I've been getting messages from profiles who say the same thing, that basically they are from the ukraine and visiting in my case Toronto and they want to do paid shoots. I've been ignoring these messages, just wondering if anyone actually shot with someone "visiting" from ukraine.

There are a lot of traveling models.

Over the years I have shot with visitors from England, Sweden, Italy, Australia and Canada. I even hosted several of them in my home, an enriching experience.

They have all been experienced models and well worth their fees.

Part of my family is Ukrainian and I can tell you for sure that many of the models from there are coming here. Many of them have great experience as runway and magazine models. So If you like their look, go ahead and hire them. I've worked with many. Personally, I admire them for their work ethic and their determination to work. Because of their experience and the recent difficulties with the invaders, you will likely find that these models are more business oriented. As visitors or new Canadians, they don't have the social structure to fall back onto if they are not earning. So if you are not offering to pay them for their time, the conversation will end and they will be looking for alternatives. Most of the Ukrainian models have enough experience to know if a photographer is serious or not. I recommend that all photographers look at their own portfolio and compare to the models work to see if her imagery will improve the photographer's portfolio.

Yes, one who lives in Toronto and was recently in Thailand. in my experience Eastern European models are excellent to work with and are used to working with photographers from other countries as they shoot in most European counties along with Turkey and North America
As usual vette them

I'm jealous . . .
I used to shoot some of the most wonderful European models up until a few years ago.
Then the US Gov made it illegal to hire, shoot, or even to trade shoots with foreign models that don't have a US Issued work permit (which are almost impossible for models and actresses to get)

Ukrainians are welcome in the UK and quite a few models from there are already here.

On Modelkartei there are more pictures from members in Ukraine than from the UK or US.

https://www.model-kartei.de/fotos/stream/country/GR/