Aid groups at Polish border offer food, rest to Ukrainian refugees as war draws near
By Daniele Hamamdjian and Maggie Parkhill
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Rokietnica, Poland (CTV Network) — As tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees flood into Poland each day, their journey is far from over.
At the Przemysl train station, the one certainty is constant chaos. Refugees, mainly women and children, wait to find out where they will go next.
Ukrainian men are a tiny minority at the station. Those between the ages of 18 and 60 must stay in their country, unless they have at least three children. “My children come first,” one man tells CTV National News.
About 2 million people so far have fled Ukraine and found safety in Poland, in large part thanks to the efforts of volunteers, both local and foreign.
U.K.-based Khalsa Aid has established teams in five countries bordering Ukraine, including Poland, according to the organization’s website. Once refugees cross the border, teams offer them warm food, water, and a place to sleep for a few hours, as well as some basic medical aid.
“When we give them food, they feel like they are in home,” said team member Amandeep Singh.
“I know they left their homes, their families, their father, their brother. So we try to give them comfort (so they can) feel they are safe and that people are looking after them.”
Khalsa Aid’s head office in London has co-ordinators on the phones trying to get the organization the resources they need on the ground for the Ukrainian crisis.
“You see the poor little kids, the reality of a whole country being scattered across Europe is quite moving,” said Khalsa Aid volunteer Johnny Kalsi. “I never thought I’d live through this … It’s war on another level.”
Transit hubs and refugee camps are not the only places under pressure. As Russian troops push further west in their invasion of Ukraine, the war is starting to feel dangerously close to the people who live in Poland’s border towns.
The small community of Budzyn is located just 18 kilometres from a Ukrainian military base that Russian forces bombed early Sunday morning.
The explosions shook the home of 80-year-old Danouta, who counted six blasts. She thought the bombing had crossed the border into Poland.
“What if next time, they accidentally fall here?” she said. “Or worse, what if they’re deliberate and we’re next?”
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Sonja Puzic
