More volunteers than refugees: how Romanians mobilised for Ukrainians

A sign offering free transport at the border with Romania. Photo: Marcel Gascón Barberá

Part of this success is owed to the fact that an overwhelming majority of those fleeing Russia’s onslaught on Ukrainian towns and cities only use Romania as a transit country. After spending a couple of nights near the border or in Bucharest, most continue their journey towards Central and Western European countries such as Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy and Spain. Many have relatives and friends in these countries to stay with until the end of the war. Nonetheless, having to provide help on arrival and to accommodate for a few days such a volume of displaced persons is a formidable task. Romania is undertaking it with admirable spirit and efficiency. 

All hands on deck

Thousands of refugees enter the country daily through the border crossing of Siret, which connects the north-eastern Romanian province of Suceava to the Ukrainian oblast of Chernivtsi, in western Ukraine. Dozens of tents and stalls offering toiletries, warm clothes, food and hot beverages are lined up along the first half a kilometre stretch of road in Romanian territory. Some come via cars bearing number plates from nearby Chernivtsi, but also from Kyiv, Vinnytsia and Kharkiv in Ukraine’s East. They are immediately approached by dozens of volunteers, who often overwhelm them with unwanted items that they politely decline before continuing their journey.

Most, however, get into Romania on foot, after having walked several kilometres carrying their heavy luggage in the cold. They trickle in irregularly as the Ukrainian border police open the gates and let small groups in after hours of queuing. Once in Romania, a loose army of firefighters, priests, social workers, gendarmes, NGO volunteers and citizens who have made it to the border help carry the women’s bags to one of the stalls. With the assistance of interpreters from the Ukrainian minority in Romania, they make their plans known to the volunteers, who quickly arrange transportation to temporary lodging facilities provided by the government, churches, businesses or the thousands of individuals who have made themselves available to take in Ukrainians.

“The response of the Romanian people has been absolutely amazing,” professional rescuer Moti Kahana tells New Eastern Europe while working by the Siret crossing. A dual citizen of Israel and the US, Kahana has led audacious rescue missions in war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Through his company GDC, which offers logistical services to NGOs and governments around the globe, he is now partnering with Jewish groups and the Israeli embassy to bring Ukrainians and Israelis to safety.

“Look at this, there’s more people coming to help than actual refugees,” says Kahana, pointing at the swarm of officials and volunteers ready to offer transportation to those arriving or to host them at their own homes. One of his tasks in this crisis is procuring food supplies for the NGOs to hand out at the border. Unlike in some countries, where local companies tried to make money out of the crisis and inflated the prices, Romanian distributors insist on offering discounts. “Many people are refusing to take money for their work,” recounts Kahana. Like virtually everyone else working these days at and near the border, he is full of praise for Romania’s border police. Besides working extra hours, they are doubling up as porters and social workers. In his career, Kahana has often come across corrupt officials and opportunistic politicians looking at humanitarian emergencies as propitious occasions to fill their pockets.

“Politicians, including small-town mayors, come to ask how they can help and offer themselves to take refugees; unlike in countries like Turkey and Jordan, where I have also worked, I have not seen anyone in Romania making money off of the refugees.”

Spontaneous organisation

Not far from where Kahana is working stands Bogdan Nicolae, holding a cardboard sign. The makeshift, handwritten placard reads Bucureşti. Nicolae works as a soldier with the Romanian army. He has driven more than 400 kilometres from the city of Ploiesti and is offering a ride to the capital to any refugee who needs it. “I came by myself so I have space for more people,” he told New Eastern Europe while walking to his car with a Ghanaian student and a young Ukrainian mother with her child who needed a ride to nearby Suceava. Other Romanians have come to help – by handing out basic items and serving hot tea – from far away towns such as Bucharest and Craiova, in the south of the country.

There is no central command running, or even coordinating, these humanitarian operations in Romania. They are, for the most part, happening spontaneously, with officials, refugees and volunteers finding the best solution for each case through word of mouth or on the Facebook groups linking up service providers with those who need them. Not having a plan seems to be the best plan so far. I have not heard of anyone sleeping in the open, or unable to find free transportation to their final destination.

One of the largest temporary shelters for refugees has been set up at the Magnificus ballroom in the city of Suceava, some 40 kilometres south from the Siret border crossing. Hundreds of Ukrainians, many of them with their pets, sleep every day under the mirror disco ball that, just a few days ago, spun at weddings taking place at the venue. Besides a roof to sleep under and a mattress, the owner of the venue, Stefan Mandachi, is offering the refugees food, drinks, hygiene products and even free transportation.

“Romanian drivers and transport companies are offering to take refugees to their destinations free of charge,” says Ioana Samoilescu, a marketing specialist at Stefan Mandachi’s company. “Drivers from Western Europe have also started to arrive, they are crossing the continent twice to bring Ukrainian refugees to their countries,” she added, before asking me to drive to another hotel in central Suceava to pick up a Ukrainian mother with her son. According to a post published on Facebook by Stefan Mandachi, 13,000 refugees had already embarked on free journeys westwards from the parking lot of the Magnificus ballroom in Suceava.

Other refugees have found shelter at Orthodox monasteries near the Romanian border with Ukraine. The mobilisation is also happening online. Apart from international online platforms such as Shelter for Ukraine, refugees in Romania are finding free accommodation on the Facebook group Uniți pentru Ucraina, United for Ukraine in Romanian. Day after day, several Ukrainian women post their requests for an affordable apartment to rent or a place to sleep for the night in cities across Romania. Typically, within a few minutes, locals start posting offers for free accommodation. Some refugees are also looking for jobs to sustain themselves until they can return home, and they are referred to companies that have shown interest in hiring Ukrainians.

One of the group’s most popular posts so far was written on March 19th by Ksenia Tsiganenko, who had arrived in Romania with four other adults and 19 children and had asked on March 7th for a place to stay one night before continuing their trip to Hungary: “I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Romanian people for your generous big heart. Being in your country with children, we were surrounded by love, care and attention. We were provided with an overnight stay, food and everything we needed. We were touched to tears. May God bless you. You are an example to us.”

Chauvinistic response

The only public expressions of hostility towards Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war have come from right wing chauvinistic circles. Nationalist activist and folk musician Nicolae Voiculet posted on Facebook a sketch by comedian-turned-president Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioning Romania’s aspirations regarding the former Romanian region of Chernivtsi, which is now part of Ukraine. Voiculet wrote, “Zelenskyy makes fun of Romania!” He has also criticised Romanians donating money to Ukraine. Zelenskyy’s video has been seen more than 278,000 times on Voiculet’s page. In other posts, the musician falsely claims that the Romanian minority in Ukraine is being subjected to a genocide, and accuses Romanians helping Ukrainians of indifference towards their fellow citizens in need. 

Voiculet interprets Romania’s national anthem at virtually every event organised by the right wing populist party AUR, the fourth largest in the Romanian parliament. AUR’s leaders are being uncharacteristically circumspect in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have centred their messages of solidarity on the Romanian minority of Ukraine. They have accused Kyiv of trampling on their national rights. AUR’s ambiguous position seems to be taking its toll on the party’s support base. After months of unabated growth in the opinion polls, a survey conducted by the research firm INSCOP now shows that the party would receive 18.9 per cent of the national vote, down 3.5 points from the support it enjoyed in February.

Marcel Gascón Barberá is a Spanish freelance journalist based in Bucharest.

refugees, Romania, Ukraine, Ukraine at war