Excessive solidarity: Poles show heart for Ukrainian refugees

Excessive solidarity
Poles show heart for Ukrainian refugees

Feb 26, 2022, 6:21 p.m

When war refugees from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq come to Poland via Belarus, the country reacts with harshness. Dealing with the 100,000 Ukrainians who are fleeing the war is completely different. At the border, many Poles show their solidarity with donations and offers of admission.

All of Poland helps. This is the impression one can get in the small town of Przemysl near the border with Ukraine. Cars and minibuses are jammed in front of the station. Some are loaded to the brim with donations for the refugees arriving here on trains from Ukraine. Renata Czarnecka and her daughter Wioletta drove up in a fancy white car. You load diapers, baby wipes and bottled water from the trunk. “We could all be in the same situation. Nobody is safe anymore,” says the 60-year-old judicial officer. “For me, it’s a completely normal human reflex to donate something here.”

According to the government in Warsaw, Poland has already taken in 100,000 refugees from the neighboring country to the east since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There are two border crossings near Przemysl. The train station in the eastern Polish city has a Russian broad gauge track. Trains from Kiev, Lviv and Odessa arrive here. They bring more and more desperate people.

For the newcomers there is a large offer of help directly at the train station. Red arrows and signs in Polish and Ukrainian show the way to the pick-up point in the station hall. At long tables, men and women from the professional fire brigade take care of the refugees’ concerns.

PiS government prepared Poland for refugees

“People who arrive from Ukraine and have no possibility of traveling to the interior of Poland can be put on lists with us. Volunteers come here, offer transport and accommodation. We then bring it together,” says fire chief Lukasz Zielinski. The admission point also arranges places in emergency shelters that the city of Przemysl has set up in school gymnasiums.

In addition to state aid, there are also initiatives by citizens. A Facebook group was formed that organizes private accommodation, transport and material aid for refugees. For several weeks now, Poland’s national conservative PiS government has been preparing its country to take in a large number of refugees. The Ministry of the Interior instructed the regional administrations to prepare suitable rooms from emergency shelters. Even the arch-conservative Minister of Education, Przemyslaw Czarnek, emphasized that Ukrainian children are welcome in Polish schools.

A stark contrast to the way Poland reacted just a few months ago, when many migrants from crisis areas such as Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq tried to enter the EU illegally from Belarus. The PiS government sent 10,000 soldiers to the border and set up a restricted zone there. She is currently building a 5.5 meter high fence. The message is: migrants should stay outside.

Some hope for a quick end to the war

“Poles feel a close connection to Ukrainians. In addition, the war isn’t far away, it’s right on our border,” says spokeswoman Kalina Czwarnog from the aid organization Ocalenie (rescue), which has been helping migrants on the Belarusian border . Now she is also helping the Ukrainians. “But unfortunately the different ways of dealing with it also have to do with racist prejudices.” You can see that in the way the PiS government has commented on migrants from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, and what position it is taking on the Ukrainians today.

In any case, the refugees from Ukraine feel well received in Poland – and most of them want to stay in the neighboring country for the time being. “We’re looking for an apartment here right now. If they stop bombing, we’ll go back to Lviv,” says pharmacy assistant Maria Potochniak, who is sitting on a camp bed in the Przemysl train station and giving her little daughter Alinka a bottle.

45-year-old Oksana and her husband Oleg have similar plans. Both found shelter in an emergency room in the gym of a primary school in Przemysl. “Pops came this morning and offered us an apartment. I think it was free,” says Oksana. She has not accepted the offer because she is still waiting for her mother and daughter to arrive. “We want to stay in Poland, look for work, we are hard-working people.” Most of all, Oksana hopes that the war will be over soon. “If the Ukrainian army defends Lviv for three days, the Russians will retreat,” she believes.