Feeling homesick outweighs the risk of living in frontline areas for over 1.6 million Ukrainians who have returned home despite constant Russian attacks. ‘Save the Children’ researchers stated that “going back to a warzone is never a choice anyone makes lightly.”
An increasing number of Ukrainians are returning home to the frontline areas despite Russia’s attacks and the dangers of Moscow’s all-out war, a new report revealed.
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According to Save the Children's research, over 1.6 million Ukrainians returned to the regions of Kharkiv, Donetsk, Kherson and Sumy.
For most of them, feeling homesick turned out to be more decisive than living under constant Russian attacks.
According to Save the Children's research, three-quarters of the interviewed parents and caregivers admitted that missing their home and community, along with feeling isolated in places they fled to, contributed to their decision to return home to dangerous frontline areas where active fighting is ongoing.
Sonia Khush, Save the Children’s Country Director in Ukraine, admits it might be difficult to understand that families with children are choosing to return to their homes on Ukraine’s frontline “despite the very real risk that this poses to their safety – as well as the huge psychological toll of living among constant air raid alerts and the sound of drones”.
"But the fact that families are taking these heartbreaking decisions and choosing to return to such areas reveals the severe toll of displacement."
The second most important reason to come back home after feeling homesick is financial stress, the NGO says.
"While they may find relative safety in the places they were forced to flee to, many find that they cannot survive financially, far away from their usual income opportunities and support networks, while at the same time deeply missing the communities and connections they have left behind."
“Going back to a warzone is never a choice anyone makes lightly.”
According to the report, almost half of parents and caregivers said that they had returned because their children were feeling unhappy, stressed or lonely in their host communities.
Save the Children’s child protection teams found this wave of migration back to frontline areas defied the threats to life from shelling, mines and ground fighting.
But it also meant difficulties accessing quality education, loss of services such as safe playgrounds for children to play, and psychosocial distress from frequent air alerts and exposure to conflict.
Khush says it is important to ensure that children affected by the war receive the protection, care and opportunities they need “to rebuild their lives wherever they choose to do so, and to prevent a generation from carrying the invisible scars of conflict for life.”
Over four years into Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, about 3.4 million people remain displaced inside the country, while 5.9 million have sought safety abroad.
As of January 2026, almost 4.4 million Ukrainians are registered in the European Union under the temporary protection mechanism.
As of December 2025, an estimated 9.1 million people resided in Ukraine's front-line areas.
Most of them — 6.2 million — never left home.