Refugees still flee war-torn Ukraine every single day. This is what their journey to safety is like

Alyona and her four children are finally able to rest after fleeing from the under-siege eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk. “It was really tough crossing the border, we were there for hours,” she says. The very hot, all day bus journey arrived at its last stop in the city of Przemyśl, that sits on the Polish border with Ukraine, at Hope Shelter, the Hope Foundation refugee shelter. 

Completely volunteer run and receiving no government support, the short-stay Hope Shelter opened in October 2022 to be a full service humanitarian outpost for Ukrainians seeking refuge from war. Offering everything from healthy hot meals to helping guests plan long-term accommodation and access mental health referrals, Hope Shelter has a capacity of around 100 beds and has hosted more than 5,000 people, predominantly women and children, since opening its doors. 

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There’s no question that the number of refugees leaving Ukraine has sharply fallen since the initial surges when the full-scale war began. But, as more towns and cities are forced into the frontline, dozens of people like Alyona are continuing to arrive at the Hope Shelter each and every week. 

Back in Pokrovsk, both Alyona and her first husband were civilian volunteers, until he was killed during the war. For the past two years Alyona has been trying to get approval for her 19-year-old son to gain a medical exception from the nationwide conscription law that bans men between the ages of 18 and 60 leaving the country. 

“He couldn’t get permission so he couldn’t leave. We were planning to leave Ukraine for a very long time. My husband was stopped at the border because there was some issue with his documents, so we want to reunite at the shelter and continue to Germany.” 

Viktoriia, who knows Alyona and travelled from the same city of Pokrovsk to the Hope Shelter, made the tough decision to leave her home with her two small children as the intensity of bombing and shooting became too much. “It’s very loud and a difficult situation for us all. We arrived on a bus last night with many other refugees and we are very happy with the space for the children to play and the good food.” 

Exhausted funds

Despite the constant flow of refugees into Przemyśl, funding is becoming increasingly difficult to find. “We don’t have funding to last past September. If we shut down, we’re not reopening. So what’s going to happen then?,” says Jay Rivera, an American volunteer who co-founded Hope Shelter. 

A large shelter housed in an empty Tesco supermarket used to be the main refugee housing, but this downsized from around 2,400 spaces to 200 and then closed down entirely. Oxfam, which also had a strong presence in the city, has now completely shut down its operations. 

The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) sent £223.3m in bilateral aid to Ukraine in 2023/24, with this figure falling to £155m in 2024/25. Despite the declining humanitarian aid from the UK to Ukraine, a total of £3bn has been budgeted for military assistance to the country in 2024/25. 

Grants and volunteer-led fundraising form almost the entirety of the budget of the Hope Shelter. “The funding is a huge issue at the moment, because there’s definitely, unfortunately, demand. The numbers are steadily climbing, and we’re also seeing a lot of the smaller organisations that used to bring people here dropping out,” explains Richard Smith, a volunteer from the UK. 

Over the past year, three shelters like Hope have closed in Przemyśl. “It’s short sightedness,” says Smith. “People thought because the numbers were going down last year, okay, we don’t need this anymore. And there’s a lack of funding on a larger level.” 

Unlike other refugee centres, Hope Shelter accepts pets and people with disabilities. Operating as an independent shelter brings with it clear challenges, namely difficulty in gaining grants and official funding, but this structure allows a more personal connection with many of the residents. 

“We create much more of a family, homely atmosphere, where people can relax, contribute and really feel a part of what we all do. What we see now is a lot of vulnerable people in the eastern villages close to the front lines, who have just decided they’ve been sticking out so long without power and then they can no longer stay,” says Chris Williams, a volunteer from the UK. 

For long-term volunteers, like Williams, there have been times when hearing the traumatic experiences of guests has hit a raw nerve. “A family with kids from Mariupol was here for about two weeks, so I got to know them all quite well. I found out some awful things had happened to them – it really messed me up. I ended up having a bit of a blow up, and needed to take some time off.” 

Thanks to the tight-knit volunteer community, Williams was able to speak openly about how he felt, with people who have similar experiences. “This is an absolute cliche, but it does make your own problems seem completely insignificant,” says Williams. 

It’s not just guests that are helped by the Hope Shelter. Rivera flew over to Przemyśl in early April 2022, planning to help out for a week. “One week became two weeks. Two weeks became my mom threatening to take my dog to the dog shelter if I didn’t return home,” he says. 

“I realised that none of what I’ve done for the past 10 years mattered nearly as much as what I’d done in the past two years. You have a direct impact as a human being making a positive change in someone’s life.” 

The former account manager is now working to create a sustainable shelter in the Lviv region of western Ukraine, under the Ukrainian charity Volunteer Action, where animals and livestock will be welcome. “We’re going to use land for farming and agriculture. People will be able to create a sustainable lifestyle that’s very similar to the lifestyle they’ve left behind in the east.”

Cultural institution

Over in the centre of Przemyśl, steps away from the City Hall and the monuments around the Old Town market square, sits the cultural hub of Ukrainian House. Since the full-scale Russian invasion, tens of thousands of arriving Ukrainians found not only refuge, but access to vital medicine, food and onward transport. 

“We had volunteers coming from all over Poland, and our strong point was the knowledge of the Ukrainian language. Every Ukrainian here in Przemyśl that could walk become our volunteer,” explains Tatiana Nakonieczna, who helps oversee volunteers at Ukrainian House. 

Although the numbers of refugees have fallen from the unprecedented levels seen in 2022, the war continues to force Ukrainians to seek safety outside of the country in large numbers. 

“Especially at this moment, we can see that we have more and more refugees from Sumy and Kharkiv, regions that are really, really dangerous,” she adds. “Each moment of the day, not one, but three of our employees wait to help refugees at the train station because there is still a need and people are still coming.” 

Depending on the day, the two shelters run by Ukrainian House can house a total of 100 people, with the same amount of meals being prepared for these guests on a daily basis. One short-term location supports 50 refugees who need a few days to plan their next steps and the second shelter offers longer-term apartment-style living for around a dozen families who have more complex needs. 

As Nakonieczna walks around Ukrainian House, she bumps into artist Nina. Coming from the central Ukrainian city of Poltava, which recently saw a Russian military strike kill 51 people, Nina now has her own studio where she can safely create her art. “I came here with my son, his wife and four children,” Nina says.  

Pointing to her unfinished painting, Nina says: “It’s showing how I feel in the past, present and future. It starts out broken and hungry, to ripening to thinking about a happy future.” A recent exhibition of Nina’s work at Ukrainian House sold out, with half of the money raised given to the Ukrainian army. 

Przemyśl, with its normal population of just under 60,000, has seen millions of refugees pass through its border with Ukraine over the past two-and-a-half years. After countless strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure by Russian missiles, energy blackouts have become an unfortunate daily reality. During a hot summer, a lack of heating is not an issue, but in a cold winter, it can be devastating. 

“I cannot even imagine if from January these aid organisations say we do not prolong our contracts. We do expect much more refugees, I really don’t know what we will do with these people. Some people can still volunteer, but we could not have people on the train station all the time,” concludes Nakonieczna. “We will not be able to run the shelters, that’s for sure. The situation could be very, very difficult.” 

Visit Volunteer Action and Hope Foundation to find out more or make a donation.

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