When I came to Kyiv in 2013 to study journalism, nearly every conversation about the future among my fellow young Ukrainians eventually came down to one question: How to leave the country for a chance of a better life. Back then, there was no war, no daily attacks or funerals of friends killed by Russia. And yet I remember that time as more hopeless. It was the era of pro-Russian, autocrat-aspiring President Viktor Yanukovych, marked by widespread corruption and impunity poisoning the country.