海角大神

Iryna Lvovych takes out her phone and pulls up photos of her young, smiling family and of a garden where she grew tomatoes and berries in and around Irpin, Ukraine, which she called home for the past 10 years. Then she shows a photo of what remains of her family鈥檚 apartment building today.

鈥淲e will not return to Irpin. It鈥檚 dangerous,鈥� says the mother of two. 鈥淥ur apartment that we bought, the roof burnt off and it鈥檚 not livable.鈥�

Ms. Lvovych is one of more than 3 million Ukrainians who have sought refuge in Poland from Russia鈥檚 full-scale invasion, and now find themselves in limbo. Uncertain how long they will stay in Poland and when it will be safe to return home, they find themselves faced with questions and choices over finding long-term housing, jobs, and schools for their children.

鈥淭he people who are here, most of them will stay here for the foreseeable future,鈥� says聽Katia Roman-Trzaska, the founder of SOK Foundation, a nonprofit focused on helping foster care and underprivileged children. 鈥淏oth Poles and Ukrainians need a lot of assistance. Tools to rebuild their life, either to stay or to go back home.鈥�

鈥淣o one believed this would be a big war鈥�

Russia鈥檚 war against Ukraine has created the largest refugee crisis seen in Europe since World War II. Over 5 million Ukrainians have fled, and Poland has taken in the highest number at over 3 million people, according to United Nations figures. Those Ukrainians join over 1 million who were already living and working in Poland prior to Feb. 24, when the war began.

This refugee situation has unique characteristics. It鈥檚 primarily women and children fleeing, since men 18 to 60 years old are not permitted to leave Ukraine. And Poles are taking Ukrainians into their own homes, not setting up camps like in other recent global crises.

Also, while Poland has been criticized for its response to refugees fleeing the Middle East and Africa, it has been widely sympathetic to Ukrainians fleeing the war on its border, a response partially rooted in a shared Soviet history with Ukraine and cultural similarities.

Polish cities, which are decked out in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags in a sign of solidarity, have seen their populations swell. Warsaw鈥檚 population has grown by over 17% and Krakow鈥檚 by 20%. Ukrainian is now commonly heard spoken on streets.

But few expected this, says Ms. Lvovych. 鈥淪o many families thought this would be over in one, two, three days and they would return back,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd so many didn鈥檛 leave because of that. No one believed this would be a big war with a lot of losses.鈥�

On the morning the war started, her family鈥檚 car was in a repair shop in Kyiv and her son鈥檚 passport was in an office being renewed 鈥� that building would later be bombed. Her husband, Yaroslav, managed to retrieve both their car and the passport while she started preparing to leave the next morning. That evening, they spent part of the night in the basement and could hear military activity in nearby Hostomel.

The next morning, Ms. Lvovych along with six other people piled into a Volkswagen Jetta, knowing they were heading for Poland with the goal of making it to Warsaw. After an arduous journey, Ms. Lvovych crossed into Poland on Feb. 28 with her 7-year-old and 1-year-old sons, Sviatoslav and Myroslav. Her husband stayed behind in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk, where he is volunteering and continuing to work a remote IT job that now supports an extended family.

Ms. Lvovych, who works as an architect and interior designer, spent three weeks looking for an apartment in Warsaw and received help from a Polish family at the school where her sons are now students. The Polish family decided to help Ms. Lvovych in memory of their recently deceased grandmother, who was sent to Siberia as a child by the Soviets. 鈥淭he Poles remember what the Soviets did to them,鈥� Ms. Lvovych says.

Ms. Lvovych, who understands Polish but does not yet speak it, is grateful for all the help Poland has offered and says she feels bad about the stress so many Poles are living under, themselves wondering if their country could be attacked by Russia.

For now, Ms. Lvovych and her sons are trying to socialize with Poles in Warsaw. She has the apartment rent-free until the end of spring. She鈥檚 planning to return to Ukraine in late May on her son鈥檚 birthday and join her husband. 鈥淲e鈥檒l return and see what to do next,鈥� she says.

History and trauma

Relations between Poland and Ukraine haven鈥檛 always been as strong as they are in the current moment. Painful historical events of the 1940s聽鈥� including the Volhynia massacre of Poles, committed by Ukrainian nationalist groups, and Operation Vistula, the forced resettlement of Ukrainians under the Soviet-backed Polish communists聽鈥� remain charged topics.

But right now, as the war enters its third month, Poles are continuing to help Ukrainians while also steeling themselves for what could be a much longer haul.

鈥淧retty much the whole country has pivoted to helping Ukrainians,鈥� says Ms. Roman-Trzaska of SOK Foundation, who also founded Little Chef, a cooking school for kids. 鈥淰ery quickly we realized that this is not a sprint. This is a marathon.鈥�

Ms. Roman-Trzaska pivoted her foundation鈥檚 work and started making sandwiches for Ukrainians arriving at Warsaw鈥檚 Ukrainian House and building welcome packs containing basic hygiene products. Her group is now working with Ukrainian orphans in Poland running programs involving sports, singing, painting, and cooking. She is working on plans for Polish-language immersion classes for Ukrainian children this summer.

鈥淲e want to help them with integrating into Polish society and Polish schools, and we want them to learn the language,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ot to assimilate, which is the loss of your own culture, but to blend culturally. And this needs to happen for both sides.鈥�

But she fears the war has entered a 鈥減recarious鈥� period with online fake news and trolling having the potential to divide Poles. 鈥淭his will take decades to heal,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e need the world to help us here.鈥�

For Ukrainians and Poles, emotions are right beneath the surface. Hanna Hromova, a psychologist who fled Kyiv, is now in Warsaw working with patients online, through a psychological hotline, and at refugee centers.

Ukrainians who fled are dealing with feelings of guilt and sorrow as well as divided families with husbands and older relatives staying behind, while those in Ukraine are struggling with safety concerns and survival, enormous stress, and death, Ms. Hromova says.

鈥淭here is an intense desire for people to return [home],鈥� she says. And Polish volunteers are also dealing with trauma, she adds.

Emily H. Johnson

Svitlana Shevchenko (right) is living with a Polish host family in a small village near Rzesz贸w in southeast Poland. Ms. Shevchenko, her daughter, and two other Ukrainian women and their children have been welcomed into the community. 鈥淲e are pleasantly shocked by these people,鈥� she says.

In the countryside

Poles are encouraging Ukrainians to head for smaller cities. A large poster in Warsaw鈥檚 central train station in English and Ukrainian declares, 鈥淏ig cities in Poland are already overcrowded. Don鈥檛 be afraid to go to smaller towns: they are peaceful, have good infrastructure, and are well-adapted.鈥�

Svitlana Shevchenko took that advice, after she fled Zaporizhzhia with her teenage daughter Yliia, and Ms. Shevchenko鈥檚 friend Valentyna Kozlova and her 6-year-old son Maksim.

鈥淭he war started for me not from the moment they started to bomb us, but when I understood that鈥� 鈥� she starts crying and Yliia finishes her sentence 鈥� 鈥渨e had to leave.鈥�

Their long journey involved waiting in the cold and taking bruising rides on packed trains. 鈥淭his whole journey, it felt like it wasn鈥檛 happening to us. It felt like a retrospective of films about World War II. You don鈥檛 believe that this is happening in your lifetime,鈥� Ms. Shevchenko says.

They crossed into Poland on March 6. At a refugee center, a Polish volunteer who spoke Ukrainian told them a priest in a small village near聽Rzesz贸w in southeastern Poland had offered to host four people in a building close to the church. They accepted.

鈥淲e are immeasurably thankful to the Polish people. We are pleasantly shocked by these people. I never even thought that people could feel another鈥檚 pain like this,鈥� Ms. Shevchenko says. 鈥淲ar is terrible, but it has shown in the world that there are extraordinary, good, sincere people.鈥�

Slowly the women and their children are settling into life. Yliia and Maksim are attending Polish school, and Yliia is also continuing Ukrainian school online. Not too long after they arrived, another friend of theirs with her daughter also came to the village 鈥� giving the women a small Ukrainian community.

But Ms. Shevchenko, who worked as a journalist in Ukraine, admits to feeling lost and experiencing some depression. 鈥淲e arrived in a foreign country without a home, job, a perspective; we don鈥檛 have a future,鈥� she says. 鈥淚n February the war began, time goes on, the seasons are changing, but we are stuck in February, all of us. Time isn鈥檛 moving forward.鈥�

She is focusing on learning Polish, which will open up job opportunities, and hopes to be able to communicate what she鈥檚 feeling and thinking to Poles soon. While in recent weeks some Ukrainians have started to return home, the women think it鈥檚 still too dangerous in their city. For now, they are thankful to be safe and constantly monitor their phones for news from home.

鈥淲e all have one wish,鈥� Ms. Shevchenko says. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 even say it out loud to each other 鈥� we want the war to end. There are a million questions; we all understand that tough times are ahead. We don鈥檛 know if the war will end, how long it will last. We don鈥檛 know if our cities will survive or if occupied territories will again be freed. But we understand that even if it鈥檚 like that, we will need to renew and rebuild our country, and it will be tough.鈥�

Emily Johnson contributed reporting.