The working day means well with Anastasiia Kondrachuk.

During a coffee break in Frankfurt's banking district, the sun shines in her face.

The shady café, just a few steps from her office in the Hypovereinsbank, is a gem in the summer heat.

And her boss, Christian Schulze, raves about his new colleague: "Her CV was impressive."

"Plus, their credentials were great."

Nadine Bos

Editor in business, responsible for "Career and Opportunity".

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Uwe Marx

Editor in Business.

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That's why Anastasiia Kondrachuk started working in the bank's treasury, i.e. in financial accounting, shortly after fleeing Ukraine.

It was an urgent process of hiring and training, says Schulze.

Internal decision-making processes, discussions and consultations have been shortened.

The bank really wanted her, everything went in no time.

And that's why the new one is an example of the accelerated professional integration of war refugees.

She wouldn't have thought it possible herself.

Like so many others, she didn't see the war coming, although she comes from Donetsk, a city in the east of the country that has been fought over for years.

She had a good life with her husband and five-year-old son when the Russians attacked.

She had graduated from the National University of Economics and Trade in Donetsk, had moved to Dnipro and Kyiv with her family, worked for a supermarket chain and in the energy sector, and completed an internship in a bank.

A curious, hardworking woman.

"I don't feel comfortable without a job," she says.

She came to Frankfurt because of acquaintances who already lived nearby, to the Hypovereinsbank by chance and the information at a party that they were looking for people there.

How long does she want to stay?

"We have no plans.

We would like to have some, but how is that possible?”

Lots of potential

This is likely to be the case for many war refugees from Ukraine.

As of mid-August, 398,000 people from Ukraine of working age were registered in job centers in Germany, 38,000 of whom are in work subject to social security contributions.

11,000 are also registered as marginally paid employees, and 50,000 are on integration courses.

There is still potential slumbering among them.

If you want to get an impression of this, you can visit a Berlin aid project run by the non-profit Joblinge AG.

There, the organization set up by the Boston Consulting Group and the Eberhard von Kuenheim Foundation has rented a floor in an apartment building that has been busy since the beginning of the Ukraine war: Two rooms house a co-working space for Ukrainian mothers who are mobile work or need a quiet place to go job hunting.

There is also a classroom and a playroom where the women's five to six-year-old children are cared for and received pre-school classes until July.

They are now going through the contents of the Ukrainian first class there.

German courses for the mothers also take place regularly in one of the co-working rooms.

The idea behind the project: For five to six-year-olds who are about to start school, it is hardly worth it to acclimate them to a kindergarten.

On the other hand, these children need (pre-)school knowledge and their mothers need a free back to gain a foothold in the job market.