Sean Murray: Polish families open their hearts and their homes to scared and worried refugees

'I have a family, I don’t understand how to not help other people,' Joanna Sulkowska said of the Ukrainian families she hosted

'Polish people have been so loving to us,' Svitlana Trachova says of her host. Svitlana is pictured on the left with (l-r) her daughter Lola, and Mykhailo, Anastasia and Olena Trefiokoxa.

Svitlana Trachova left her boyfriend and her mother behind when she fled Kyiv with her daughter on the first day of the war.

Originally from the eastern city of Sumy, they thought they would be safe in the west of the country and would be able to return in a few weeks.

They quickly changed their minds as the Russian offensive persisted.

Like well over a million others, they crossed the border into Poland. For the past week, they and another woman and her teenage children have lived with Joanna Sulkowska, a Polish woman in the town of Przemysl, just 10km west of the border.

When I ask what the support from the Polish people has been like since they crossed the border at Medyka, they laugh and point towards Ms Sulkowska. Ms Trachova makes a hugging gesture and says: 

Polish people have been so loving to us.

They’re not staying in Przemsyl and, despite hoping to return to Kyiv soon, they know it is not a possibility at present.

Ms Trachova and her teenage daughter Lola remain in constant contact with their loved ones, anxious to hear the news each day that they remain safe.  

"We’re very afraid for people back home, Lola said. "Our plan now is to go to Poznan."

Ms Sulkowska said she “couldn’t not help” the Ukrainian people when they began to head to Poland in huge numbers, with her hometown being one of the key border crossings.

On Thursday morning, Krakow’s main train station had hundreds of refugees sleeping in the concourse and the corridors. Makeshift beds were made from blankets. Volunteers went to and fro between the people offering food and other supplies.

Bus loads heading onwards from Przemysl train station. All they have are the wheely bags, rucksacks and whatever else they can carry. pic.twitter.com/EDgnyN0gBT

— Sean Murray (@SeanMJourno) March 10, 2022

Like the thousands of Irish people pledging to house refugees from Ukraine, Polish people are also opening up their homes to Ukrainians.

“I have a family, I don’t understand how to not help other people,” Ms Sulkowska said. “I had to do it. I will cry when they will leave.” 

The three young teenagers staying in the house with their mothers seem to be taking what’s happening in their stride. Laughs still come easily, they crack jokes together. Their mothers, too, are staying positive, or are trying their best to.

The train back to Krakow from Przemysl takes three hours. After speaking to the families just an hour before, I meet them again at the train station.

Sean Murray earlier this week at Medyka, on Ukraine's border with Poland, a country which has taken in an estimated 1.4m of the 2m refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

The families talk of warmly embracing Ms Sulkowska before they left. Their spirit is similar to that of many of the people who have made that onward journey.

There’s a kind of grim resolution to their attitude. Their home is under attack. They know friends who’ve been killed. But they must keep going. They cannot stay where they are.

The two families are going to Poznan even though they don’t have any family there. That’s just where they’ve decided to go.

I give them a wave as I disembark the Warsaw-bound train. Even from there, they have a while to go to their final destination.