Interiority on the run. Dilemmas, heartaches and conflicts in the emotional experiences of Ukrainian female refugees

Abstract

Ukrainian refugees who have moved to various Euro- pean countries bring with them the traumatic experiences of war and forced, unplanned and often unwanted migration. Anxiety, post trau- matic stress disorder, culture shock and material difficulties are the signs that the war catastrophe has imprinted on their bodies and in their inner worlds. The feelings of guilt for having abandoned home- land and loved persons, for having fled where other people have cho- sen to remain, are muffled – but sometimes on the contrary sharpened – by the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia for a country, the Ukraine in peace time, which no longer exists.