At the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk, Sofiia Kochmar,Head of Projects at Frontier Institute's Demography & Migration Programme,delivered a framing intervention at the official side event on return as astrategic driver of recovery.
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The panel — Rebuilding Ukraine Together: A Coordinated Approach to Returnas a Strategic Driver of Economic Recovery and Demographic Resilience —addressed questions that sit at the core of our programme's work: how to embedreturn into the architecture of recovery rather than treat it as a separatehumanitarian issue; what conditions at the level of employment, housing,education, social services, and local economies would make return a genuinechoice rather than a forced step; and how skills and experience Ukrainians haveacquired abroad can become a resource for rebuilding rather than a loss tocompensate.

Sofiia presented Ukraine's demographic reality in stark terms. The working-agepopulation generating fiscal value for the state is already outnumbered bythose who depend on it. Of 4.3 million Ukrainians currently in Europe, roughly3 million are of working age. Demographic projections show Ukraine will haveonly 5 million young people in government-controlled territory by 2040, with anadditional 1.3 million in the EU and 1.6 million in temporarily occupiedterritories. Spontaneous return is over. The barriers that remain — destroyedenergy infrastructure, mobilisation, absence of housing, children integratedinto European school systems — are structural. @Sofiia argued for threesynchronised policy tracks: identity policy, diaspora engagement, and returnpolicy. Without all three working in parallel, none will be sufficient.

Yevhen Hlibovytsky, CEO of Frontier Institute, moderated the conversation.Fellow panelists included Deputy Minister of Economy Daria Marchak, DeputyMinister of Social Policy Ilona Havronska, and EU Special Envoy for UkrainiansYlva Johansson.

The event was organized by Right to Protection, Caritas Ukraine, Mercy Corps,and People in Need, with support from the Ministry of Economy and the Ministryof Social Policy, Family and Unity of Ukraine, as part of Ukraine RecoveryConference 2026.

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