Significant numbers of expatriates have come to Ukraine since independence. Most left after their contracts expired or when their companies needed them elsewhere. But some - and more than might be expected - have stayed to raise families, to start businesses or retire.
What is it about Ukraine- a country with a shaky reputation abroad, a difficult business climate and an uncertain future as a western-style democracy - that has charmed more than a few expats into putting down roots here and make plans to stay "for the duration"?
These are, after all, not fugitives from justice evading extradition or vagrants. They are, generally, well-educated, talented and affluent people who could live anywhere they should choose, including in their native lands.
What is it about this country that holds them? Of those we talked to, one had been here for 14 years. The average was eight. And few came expecting to stay before being bitten by the Slavic bug.
Briton David Payne arrived in Kyiv in 1993, sent here from Moscow to direct advertising efforts for the country's privatization effort. After so many years in Kyiv, currently as managing partner for advertising with The Willard Group, Payne doesn't hesitate when asked where 'home' is.
"I've been asked that question: 'Where are you from?'" Payne says. "I say, 'I'm from Ukraine.' I have lived here for a quarter of my life - 12 years."
Payne could easily have returned to Moscow, where he had spent a year with Young & Rubicam Europe, helping set up the first advertising agency in the former Soviet Union. But Ukraine's culture and its diversity "just caught me," he said.
"I think most of the Ukrainian people - and I say it again and again - are very professional and hard-working," he said.
Expats who have decided to put down their roots alongside the Dnieper aren't people who have nowhere else to go, Payne said.
"I could go back to the UK tomorrow," he said. "My four kids are there. But I like it here. This is the place we chose to live."
"I took the conscious decision to stay on in Ukraine," says another Brit, David Cleave. Cleave came to Ukraine in 1997 to set up Raiffeisen Bank's Ukrainian subsidiary.
He now works for the Science & Technology Center in Ukraine.
Cleave counts "exciting work and good friends" as among the reasons he plans to stay put in Ukraine.
"I am able to have a more challenging, varied and interesting lifestyle here than I would have back in the UK," he said. Part of the challenge? Flying Yak-52 aircraft and doing aerobatics at Chaika Airfield.
Fellow Briton Roy Gregory agrees.
"This is my adopted country," he said. Gregory, an executive of Ayala International, Ltd., a construction company, arrived in Ukraine in 1992, planning to stay five days. He met his future wife on the second day of his visit, and his plans changed.
Gregory maintains that in Ukraine, he has a chance to grow professionally and build a career.
"I can really make a difference here," he said. "In England, [anything I do would] just be a drop into the ocean."
One way Gregory is making a difference in his adopted land is through the charitable activities of the Lions Club.
Ukraine is "opportunity, opportunity, opportunity," said Mark Wright, a native of New Zealand who is an owner of Pulse, a research and marketing firm. While pursuing business keeps him busy, Wright does acknowledge missing a few things about New Zealand, including his children, the All Blacks rugby team and a local delicacy called Whitebait fritters, made from a minute, thread-like transparent fish.
Scot Stuart McKenzie runs Happy Days Group, which operates Shooter's, Walter's and other restaurants. He has been in Ukraine since 1993.
McKenzie sees Ukraine as an "exciting developing market, and it's never dull here - always exciting." He also appreciates the low cost of living, and adds that, "of course, the girls are beautiful!"
After seeing Zhytomyr, Jean-Jacques Monborgne said he would have been happy to leave Ukraine, never to return. As luck would have it, though, his flight back to Paris was delayed, requiring him to spend time in central Kyiv.
"When we first saw St. Sophia cathedral, we stared at it like kids stare at chocolate cake," the French citizen said.
That was in 1992. Monborgne, executive vice president of the French Dental Center, says he likes the fact that young Ukrainians are "knowledge-seeking, open and very highly motivated, much more so than in France."
He also likes the country's rich culture, including the literature, theatre and opera.
But some aspects of Ukrainian life still vex him.
"Why should we do something simply when we can make it very complicated? We must do everything the hard way here," Monborgne said.
People here enrich their lives through cultural activities, he says, adding that values that are ebbing away in the west are still alive here. Here, there is greater meaning in friendship and family ties, he feels.
Swede Bjorn Markstedt also likes the sense of family that Ukrainians cherish. In Sweden, the government's social welfare system has caused families to drift away from core values, he says.
Markstedt worked in the Baltics before coming to Kyiv in 1996. Here, he's general manager for Avis.
"Ukraine has an enormous potential for business," Markstedt said.
For American architect Roman Shwed, moving to Ukraine was less about embarking on a foreign adventure than it was about returning home - one he'd never seen before.
Shwed's parents left Ukraine during World War II, fleeing Stalin's repression. He was raised in the United States, and only moved to Ukraine in 1994.
"As soon as I stepped on [Ukrainian soil], I felt that I was home," he said.
After two years in Ukraine, Shwed said that he could not see himself returning to the States.
"I moved to Ukraine because I wanted to be able to speak [the Ukrainian language], which is one of the most unique ones, and to save my national identity," he said.
Retired, Shwed is active with Kyiv's Rotary Club.
George Logush's parents also were native Ukrainians who immigrated to the United States. Now managing director for Kraft Foods in Ukraine and Moldova, Logush came to Ukraine in the early 1990’s.
He says that he has no plans to return to the United States. After living abroad, he said that the US would be a "very boring" place to live.
The Ukrainian people are smart, hard working and determined to succeed as on an individual level. Even so, he says, it is sometimes painful to live in Ukraine, where "society is not working to its full potential."
Ukraine International Airlines executive Richard Creagh is an Irishman who came to the country in June 1993 to help establish UIA as a competitive, modern Ukrainian airline and hasn't looked back.
For Creagh, Ukraine offers the challenge and excitement of transition.
"The future potential is fascinating and
I want to remain a part of it," he says. "On the personal side, I have found the Ukrainian people hospitable, and Kyiv to be a friendly and vibrant city."
Part of what has helped the city become vibrant may be due to people like expat real estate man Nick Cotton.
Cotton, also British, is regional director for DTZ Zadelhoff Tie Leung real estate. He describes himself as an "urban gypsy" who enjoys the anonymity of the big city while being involved in the relatively small circle of the expat community.
Why do expats decide to call Ukraine home? For some, like Shwed, it's an ancestral calling. For others like Mark Wright, it's the opportunity to build a business in undeveloped territory.
But some, like Scot Euan MacDonald, who owns Baraban, a cafe-bar in the center of Kyiv with his Ukrainian wife Katya Gorchinskaya, are more pragmatic yet.
"It just happens," MacDonald said. "When your legs sink deeper and deeper into the sand, you just know you are here to stay."
Yulia Pushko is a journalist with Willard News Service.
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