UKRAINE: Refugees Flood Western Ukraine

By Laura McKillip Wood

Residents of western Ukraine are hosting refugees in their homes and helping them obtain provisions as these displaced people attempt to flee to Poland and other Eastern European countries. The western Ukrainians often are transporting and feeding these refugees at their own expense.

Sasha lives in western Ukraine with her husband, Alyosha. They had planned to send their 14-year-old daughter to stay with her 18-year-old sister in Poland when fighting began.

When Russia attacked, they packed their daughter into the car with two teenage friends and a few supplies for what they thought would be a five-hour round trip. On the way, they met a family that was fleeing. The husband asked them to take his wife and their 2-year-old child with them to safety. (The husband had to remain in Ukraine; men between 18 and 60 years old are required to serve with the military.) The father said goodbye to his wife and child, uncertain when or if he would ever see them again, and Sasha and Alyosha drove them to the border.

Traffic has been heavy, with traffic jams of 30 miles or more. Sasha and the entourage spent two nights in their car in the cold February weather. They had almost run out of water when a man on the side of the road gave them a bottle. It was his last. She tried to pay him, but he refused her money. Sasha cried at his generosity.

On the other side of the border, Sasha’s friend Jill (not her real name) waited. A lifelong global worker, Jill lives in Poland and works as a counselor for other expatriates. After receiving Alyosha’s initial call, Jill hurried to the border. She waited in a hotel for them to call again and tell her that the girls had crossed into Poland; the call took two days to arrive. Jill finally was able to help the young girls get to their final destinations at the homes of family members.

During the time Jill was waiting for the young girls, she met a young Ukrainian woman who had been vacationing in Lviv when air raid sirens woke her. Strangers gave the woman a ride to Poland, but she had nowhere to go once she arrived. “I took her home with me, too,” Jill said. Others are also staying with her. “Pray this house will be a house of great peace and joy,” she asked.

Jill lives in a Polish town near a Christian camp run by an organization called Proem. Proem has turned the camp into a refugee center. The camp will fill soon, as more and more refugees flood into the area. More than a million have already left Ukraine, and more are on their way.

In the meantime, Sasha and Alyosha returned to their home, where they continue to help people on their way to safety. One woman, the mother of a 5-year-old and 8-month-old, owned a bakery in her hometown. She and her husband bought supplies in preparation for International Women’s Day orders but had to leave it all behind. “They didn’t even take the cookies from the oven,” Sasha said.

Sasha and Alyosha took the mom and her children to the station several days in a row in hopes they could catch a train to Poland, but the station was packed with people trying to escape. Sasha feared for the woman and her children each time they left for the station, but they were finally able to board a train. The station “is panic, screams, and hysteria,” one woman said. “I was almost crushed there, but God brought me out of this horror.”

Sasha manages to see bittersweet beauty in how many have responded to these difficult circumstances.

“I don’t know what makes me cry more,” she said, “the horror of what’s happening around me or the empathy of countries and people and friends.”

These are just snapshots of what is occurring on a much larger scale, as displaced people continue to flee the advancing Russian army.

Please keep these brave Christians in your prayers, and if you want to help financially, consider donating to the following organizations:

• Proem Ministries is welcoming, sheltering, and feeding refugees from Ukraine.

• Mulberry International provides relief to refugees through Ukrainian organizations on the ground.

• Pantano Christian Church, Ukraine Fund, was started by Glen Elliott, a former missionary to Ukraine who serves with the church. Choose “Ukraine” in drop-down box labeled “Choose giving fund.”

• IDES (International Disaster Emergency Service) — be sure to designate your gift as “Ukraine relief.”

Laura McKillip Wood, former missionary to Ukraine, lives in Papillion, Nebraska, and writes about missions for Christian Standard.