On platform 2 of the East Station in Warsaw, groups of women with children, their belongings in large suitcases and shopping bags. Refugees are part of everyday life at the stations of the Polish capital, which is estimated to have hosted around 200,000 people from Ukraine. But these Ukrainians are waiting for the sleeper train that goes to Kyiv every night: they are returning. “I couldn’t stay away any longer,” said 32-year-old Anastasia Ovchinnikova, who fled to Canada at the outbreak of war. She heard that Kyiv is safer after the withdrawal of the Russian army and flew to Poland. Now she is standing on the platform with two large suitcases. ‘I miss my family. I miss Ukraine.’
Every day new refugees arrive in Poland, which has already seen 2.6 million people cross the border. But Ukrainians are increasingly returning. In the beginning these were mainly (young) men who wanted to take up arms against the Russian invasion force, now women and children are also returning. According to figures from the Polish Border Guard, this is about a hundred thousand people a week, more than half a million since the start of the war. Polish media report that several hundred people return every day in the border town of Przemyśl, from where trains to Lviv and Odessa leave.
The trains are fully booked until next week
The train between Warsaw and Kyiv is also a popular connection, says Ovchinnikova, who was unable to obtain a ticket. The trains are fully booked until next week. “I hope I can still come with you.” Volunteer Anna Kuznicka (64), who works two nights a week at the refugee aid point at the station, is talking to more and more people who take the train to Kyiv. Such as Lyudmila Boyko (41), who gets out a little earlier and goes back to her hometown of Lutsk. She thinks it’s safe. “Of course I’m worried, sirens still sound every night.” As she talks, she rolls the magazine tighter in her hands. “But I’m a nurse, Ukraine needs me.”
Some are forced to return. “There is no work here and no roof over our heads,” says 22-year-old Alina Birchenko, who waits on a bench for her train. She came to Poland a month ago and was able to stay in the city of Katowice for free for a while. She had to leave there, but she still hadn’t found a source of income. ‘I could find sporadic cleaning jobs, but that wasn’t enough. And from the Polish state we received a one-off 300 złoty (about 65 euros, ed.)† Now she’s going back to her old job as an instructor at a fitness club in Kyiv “which luckily didn’t get shot at.” Friends tell her it’s safer than before. “But I’m still very scared.”
According to the Polish government, about 30,000 Ukrainians have found work, mainly in the big cities: a fraction of the number of refugees in Poland, estimated by experts from the University of Warsaw at around 1.3 million. Since March 16, Ukrainians can apply for a Polish social security number, which just over 700 thousand people have done (94 percent of whom are women and children). The Polish government is investing 8 million euros in a special program to make it easier for Ukrainians to find their way into the labor market. “We want them to be able to stand on their own two feet,” said the Polish Minister for Family and Social Affairs.
‘My father is still there, my two brothers and my oldest sister’
Some have found their way in Poland, such as 19-year-old Yulianna Sofia, her mother Uljana (42) and her two younger sisters (13 and 6). They go up and down to Lviv via Przemyśl to get personal documents so that Joelianna can continue her studies in German at a Polish university. In Lviv Uljana was a teacher at a playgroup, in Poland she works as a cleaning lady. They sleep with an aunt in Warsaw.
The hardest part is being separated from their family who are still in Ukraine, says Joelianna. ‘My father is still there, my two brothers and my oldest sister. And my grandmother. She doesn’t want to leave. It was my idea to go to Poland, for the safety of my sisters.’ Lviv is safe now, she thinks. ‘Of course you never know. But when the war is over, we’ll all go home.’
Home has a great attraction, also on the 32-year-old Ovchinnikova, who misses Ukraine so much. When she saw Warsaw from the plane, her heart skipped a beat. “A little closer again.” She fled to Canada because she used to study there, but found it hard to bear. “For Canadians, Ukraine is a long way off. People just went on with their lives there. I found that very difficult. I saw the images from Boetsja. I lived nearby for six years. When I close my eyes now, I see it before me, like a horror movie.’
The characteristic blue Ukrainian night train pulls into the station, people board. Some still have a conversation through the folding windows of the compartments with friends and family who remain in Poland. An elderly man with a mustache draws a heart in the dirt on the compartment window. Ovchinnikova can go without a ticket and is overjoyed. She is not afraid, she says. ‘How can I be afraid? I’m Ukrainian.’