The Apostrof publication interviewed two Ukrainian “zarobitchans,” whose fates were surprisingly similar.
Zarobitchin Artyom, who worked in Poland and returned to Ukraine with the beginning of quarantine, spoke about the realities of working abroad. Prior to traveling to Poland, Artem was a member of Euromaidan, and then volunteered for the ATO – he served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the 8th separate auto-sanitary company in 2014-2015. In 2016, he joined the ranks of the patrol police in Kremenchug, where he worked for 2.5 years. Then he worked as a security guard, but he did not like such work. Therefore, I decided with two other former participants of the ATO to go to work in Poland.
They found work at the LG Chem factory for the production of electric motors for electric cars near the city of Wroclaw. April 4, returned to Ukraine with the beginning of the introduction of quarantine.
“I love my homeland. We’ll wait and see, after the end of quarantine I will decide something. But I do not like Poland. There, besides salary, there is nothing good. Indeed, there are many times more salaries from ours – I received about 900 euros. But you work like a bad horse. Moreover, far from home, from family. And anyone can tell you that we are nobody there, ”says the former ATO officer.
Zarobitchin Oleg Grynchak from Ivano-Frankivsk, who worked in the Czech Republic and returned to Ukraine at the beginning of quarantine, explained why he did not want to work in Ukraine. Oleg, on conscription, served in the internal troops, so with the outbreak of war in 2014, he decided to go to the front. After demobilization, Oleg Grynchak returned to his home enterprise, where he made windows and doors. He inherited the carpentry from his grandfather, who taught him everything.
“Once it was possible to earn money with us, but now it’s not really: there are a lot of requirements, an expensive board, putties and sandpaper – everything is expensive. And people are better at buying “paper” MDF doors than normal wooden doors, although the price now is almost the same. With the arrival of Poroshenko, he began in general with a madhouse – he had to pay a lot of taxes, so I spat on everything, closed it and went abroad, – the man says, – Ukrainians are trying to eat each other. He didn’t work in Poland, but was twice passing through. So the Poles, it seems, are even worse than ours relate to each other. In the Czech Republic, people are better. You speak calmly with the Czech, he does not tell you that you are Ukrainian and what the hell you came here. Therefore, I will say that who lived abroad and saw how people live normally, do not want to stay in Ukraine. In the Czech Republic I don’t get tired at all, after work I have enough strength to cook my own food. And even on Sunday I go to work if there is nothing to do. ”