Published 25th Feb, 2024

It’s been exactly two years since Ukrainians and foreign nationals living in Ukraine woke up in a warring country.

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s President, invaded the sovereign territory of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and Nigerians who had to flee continue to suffer from the war.

Korrine Sky, a British-Zimbabwean, was studying medicine in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with Nigerian classmates before the war started. She posted on X, remembering what happened to her and others of African descent two years ago. It was not a fond memory.

“Today is the 2nd year anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war. A war that has claimed the lives of so many, and I have tried to think of the best words I can use to advocate for my community, the best words to use to express how I truly feel, but I can’t,” Sky wrote on Saturday.

“Two years ago, I lived on the 16th floor of a high-rise building in Dnipro, Ukraine. Two years ago today, I woke up at around 6 am and opened my Twitter account to find out Russia had invaded Ukraine.

“How do I explain what it was like to try and get on a bus to flee for your life and be told you can’t because the bus is for Ukrainians only? How do I explain getting on a train and being pushed off because your life doesn’t matter?

“How do I explain having to walk for days because no bus or train will allow you on because of the colour of your skin? How do I explain spending days at the border in freezing cold temperatures and being told you can’t cross to refuge because you are not Ukrainian?

“How do I explain entering into a country and being detained for months on end because black and brown people fleeing wars aren’t refugees but criminals? The past 2 years have been marred with deportations, expulsions, suicides, deaths, homelessness for black and brown people who fled Ukraine. 2 years, things have gotten worse rather than better.”

When Sky returned to her family in the United Kingdom, she faced some obstacles in trying to resume her studies.

… when I spoke to universities here in the U.K. I was told they couldn’t accommodate medical students from Ukraine but somehow… 😕 https://t.co/KHOU7fZTtk pic.twitter.com/gkwbYWdKIj
— Koko (@korrinesky) March 1, 2023

Sky spoke with Jennifer Orakpo and Moses Fehintola, two of her Nigerian coursemates from Dnipro, last year. They had lived the same horrid reality of fleeing Ukraine in 2022. Orakpo told her that she was stuck in limbo, not knowing whether to restart her life in a destroyed Ukrainian city or return to Nigeria with nothing.

Fehintola was back in Nigeria but he couldn’t continue from where he stopped in his medical studies at a Ukrainian university.

Orakpo and many other Nigerians are temporarily living in other European countries as third-country refugees from Ukraine.

Korrine Sky spoke with Jennifer Orakpo and Moses Fehintola, two of her Nigerian coursemates from Dnipro, last year. SOURCE: BBC News/YouTube.

Those in the Netherlands faced a serious challenge when local authorities told them in January that their refugee status would become invalid by March.

Mariam Adeshoga, a Nigerian computer programmer, relocated to Kyiv in 2019. Her plan was to build a new life in the city.

“I never planned to leave Ukraine. Ukraine felt so safe to me,” Adeshoga told DW in 2023.

“When I got there, I got fascinated with people, and the environment was calm and lovely. So I was like, okay, I could just start my whole life and continue with my future there.”

When the war threatened lives in Ukrainian cities, Adeshoga managed to flee to Amsterdam.

The Netherlands supported refugees from Ukraine with shelter, but local authorities later decided the refugees they wanted to keep. Some mayors signed letters asking refugees who were not Ukrainian citizens to leave or risk deportation.

The initial deadline local news saw was September 2023. FIJ saw that the more recent decision to let third-country national refugees leave the Netherlands was made in January.

“We are a diverse group of non-Ukrainian nationals who sought refuge in the Netherlands during the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Our temporary protection is under threat,” Derdelanders said on its website.

“Outgoing State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Justice and Security) wanted to end our protection on September 4, 2023. On Friday, September 2, 2023, the decision to terminate our temporary protection was frozen or suspended until the final ruling had been made by the Council of State (Raad van State).

“On Wednesday, January 17, 2024, the Council of State (Raad van State) ruled that the outgoing State Secretary, Eric van der Burg, was not allowed to end the temporary protection as it didn’t align with the EU TP Directive.

“However, the State Council has now ruled that our protection ends on March 4, 2024. Highlighting that we do not fall under the March 4, 2025 extension. All we are asking for is fair treatment and compassion.”

Nigerians and other third-country refugees from Ukraine are unsure of their fate come March 4.

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