Inside the War: Humanitarian Action to Eastern Ukraine
According to the most recent update provided by Poland’s Border Guard, over 7.43 million Ukrainian refugees have entered Poland since February 24, and around 5.6 million have left. Not everyone wants to stay in Poland or other countries where they’ve taken refuge; many people feel disconnected from their families and from reality. However, almost 25% of those who have decided to stay in Poland are hoping to make it their long-term home. They face many challenges and will need support to rebuild their lives here from scratch.
Skyrocketing inflation and the increasing costs of energy across Europe are not helping. The increased number of people looking for accommodation in Poland has exacerbated the pre-existing housing crisis. Rents have soared out of reach. Prices in Warsaw roseby over 30%, making it difficult even for Poles, let alone Ukrainian refugees with limited sources of income, to find a place to stay.
The upcoming winter, together with Russia’s new tactic of daily bombardments, and the destruction of water and gas supplies, as well as electricity and heating, generate the risk of a new wave of refugees and thousands of displaced people. There is a significant chance that many will end up homeless both in Poland and in their home country.
That is why ongoing support, both financial and material, is so crucial. In addition to helping the Taube Center provide local assistance to refugees in Poland, I decided to venture into the war zone to give help where it was needed the most. Following up on a conversation with a friend from Kharkiv, Zuzanna Wiaderna, and having read reports of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, I set out to visit the eastern part of Ukraine, bringing as many supplies as I could in “our” van.
The war is entering a new stage with the newly appointed Russian general in charge of the so-called “special military operation.” With the coming winter and with renewed attacks on civilian infrastructure, our Ukrainian friends will need our support more than ever.
The list of the most necessary items is listed below. Your support is invaluable!
- Thermo-active underwear: 10 sets – 200 USD (we need 100 sets)
- Polar fabric for sewing winter clothes for civilians and soldiers – 1 000 USD
- Portable diesel air heater system with batteries: – around 600 USD per set (we need at least 100 sets)
- Medium-size cargo van for transportation – 15 000 USD
- Power generators – from 1 000 USD per piece
- Fuel
To help us with our mission, you can e make a tax-deductible donation to Friends of the Taube Center Foundation. Using the link below, you can choose the form of payment most comfortable for you: wire, check, or credit card.
Zuzanna, who is originally from Warsaw, but who has been living in Kharkiv since July 2022, helped me identify what supplies are needed. She informed me that food is still generally available in local stores, but the people don’t have the money to purchase it. Hence, it is advisable to buy food in local stores to support the Ukrainian economy and to bring in medicine and warm clothes, both for civilians and soldiers. There is also a dire need for first aid and medical equipment, generators, and heating appliances.
In the early morning hours of Wednesday, September 14, I left Warsaw, together with my friend Aleksandr Verbynskyy, who was the primary driver for the duration of our visit.
Aleksandr, originally from Novovolynsk, Ukraine, used to operate a small private business before the war broke out. But, since March 2022, he has dedicated his life and savings to helping his fellow Ukrainians and serves as a driver, organizer, translator and coordinator.
We made several stops on the way, the first in Novovolynsk, where we dropped off some of our supplies and changed cars. Not everyone knows that there is a severe shortage of cars in Ukraine, but that is why we had to give the van we were driving back to its original owner. We arranged another one, but on the condition that the owner’s son would be the driver. We then arrived at a shelter located under one of the tenement houses in Kharkiv. Currently, around 60-70 people sleep there every night, but during the most intense period of fighting more than 300 people found shelter there. Just a few days earlier, a Russian missile had hit a nearby building.
One of our stops was an elementary school transformed into a warehouse and hub for humanitarian aid. A few local NGOs are storing their resources there which then are counted, sorted, and distributed further to places where they are needed the most.
Shortly prior to my arrival in Kharkiv on September 15, the city of Izium was liberated by the Ukrainian army (Sept. 10). It is important to understand that, in every war when a territory is recaptured by means of a counteroffensive, a certain “administrative vacuum” takes place. In Izium, the Russian occupiers were gone and the Ukrainian army kept pushing forward. But the local authorities and support infrastructure has not been re-established yet. While the attention of both the media and the Ukrainian authorities was primarily on Izium, many local villages and small towns needed support. As semi-urban areas, with limited access to local farming resources, their inhabitants are often left to their own devices. After talking to a local teacher, we packed our bus with the supplies and headed for one such town.
It took us approximately four hours to cover the distance of 70 miles. On our way, we passed destroyed buildings and shells of damaged machinery; both regular and military. We could clearly see which ones were abandoned at the beginning of the war and which ones were operational until a few days earlier.
At one point, we came across a unit of Ukrainian soldiers, guarding a Russian armored personnel carrier. They said that it was possible to look around, as they had previously swept the area and could vouch for its safety. What we’ve been seeing in media reports from the area turned out to be true: Russian trenches were clearly abandoned in a hurry; we could see equipment, stolen goods and even a pot full of freshly-prepared food. There were many books stolen from local libraries, but not for education; they were clearly used as tinder. Russian soldiers even stole a set of watercolor paints, one clearly designed for children. When we saw it, we couldn’t help but think of a certain, frustrated painter from Vienna…
Among the gear left behind, we did see some Soviet insignia, corroborating reports that many Russian soldiers were given equipment from Soviet times. Recently, information was circulated that new recruits are given helmets as old as World War II.
When we arrived at the village of Zalyman, most of the buildings were destroyed. According to one local resident, at the beginning of the invasion, a Russian helicopter had been shelling the area for hours. It would only land for a short period of time to refuel and rearm, and then continue its barrage. The local library was completely destroyed. It turned out to be where most of the books we’d seen earlier came from. The locals also informed us that we were the first humanitarian support “mission” they’d seen in the past two months.
Soon a small crowd gathered around and we started giving them what we had. There was tension in the air, some people accused others of not informing them that we had arrived and one woman was even accused of collaborating with the Russians. She openly admitted to doing so, claiming that it was in an attempt to secure water and that no one was hurt as a result of her actions.
The inhabitants were eager to show us the remains of many types of Russian missiles and munitions, including cluster bombs and landmines. One person even pointed to her home destroyed by Russian shelling: it was clearly beyond repair and would need to be demolished. We pushed forward to another village, where only a few older citizens remained; they were extremely happy to receive food and other supplies.
Wherever we went, we tried to inquire about people who were not able to come to us on their own; especially the elderly and the disabled. The locals were happy to point us in the right direction, so that we could efficiently distribute the goods.
Next day, in the morning, Zuzanna took me for a “tour” of the Saltivka district of Kharkiv. It is the most destroyed part of the city; you have probably seen the images of ruined residential buildings; the pictures have been widely distributed. In reality, it looks much worse…
What I found particularly interesting is that the local authorities go out of their way to promptly repair damage to roads and sidewalks; especially in bigger cities. Many Ukrainians are proud of how efficiently their local governments function and feel that it gives them a semblance of stability in these uncertain times.
Later that day, we helped in the warehouse by sorting the supplies with local social workers. One of the women from the shelter, Sveta, asked if we could help evacuate people from her village, including her sister’s kids; one of them 14 months old. The village was located east of Kharkiv and Kupyansk and north of Dvorichna; just a couple of kilometers from the Russian border, so it was one of the first places to be occupied when the invasion started. Sveta hasn’t seen her family for over 9 months, so she was determined to help her family find a safer place to live as soon as the area was liberated.
Since we had two cars – one station wagon and one van – we agreed and headed east to where her relatives lived. Sveta decided to come with us and, of course, offered to pay for gas. We didn’t even consider her offer, as her family needed this money more.
Access to diesel fuel is extremely limited in Eastern Ukraine at the moment so, when we found a gas station that still had supplies, we filled up our tanks and even took a few additional canisters for local inhabitants to fuel their generators.
We also stopped at a makeshift military base; it was a local villa, where over a dozen Ukrainian soldiers were stationed. We left them uniforms and thermoactive underwear.
We continued our way east passing more and more checkpoints and soldiers in destroyed villages and towns. When we reached the area of Shevchenkova, we entered a special zone, as those areas were freshly de-occupied and fights with Russian diversionary groups were still frequent. The curfew was starting much earlier than in Kharkiv and was strictly adhered to.
We drove through Kupyansk and Dvorichna to get to Kutkivka. If you look at the map, you can clearly see how close to the Russian border those places are.
Although we’ve already seen a lot of destruction, those eastern Ukrainian towns and villages were somehow different. In the freshly liberated areas of Ukraine, where streets have not yet been cleared of debris and makeshift barriers, it was clear that we were very close to the active war zone. We could even see smoke from recent fighting.
When we arrived at our final checkpoint, Ukrainian soldiers were questioning us with AK-47’s in hand; safeties off and fingers right on their triggers. We knew we’d end up violating the curfew, but we had to push on if we wanted to get to the village.
We arrived at our destination after 6:00 PM and saw over a dozen people who spent the last couple of hours waiting for us in the pouring rain. Coordinating the meeting was difficult, as there was no electricity in the area. They used up whatever fuel was left in their generator to confirm that we were coming.
Sveta was finally reunited with her family. We witnessed a lot of tears and hugs, but we also knew that we had to leave as soon as possible to avoid driving in the dark. We left our food and fuel with those who decided to stay in the village to look after the animals. One person who stayed behind was Sveta’s father, who unfortunately was killed just two weeks later during one of the Russian shellings.
On our way back, we heard more shots and explosions which appeared to be happening closer and closer to us. We decided to switch off the GPS tracking in our phones to avoid being detected by Russian targeting devices. It was getting darker, so we had to ask for directions around the center of Kupyansk. As we were talking, shots were fired nearby:
We got back to Shevchenkova after 8:00 PM and yet again we were reminded by the soldiers at the checkpoint that the curfew starts at 6:00 PM. Just like everyone else, we had to go through the filtration process. Everyone trying to leave the area has to be indexed and questioned by the military. This included questions about activity during the Russian occupation, contacts with the Russian occupiers and so on.
We tried to convince the soldiers to let us go, but we didn’t succeed. We had to spend the night there and wait for administrative workers to perform the filtration process in the morning. We were assisted by one of the soldiers to the parking lot in front of the municipality. We were told that it was the first night when the military allowed people to wait in the city. Before, they had to wait at the checkpoint in the middle of the forest.
We had fifteen people in the van and five more in the station wagon. Apart from small snacks, we had nothing to eat, as we left everything in the village. The atmosphere was surprisingly good and everyone felt relieved. Compared to what they went through in the last months, a night in the car was not the worst thing that could have happened.
After two hours, we managed to move the children and two women into one of the local buildings.
Throughout the night, undisturbed by city lights (as there was no electricity in a 30-mile radius), we could clearly see the stars and the occasional missile flying across the sky.
In the morning, more and more cars started to appear in front of the municipality building. People formed an orderly line and any small tensions that would arise were quickly resolved.
The filtration process ran smoothly; the Ukrainians were answering questions about their time under the Russian occupation. Many diversionary groups, individual Russian soldiers and their former collaborators were still present in the area. The goal of the filtration process was to identify them among other refugees. The questioning was very easy for me and Zuzanna; when the soldiers saw our Polish passports, their main reaction was an outpouring of genuine gratitude.
When the entire group was cleared, we hit the road to Kharkiv. We needed to stop a couple of times to fill up the air in our tires. The local roads, damaged from explosions and filled with debris, posed a real challenge to the suspension and the wheels. One tire had to be replaced entirely. While we were waiting to have it fixed, we heard even more explosions.
Most of our passengers decided to stay in the shelter in Kharkiv, and only a few continued with us to Kiev and other cities in western Ukraine. As became our new tradition, in Kiev we had to replace another wheel.
After another 20 hours, I arrived back in Warsaw.
Just to remind everyone; there is nothing romantic about war. The reality is miles apart from what we see in the movies and not even close to what we see in the media coverage of this conflict.
The war is entering a new stage with the newly appointed Russian general in charge of the so-called “special military operation.” With the coming winter and with renewed attacks on civilian infrastructure, our Ukrainian friends will need our support more than ever.
The list of the most necessary items is listed below. Your support is invaluable!
- Thermo-active underwear: 10 sets – 200 USD (we need 100 sets)
- Polar fabric for sewing winter clothes for civilians and soldiers – 1 000 USD
- Portable diesel air heater system with batteries: – around 600 USD per set (we need at least 100 sets)
- Medium-size cargo van for transportation – 15 000 USD
- Power generators – from 1 000 USD per piece
- Fuel
To help us with our mission, you can e make a tax-deductible donation to Friends of the Taube Center Foundation. Using the link below, you can choose the form of payment most comfortable for you: wire, check, or credit card.
Please share it with others and encourage your friends and family to keep helping Ukrainian.
Stand with Ukraine!
Jakub Łysiak
General Manager
Taube Center for Jewish Life & Learning
