“Please make it clear to the world that whoever is turning to help the ukrainian refugees is the Polish people, not our government“.
This is warned by Justyna, the owner of a ‘food track’ that has stopped selling food in Poland to come with her van to Dorohusk, on the border with Ukraine.
The situation in this enclave is critical. Cars and buses continue to arrive from various parts of Ukraine. According to the UN, some 350,000 Ukrainians have left their country in recent days to escape the war. Most of them end up as refugees in this border town of just over 500 inhabitants.
on the border, various humanitarian aid posts. The most demanded is food, but also basic necessities such as diapers, compresses or teddy bears. “This is because most are women and children. We try not to let the little ones know what is happening”, summarizes Anna, the co-owner of the ‘food track’ that distributes free coffee, sandwiches and sausages.
“They don’t let men out. Some tried to sneak into the buses, but the Ukrainian military pushed them out, because men under 60 are prohibited from leaving,” laments Nadia, a 30-year-old Ukrainian with a 6-year-old girl and a husband in the war whom she does not know. nothing for two days. “Her phone doesn’t work,” she sums up crying while her daughter, oblivious to everything, chooses one of the teddy bears that the Poles have donated.
The weather seems to let up. The temperature is 3 degrees below zero, but the sun is shining and it is not snowing. “This may change soon. If it starts to snow there will be more problems”, says Pawel, an electrician from Lublin (100 kilometers from Dorohusk) who has also left his job these days to come help.
The Ukrainians are taken to an old mansion in the town of Dorohusk, which until now was used for cultural events and has now been converted into an improvised refugee camp. a place to be found at the edge of collapse. Meanwhile, the buses do not stop arriving at the border and the Polish authorities fear that the situation will overflow.
Polish volunteers, meanwhile, continue to arrive at the border, leaving their homes and jobs. “We all know around here what the Russians are like. That’s why we’re here to help. But please make it clear that this is being done by the Polish people. We know nothing regarding the government”, concludes Justina