditions of safety and dignity.
For millions of people forced to flee following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine is — and will always be — home.
For some, this remains a distant dream. The war continues and many people continue to fear for their safety and that of their families if they return to Ukraine before the war ends. This is justified—and international law is on your side, as is UNHCR. In line with our earlier advisory, we continue to call on countries to allow civilians fleeing Ukraine to access to their territories, and to refrain from returning anyone against their wishes.
For others, temporary or periodic return to see family and friends or to check on property and future return prospects is increasingly of interest — and realistic. Depending on the length of your stay in the country that you have moved to, you also need to be aware of rights and procedures. This site is designed to help you understand your rights and obligations in your host country, particularly if you leave temporarily.
And for many others, returning home permanently appears an increasingly viable and appealing prospect. UNHCR estimates that more than a million people have taken this step—and rejoined family members, rejoined communities, and rebuilt homes. And we respect their decision to do so.
We also recognize that this is an intensely personal and often complicated and difficult decision. You should never be compelled to return against your will. And your decision should always be based on accurate information regarding your rights, what you can expect to find when you return, the support available, and what you are entitled to receive from your government. This site can help.
