Authors

Valeria Korablyova¹;  ¹ Charles University, UK

Discussion

The paper frames contemporary Ukraine as an “un/bordered nation”: since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, not only Ukraine’s state borders became disputed and violated but also its border regimes changed dramatically. While the borders with Russia and Belarus turned into a sliding liminal space that decides the survivability of the nation at large and of its citizens caught in the epicenter of warfare, the increasingly open western border became the welcoming space of solidarity and support. A huge outflow of refugees challenged the symbolic geography of the nation and the role of diaspora in its spatial self-imagination. Arguably, flexible border regimes between Ukraine and the EU in 2022 enabled maintaining close connections between (mostly female) refugees and the home country. Swinging motion between the home and host countries is framed as a “long-distance relationship” where the newly emerged geographical distance is compensated with increasing emotional intensity and everyday engagement. As of now, 4 millions out of alleged total 7 million Ukrainian refugees in the EU have registered for temporary protection, while the remaining 3 million are not easy to be tracked down. They form a “flickering diaspora” that stands as “off-shore civil society” as regards Ukraine and as an ad hoc platform for civil activism in host countries.