Forced from their homeland after Russia's invasion, some Ukrainians fear they may never return

“Ukraine feels like it was a different life, a different reality, and sometimes I don't even identify myself with that reality anymore,” Mariia Kulia told NBC News.

With bombs raining down and Russian forces rapidly approaching Kyiv, Taria Blazhevych made the difficult decision to flee Ukraine with her children and move abroad.

She was far from the only one, and many like Blazhevych believed they would one day return. But after the war entered its fifth year last month, some are not so sure they will leave their new lives behind and return to Ukraine.

“There’s no end in sight for this war. I’m afraid it will drag on forever,” Blazhevych told NBC News in a telephone interview last month from her home in Washington, D.C., where she lives with her sons, Artem, 9, and 7-year-old Denys.

The 31-year-old, who left Ukraine five months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, is among the nearly 6 million people who have left the country during the war, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. While many have since found work, education and a degree of stability in their host countries, some like Blazhevych fear their children will forget their homeland or struggle to adapt if they return.