For Ukrainian refugees, a visit to the doctor can be worth a risky trip home

She lives in a French town near St. Tropez, which she calls “paradise,” where she and her young son took refuge from the war in Ukraine. But when Liudmyla Gurenchuk and her son needed to go to the doctor this fall, they made the 1,300-mile trek back to Kiev, leaving the picturesque tranquility of the Riviera in the off-season for a city regularly hit by drones and missiles.

Why take the risk? According to her and other Ukrainian refugees, it’s simple: They say the opportunity to get treatment that can be more affordable and effective than in many European countries outweighs the dangers of returning home.

“The medicines are just better in Ukraine,” said Ms. Gurenchuk, 39, as she waited to have her thyroid checked at an ultrasound center. “It’s cheaper, it’s faster” and the doctors are more attentive, she said. “That’s why I come every time I can.”

They are part of a wave of refugees – more than two million – who have traveled back and forth between Ukraine and their temporary homes in other European countries to visit relatives, obtain official documents or check on their property. Trains entering Ukraine are often packed with families returning for the school holidays, in many cases to visit the husbands and fathers left behind since the government barred most men from entering during the war.

Historians and sociologists say the scale of these trips is unusual in recent history, due in large part to the geography of the conflict in Ukraine, where large swaths of territory remain relatively safe and accessible from the rest of mainland Europe. The short reports, the experts added, show that Ukrainian refugees are adapting the war as it continuesin an attempt to find a balance between staying in safer countries abroad and reconnecting with their previous lives at home.

Ioulia Shukan, a sociologist at Paris Nanterre University who studies the social impact of the war in Ukraine, said it was a matter of “rebuilding a relationship with your homeland without being completely resettled.” She said medical appointments, a regular part of daily life, had helped restore “some semblance of normality” even if they required extensive and potentially dangerous travel.

It’s “kind of about reclaiming your previous life,” Ms. Shukan said.

Nearly 40 percent of the 5.8 million Ukrainian refugees living in other European countries have returned home at least once, according to the U.N. study — a figure that Thomas Chopard, a historian at the Paris-based School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, said was significantly higher than during previous European conflicts such as World War II.

“At that time, there were very few people who returned,” Mr. Chopard said, because in most cases that would have meant returning to an area in the grip of fighting or under occupation.

In contrast, 80 percent of Ukrainian territory is currently free of Russian troops, while Ukrainian troops are continue to fight hard in the south and eastSeveral areas in the west have been largely spared from the fighting.

Ms. Gurenchuk acknowledged that, unlike many other refugeesEuropean host countries granted Ukrainians “privileges” such as work permits and freedom of movement, making it easier for them to come and go. “This war is different,” she said.

The main motivation for people to return home is to visit relatives. But few expected that visiting their doctor would be another important reason.

On her most recent trip home, Ms. Gurenchuk rushed from a modern ultrasound center to the cramped apartment of a folk healer and next to the colorless hallways of a public hospital, where a pediatrician examined her 7-year-old son, Davyd.

Many refugees said their journeys home were motivated by frustration with Europe’s health care systems, which they see as flawed. This is especially true in Great Britain, where this has been the case news reports of refugees’ dissatisfaction with the National Health Service affected by the crisis.

Maiia Habruk, a 31-year-old media producer, was living in London when she developed a severe sore throat. She said she waited two weeks before seeing a British doctor, who prescribed mild pain relief. Back in her hometown of Dnipro, in central-eastern Ukraine, a doctor identified an infected wisdom tooth as the cause of the pain and arranged for its immediate removal.

“It took me five days – go to Dnipro, see the doctor, come back to London – versus two weeks in Britain,” Ms Habruk said. “That was worth the trip.”

Andriy Buglak, an orthopedic surgeon in Kiev, said he was initially surprised by the returns but grew accustomed to them after hearing “the same stories from Scandinavia to Spain” of patients struggling with foreign health care systems. One of his patients recently traveled from Italy to receive nothing more than a cortisone injection in the hip.

“All that hard way just to see me,” said Dr. Buglak.

Refugees cite the language barrier and price as other reasons for seeking treatment at home.

Most healthcare in Ukraine, as in countries such as Britain and France, is free in the public system. But treatments that are not reimbursed in some countries, such as dental care or more specialized care, are much cheaper in Ukraine.

When war broke out, Ms. Gurenchuk, a single mother, fled Kiev and found refuge in Cogolin, a small town outside St. Tropez, where she was taken in by a local couple. She works as a cashier in a luxury seaside resort and Davyd goes to French summer camps.

“It’s a paradise,” she said in an interview on her sun-drenched terrace in Cogolin.

But it’s not home. And she still feels the need to return to Kiev for medical appointments, which she has done twice this year. “I want to make sure I’m healthy,” she said.

Like many of her fellow refugees, Ms. Gurenchuk’s journeys were about more than just health care.

She has also used the visits to see family members, spend time in her favorite beauty salons and walk with Davyd through an amusement park where she spent countless hours as a girl. It was also a comfort to visit the same type of folk healers she would consult in her youth.

When it comes to medical appointments, a friendly face – such as a trusted pediatrician – is an important advantage.

When they entered the consulting room, Davyd’s pediatrician asked him, “Do you recognize me?”

“Yes,” Davyd replied, and a smile appeared on his mother’s face.

Mr Chopard, the historian, said the trips home also helped the refugees maintain hope for a permanent return, which Ukraine will need if the country is to rebuild. Refugees often see themselves as permanent exiles, he noted, but the UN survey found that more than three-quarters of Ukrainians planned to return.

Ms. Gurenchuk said she would not return to live in Ukraine until the war was over. But after a week in Kiev, Davyd seemed eager to come back for good.

On the way back from the pediatrician, as night fell, he and his mother passed the apartment where they lived before the war.

“I want to live here!” David said.

Daria Mitiuk contributed reporting from Kiev.