WARSAW, Poland—Blue and yellow flags flutter everywhere in Warsaw as refugees from Ukraine flood into the Polish city, exhausted, haunted, and lost.
Every day, thousands of mostly women and children roll into the Warsaw West Bus Station from the Ukraine border. Many more come by train.
Ilya Kosse, 17, has been alone in Warsaw and has heard nothing from his family for five days. They’re trapped in Mariupol without electricity and the ability to communicate.
Mariupol, a city in eastern Ukraine, is surrounded by Russian forces.
Still, Kosse writes his parents long messages every night, hoping they might read them soon.
“I have a group in Telegram with my Mum and Dad, and every evening I write to them about what I think, about my situation, what I do,” Kosse said.
“And inside me, I understand and believe that they hear me.”
Kosse had been in Kyiv studying engineering when the Russian invasion began; he said the university did what it could to look after the students. For 10 days, sirens blared and the students hunkered down in the basement.
Eventually, Kosse got out. He’s been in Warsaw for five days.
“I should stay normal because I know my parents want the best for me,” he said when asked how he’s feeling about not being able to reach them.
He tried to join the Ukraine Territorial Defense civilian forces, but was told they were so overwhelmed with volunteers that they didn’t have a gun for him. He went to the army reserves and they said they had too many people already. So he came to the humanitarian tent in Warsaw to help, and even there, he was extra.
‘We Were Shaking’
The main bus terminal was dim and somber, filled with lines of people at the money exchange. Others sat with their children, waiting.A woman with her daughter and grandson from Kharkiv crossed the Ukraine border two days ago.
“When we came here, we were shaking,” the mother, who declined to share her name, said, “Now, two days later, we can begin to talk about it.”
“The gory things you see in the media, we lived through that.”
The grandmother said she has children still trapped in embattled areas, living in a cellar with no food or extra clothing.
“The psychological stress—how it changes you—we don’t want anyone to go through that,” she said.
The trio may now travel further into Europe, but their new lives are still so raw that nothing is certain.
Helping Ukrainians
When Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Zoreslav Dmytryszyn, a Ukrainian living in Poland, saw a humanitarian crisis about to unfold and jumped into action.He and his wife started a collection point near his home and asked neighbors if they wanted to donate any supplies. It quickly ballooned into what’s now called Frontline Help to Ukraine, a group of 130 volunteers working around the clock to provide comfort to those fleeing their homeland.
A large tent adjacent to the Warsaw West bus station was bustling with hungry, cold, and tired travelers looking for respite. Hot soup was the most popular item, but diapers were snapped up quickly too.
“We got together here a week and a half ago, when the war started, to help people, because everyone is hungry. People would arrive—they were cold as well. First, we started to give out food and warm clothes,” Dmytryszyn said.
“From Kharkiv, we got a signal that people there are simply starving. People who sit there in the basements call us, they can’t get out under fire [shelling], they have nothing to eat. We sent them yeast, because they only have flour left and they need yeast to mix it with flour and water and they make bread.”
“They don’t have mats, sleeping bags, warm jackets, they don’t have boots, first aid kits or even simply band-aids, basic things.”
Dmytryszyn’s organization collects all the needed items and transports two to three trailer truckloads of supplies into Ukraine every day, he said.
He isn’t expecting a letup anytime soon.
