Unlikely volunteers step up for Ukrainians fleeing the war

WARSAW, Poland — Johnathon Vsetecka said he has been running on pure adrenaline since Russia mounted its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last week.

Until late last month, Mr. Vsetecka, an American Fulbright scholar studying in Kyiv, spent most of his waking hours poring over Soviet-era archives researching Ukraine’s 1930s famine as part of his Ph.D. thesis at Michigan State University.

But since the invasion, research has taken a back seat for Mr. Vsetecka and his fellow scholars, who are now working day and night to help strangers escape the war.

“I would say it’s all fight right now,” Mr. Vsetecka said. “No one’s sleeping.” 

Mr. Vsetecka was among the thousands of Americans warned to leave late last month amid U.S. intelligence predictions of an imminent attack by Russian forces amassed along its borders. He admits he is still finding his way around Warsaw — bouncing between temporary living accommodations while throwing himself into the war relief effort.

As the war in Ukraine approaches its second week, fierce fighting throughout the country has created a humanitarian crisis throughout the region. More than 500,000 refugees have fled Ukraine according to U.N. figures announced Monday.

Lines to get across the border in neighboring states like Romania, Poland, Hungary, Moldova and Slovakia have backed up for miles.

Mr. Vsetecka said some have waited in a line of cars for days to cross into Poland, where more than 200,000 people have sought refuge since the invasion.

Like many of the countries bordering Ukraine, Poland has committed to opening its doors to all those fleeing the war.

Poland’s Ministry of Interior and Administration has opened additional reception points along its border, and the head of the Polish border guard has promised that “all refugees from Ukraine who need help will find it in Poland.”

Private citizens, too, have stepped up to help those fleeing and to provide aid to Ukrainians that have stayed behind to fight in the war. Over the weekend, the Polish government launched a website to coordinate private aid such as clothing, food, and hygiene products.

Mr. Vsetecka said he is among a growing number of volunteers that have taken to social media to disseminate up-to-date information to those attempting to flee.

“I’m getting messages just nonstop,” he said. “It’s really overwhelming.”

He said he has built a network with other scholars across the globe who have also reinvented themselves as full-time humanitarian coordinators and facilitators on social media in recent days.

“Everyone’s checking Twitter and Facebook now for updates,” he said. “So, the more that we’re tweeting verified information on Twitter, we’re breaking the algorithms which means that they will see the information faster.”

Coordinators and facilitators

Turning to his online network, Mr. Vsetecka said he has been able to coordinate rides from Poland’s border checkpoints into Warsaw and help families find accommodations once they are here.

“This is a human thing,” he said. “They need to be able to live with dignity. They are getting [stripped] of that in Ukraine right now.”

He said he has also turned to social media to coordinate supplies such as walkie-talkies and tourniquets for Ukrainians that have stayed behind to defend their homeland.

Before he left, he recalled, many in Ukraine weren’t worried about an invasion. Although they were keenly aware of the monthslong buildup of troops, he said they had become somewhat desensitized to the steady flow of alerts amid the eight-year standoff with separatist forces near its border with Russia.

“I would say that was the first moment where Ukrainians kind of turned their head a little bit,” he said. “I think they started to wonder what’s going on. But even after we left, people were still like ‘I’m fine. Everything will be OK.’”

As the fighting commences, he was given just days to pack and chose to settle in Warsaw rather than go back to Michigan in the hopes that he would be able to continue his research under the Fulbright grant.

But he said he also knows of several Americans who stayed behind. One of his best friends, an American working in Kyiv as an optometrist and election observer, decided to stay with his wife and their newborn baby.

“They’re still not across the border yet,” he said. “They are in tow with a one-month-old in bomb shelters and closets and in the places they’re staying [while] trying to get here.”

The war has taken its toll on Mr. Vsetecka. He has seen videos posted online of smoke billowing from his neighborhood in Kyiv and wondered if his neighbors were safe. He fears that the humanitarian crisis will only worsen, but says he can’t imagine returning to the U.S. without doing his part.

“A lot of us are too invested,” he said. “The Fulbright program is based on relationships. We have family and friends in Ukraine, people that have become my Ukrainian family. And I can’t just walk away.”