Medyka: Faced with the influx of a million refugees fleeing Russian troops in Ukraine, Poles like Nicolas Kusiak, a 27-year-old manager, have rallied in an ever-expanding humanitarian response.
They have taken in refugees, offered food and transport, and above all a little human kindness to the distraught and traumatized women and children who have had to leave their menfolk behind to fight.
“It’s beginning to get organized,” Kusiak told AFP near the Medyka border post — a frequently clogged crossing point near the Ukrainian city of Lviv. Kusiak, a Pole born in France who speaks several languages, has been helping as a translator ever since he arrived at the border four days ago.
He also brought tents, generators, heaters, and food with him from Warsaw and has tried to coordinate police, doctors, firefighters, and the volunteers doling out hot soups — a daunting challenge.
“Everyone is trying to do everything,” he said.
The government has set up reception centers and charities up and down the country have mobilized in a massive aid effort, helped by the estimated 1.5 million Ukrainians already living in Poland.
Polish border guards on Sunday said the number of people crossing since Russian troops operation in Ukraine had reached a million, saying this was “a million human tragedies”. At the main train station in Krakow in southern Poland, a temporary reception center has been set up and hundreds could be seen arriving.
The reception center “is really full and we have lots of people here all the time…. We don’t have enough places,” said volunteer Anna Lech, 45. But Maja Mazur, another volunteer, said spaces were being offered in the city where refugees could have some food, a hot drink, and “stay for a day or two”.
