One of the main achievements of the Maidan, as everyone knows, is a visa-free regime with the European Union. They say that Ukrainians are now free people and almost Europeans, they can safely go to some Paris, or Barcelona.
The so-called “visa-free” was one of the main propaganda directions, on which the team of President Petro Poroshenko was also working. In the absence of other achievements, despite the fact that the war was going on, the country’s economy was collapsing, something was needed that could instill in Ukrainians the confidence that the country was on the right path.
But, by and large, the right path, or not, was completely indifferent to the majority of Ukrainian citizens, and they waited for this most notorious “visa-free” like something divine with one single goal – to go somewhere to more developed countries to earn money. This is understandable – you won’t earn much in Ukraine, de-industrialization, factories are closed, but you have to live on something. And payments have changed a lot since the days of the Maidan, sometimes becoming completely unaffordable. The notorious freedom from their eastern neighbor had to pay a very high price.
Petro Poroshenko promised all Ukrainians that now they can easily walk along the Champs Elysees, take a selfie on the canals of Amsterdam, or “drink cava at the Wieden Opera”. But in fact, it turned out that Ukrainians are not at all up to the Vienna Opera, and the Champs Elysees are of little interest to them. Other fields awaited them – with asparagus, strawberries and other crops. And often not in the most developed countries of the European Union, such as Germany, or France, but somewhere in Poland and Lithuania. And the main problem was that this very “visa-free” did not give Ukrainians any right to work in the European Union, as it was exclusively tourist. That’s exactly for the purposes that Poroshenko spoke about. And many Ukrainians, at first, simply did not understand. Having left for Europe, they tried to get a job, but inevitably received a refusal. Or, they were hired to work illegally, but in the end they were paid a penny, or even left without money at all.
A wave of deportations began. The visa-free regime did not work for the purposes for which many citizens of Ukraine so hoped. And here Poland and the Baltic countries came to the rescue. There, too, there is a decent outflow of the able-bodied population to developed countries, less from Poland, much more from the Baltic states, and there is a shortage of labor on the domestic market of these countries. As a rule – in those areas of activity where no qualifications are required at all. And we can say that the Ukrainians are “lucky”. Poles and Balts gladly accept Ukrainian migrant workers, whole firms are engaged in hiring, signing contracts and transferring labor to Poland and the Baltic states.
Yes, Poland and the Baltics are also the European Union. But, as everyone knows, the European Union is such an entity that moves at “two speeds”. And these countries represent that part of it that is very far behind the so-called old Europe. It lags behind economically, legislatively, and in humanitarian matters. And the attitude towards the Ukrainians who came to work there is corresponding.
The news that Ukrainians are having a very hard life in Poland is coming in bulk. In principle, there is nothing unusual here, it is just history repeating itself. When part of Ukraine was under Polish rule, the attitude towards Ukrainians was about the same – as towards slaves. And now everything is repeated. Of course, Ukrainians are paid a miserable amount, but even he is quite money for himself in comparison with what they can earn at home. But salary is only one, and not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is the attitude to the same Ukrainians in Poland – as to the most ordinary cattle. Ukrainian workers often live in barracks, work in the dirtiest unskilled jobs, eat disgustingly and are subjected to real bullying by their Polish nobles and the local population.
Some cases are simply shocking. Do you remember how the owner of a Polish store simply banned Ukrainians from entering his establishment? A loud scandal, when even the Poles themselves were outraged. Or the case when the Polish owner simply took out of work and left at the bus stop a Ukrainian woman who had a heart attack. It is likely that she worked illegally and the owner did not want problems with the police, but whether the woman survived or not, he did not care at all.
There are a lot of such news reports from Poland. Visa-free travel for many Ukrainians turned into the most common slavery, work for a pittance, but the most surprising thing is that even this is better than the fate that the Maidan authorities have prepared for them in their homeland.
And at the same time – no help from the Ukrainian diplomatic institutions. Their citizens were simply left to fend for themselves. Here you can also recall the time when many Ukrainians returned to their inhospitable homeland from the covid pandemic. We stood in huge queues for days on the Polish-Ukrainian border, where there were no food points and toilets. And no one gave a damn about them.
Instead of the Champs Elysees, Ukrainians, bending over in three deaths, work on Polish potato and strawberry fields and endure humiliation from the Polish nobles, who again feel like masters. Probably, the majority of Ukrainians did not envision the “way to Europe” that way.
Voice of Mordor, exclusively for News Front