More than four years ago, Russia’s full-scale invasion triggered the largest migration in Europe since World War II. Millions of Ukrainians were forced to flee their homes, while others who happened to be abroad when the war began found themselves unable or unwilling to return. From Rubryka.
Many of these newcomers joined Ukrainian communities that had existed around the world for decades, and in some cases for more than a century. These diasporas were built through consecutive waves of emigration, as Ukrainians left their homeland in search of safety, opportunity, and freedom, often fleeing the same threats that Ukrainians face today: war, occupation, and Russian rule.
Today, descendants of earlier migrants and Ukrainians who built lives abroad before the full-scale invasion stand alongside those displaced by the current war. Together, they raise funds for the Ukrainian military and humanitarian aid, support reconstruction efforts, and advocate for Ukraine on the international stage.
Rubryka takes a closer look at the five largest and most influential Ukrainian diasporas worldwide – how they were formed, how they preserved their identity across generations, and what role they play in supporting Ukraine today.
Canada
It comes as no surprise that Canada is home to one of the world’s oldest and most influential Ukrainian diasporas. The community took shape in the late 19th century, when thousands of Ukrainians from what is now western Ukraine answered the Canadian government’s call to settle and farm the barren Prairie provinces.
Life in their new country was difficult. Faced with unfamiliar language, culture, and a harsh climate, Ukrainian settlers sought to create a sense of home in Canada. They built churches, schools, cultural centers, and community organizations that helped them preserve their language and traditions.
As new waves of migration followed during the two world wars and Soviet rule, the Ukrainian community expanded and strengthened. It used its voice to promote Ukrainian culture and national memory. It published works on Ukrainian history and customs, collections of poems and stories by artists silenced by Soviet repression or forced into exile, and more.
In the meantime, the Ukrainian diaspora increased its political weight. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), founded in 1940, became a champion for the diaspora, helping secure protections for displaced Ukrainians and opposing their forced return to the Soviet Union.
Today, around 1.4 million Ukrainian Canadians keep up the work of earlier generations. They welcomed over 300,000 Ukrainian citizens fleeing the invasion. Major diaspora organizations, such as the UCC and the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, have coordinated successful advocacy for sanctions, military aid, and refugee support. Across the country, community groups have raised millions for humanitarian aid and support programs and helped newcomers rebuild their lives in their new homes.
Five years into the full-scale war and more than a century after the first settlers arrived on the Prairies, the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada continues to use its influence to support Ukraine.
United States
Like many immigrants of the late 19th century, Ukrainians came to the United States in search of a better life. They settled in Pennsylvania’s coal-mining towns, the industrial centers of the Midwest, and immigrant neighborhoods in cities such as New York, which promised better work opportunities.
From that point on, Ukrainians in the United States, just like their Canadian counterparts, worked to unite into small communities. They preserved their identity thousands of miles from home – building churches, schools, and organizations. At the same time, they developed a particularly strong tradition of political activism, becoming one of the most vocal advocates for Ukraine abroad.
A new wave of Ukrainian refugees after World War II – intellectuals, academics, clergy, political leaders, artists, and veterans – brought experience from Ukraine’s national movement and helped make the diaspora into a powerful political force. Through organizations such as the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), they built influential networks in Congress, the White House, universities, the media, and Washington policy circles.
The strength of those networks became clear in 1991. After Ukraine declared independence, Ukrainian-American organizations organized demonstrations, lobbied Congress and the White House, and helped build support for U.S. recognition of Ukraine’s independence.
Today, the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States – over 1 million people – is still one of the most politically influential Ukrainian communities worldwide. Through advocacy groups, think tanks, academic institutions, business networks, and connections in Washington, it has helped sustain bipartisan support for Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Diaspora organizations have pushed Congress to approve military aid and tougher sanctions on Russia, raised millions of dollars for relief, and helped resettle refugees. Having grown by 510,000, it continues to work with policymakers, researchers, and media outlets to keep Ukraine at the center of U.S. foreign policy debates.
Brazil
While many Ukrainians in the late 19th century headed to North America in search of opportunity, others chose a far more unexpected destination: Brazil. After abolishing slavery, Brazil attracted European settlers with promises of food and land. Thousands of Ukrainians from western Ukraine leaped at the chance and crossed the Atlantic, hoping to escape poverty and finally own land.
Easy opportunities in Brazil were oversold. Immigrants were met with dense forests, unfamiliar diseases, and a climate unlike anything they had known. Many survived – they cleared the land, built farms and villages, and helped develop agriculture in southern Brazil. Meanwhile, they built churches, schools, newspapers, choirs, and cultural societies that kept Ukrainian identity alive, an ocean away from home.
Unlike Ukrainian communities in Canada and the United States, which have been more politically influential in shaping government policy, the Brazilian diaspora is best known for cultural preservation and literary activism. The Ukrainian diaspora in Brazil developed a translation movement, producing dozens of translations and over 40 books. It circulated world literature in Ukrainian and introduced Ukrainian writers and poets censored or persecuted under Soviet rule to Western audiences.
More than 130 years later, that legacy is impossible not to recognize. In some towns, Ukrainian, although not a modern kind, is still spoken fluently. Prudentopolis in the Parana province – often called the capital of the “Brazilian Ukraine” – made Ukrainian its official municipal language in 2021. Brazil officially recognizes the historical contribution of Ukrainian immigrants. In 2023, traditional Ukrainian pysanky appeared in Brazil’s redesigned passport.
Today, around 600,000 people of Ukrainian descent live in Brazil. It’s the largest Ukrainian community in Latin America and the third largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world. Like its ancestors, it runs cultural and educational diplomacy campaigns; for instance, it lobbied the Brazilian Parliament to officially recognize the Holodomor as genocide against the Ukrainian people.
When Ukraine came under Russian attack, the Ukrainian diaspora still didn’t sit idly by. Diaspora organizations have raised funds, delivered humanitarian aid, supported refugees, and organized demonstrations in Brazil. In 2022, the Ukrainian Brazilian Central Representation (UBCR) helped launch the Humanitas Ukraine Brazil Committee to unite volunteers and activists across the country to coordinate support for Ukraine. It’s still active today.
Poland
Unlike the Ukrainian diaspora overseas, Poland’s Ukrainian community historically did not develop solely through immigration. It also did so through centuries of shared history. As borders moved and empires rose and fell, Ukrainians and Poles often found themselves living alongside one another, creating minority communities on both sides of the modern border.
For much of the 20th century, the Ukrainian community in Poland, although the fourth-largest minority, was relatively small. Only with Ukraine’s gained independence, and then Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in Donbas in 2014, growing numbers of Ukrainians moved to Poland for work, study, and opportunity.
Many of them, activists and volunteers, founded organizations and charities. Later, they helped some of the millions of Ukrainians crossing the border in 2022 in search of refuge in the EU.
Due to the overwhelming support from Poles and fellow Ukrainians, hundreds of thousands of newly arrived migrants chose to stay in Poland, creating one of the largest Ukrainian communities globally. Today, about 2.5 million Ukrainians, now a major force in the Polish economy, help fill labor shortages, start businesses, and drive economic growth in Poland.
Many of the newly arrived Ukrainians established nonprofits to stay connected to their language, culture, and community, and to channel aid to Ukraine. Some work to strengthen Ukrainian-Polish relations and challenge stereotypes and prejudices about Ukrainians. One example is Sestry.eu, a cross-border newsroom founded by Ukrainian and Polish journalists to build trust, dialogue, and partnership between the two countries.
Germany
Except for Cold War-era refugees and students, Germany had virtually no permanent Ukrainian diaspora to speak of until the collapse of the Soviet regime. Then Ukrainians gained the freedom to move west in search of better opportunities for themselves and their children. The community grew gradually but remained relatively small for decades. 2022 flipped everything upside down.
Russia’s full-scale invasion triggered one of the largest waves of immigration in modern German history. Thanks to Germany’s well-developed refugee integration system and generous social support, the country became the primary destination for Ukrainians – mostly women and children – fleeing the war.
Germany now hosts more than 1.3 million Ukrainian citizens – the largest Ukrainian community in Europe. Ukrainians have also become Germany’s second-largest foreign population.
As hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians settled in Germany, the community began to take root. More Ukrainians learned German, found jobs, and built more stable lives. Some joined existing diaspora groups, others launched their own.
Older diaspora organizations that emerged during or shortly after the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution to support Ukraine’s democratic movement have redirected much of their work toward supporting Ukraine’s war effort. The Association of Ukrainian Organizations in Germany (AUOG) continues to advocate for Ukraine and to organize cultural and educational projects that counter Kremlin-backed disinformation.
Another prominent Ukrainian aid organization, Blau-Gelbes Kreuz (Blue-Yellow Cross), works directly with German government agencies, businesses, and hospitals to deliver humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, including vehicles, medical equipment, and heavy machinery.
With newer organizations opening, the Ukrainian diaspora gains a stronger voice in German public life. The community has not yet reached the political influence of long-established Ukrainian diasporas in countries such as Canada or the United States, but it is beginning to build the institutions that could make that possible.
One example is the Unity Hub Berlin. Opened in April 2026, it is designed to unite Ukrainian diaspora groups in one place and provide them with a single base for collaboration and contact with German politicians, public agencies, and civil society groups. With this initiative, the Ukrainian community hopes to become an important advocate for Ukraine in Germany.
Oleksandra Voronina is a journalist for Rubryka, a Ukrainian news site specializing in constructive stories on innovative and practical solutions to societal problems, where this article was originally published. Rubryka and Transitions are founding members of SoJo Europe, a first-of-its-kind initiative designed to foster solutions journalism across Europe. Republished with permission.
