The Russian war on Ukraine disrupted Ukraine’s economy and its global value chains and unleashed a refugee crisis of historic proportions. In response, the Ukrainian economy is rewiring its economic ties westwards. Doing so requires transfer of know-how and access to professional networks in the EU. We study what role displaced Ukrainians in Austria and Germany, together with Austrian and German companies, can play in the acquisition of such know-how and networks. In particular, we aim to identify which value chains Ukraine can enter with the help of its displaced population. To identify plausible global value chain relationships among international exports and industries, we rely on bilateral export and investment data. We use these data to trace the history of how Eastern European countries transitioned from value chains centered on Russia to western European value chains in the 1990s and 2000s. Next, we assess the extent to which distance and EU accession had been limiting factors therein. We use these results to identify opportunities for Ukraine to make its own pivot to value chains centered on Austria and Germany.