The easy times are behind us, but we are not giving up

Agnieszka, the coordinator of the largest aid centre still functioning in Krakow, poses with some recently donated food for refugees. “We see that private persons help us less now than they did in the beginning of the war. We also know that their resources have dried up,” she says.

In the same tweet, Marczuk estimated that by the end of 2022 Poland had hosted 950,000 Ukrainian refugees. The majority of them (90 per cent) were women and children, and around six per cent were people with disabilities.

The toll of the crisis

The above information is based on official data obtained from the Polish state database. As such, it most likely does not fully reflect either the full scale of war migration or the real range of private assistance that was offered by Poles to Ukrainians who had escaped from the Russian aggression and found refuge in the country. In both cases, we are talking about phenomena that are not always captured by official statistics, even though they do take place and have a significant impact on the reality on the ground. Equally importantly, these data, even though praiseworthy when it comes to Polish support to Ukraine, do not tell us much about the challenges that we are to face in 2023, which as we already know will most likely be more difficult than 2022. This is true both for Poland and Ukraine. 

As of now, we know that the current Polish government is already preparing for the parliamentary elections which are planned for the autumn. For that reason, it will be carefully monitoring social moods and popular preferences, also in regards to Ukrainian migrants. In this context we have started seeing a (still slight) decline in support towards the refugees who are increasingly becoming victims of the discontent that Polish society is experiencing due to the worsening economic situation. Compared to other states, inflation has hurt Poland particularly bad. In autumn 2022 it reached a whopping 17 to 18 per cent. The forecast for 2023 is even more gruesome, with a 25 per cent increase forecasted to start in February. Yet, neither the worsening of the economic situation nor the prospect of another difficult year, which is now feared by the majority of Polish households, have changed the overall attitude of Polish society towards the war as such. On the contrary, the trend here is stable, and the hearts and minds of the Polish people are on the Ukrainian side. Russia does not cease to be seen as an aggressor and a threat.

Since the autumn of 2022 we have started to see a change in government decisions. This entails a redirection of Polish assistance from that offered to refugees who relocated to Poland towards that offered directly in Ukraine. One example of this new development can be seen regarding the so-called “module homes”, which since May 2022 Polish firms have built in many places in Ukraine, including Bucha. The goal is to help as many people as possible to stay in Ukraine and provide them with decent enough conditions to survive until the end of the war.

The story about Poland and the Poles is never complete if we limit it to statistical data and government decisions (no matter of which provenance). Poles often surprise the world, breaking the image that is built about them in the West and in western media. The same thing happened in the beginning of this phase of the war when – against the earlier anti-refugee sentiment (be it in 2015 or in 2021 when a humanitarian crisis started at the Polish-Belarusian border) – they started to help, en masse, the war refugees who fled from Ukraine. However, while the assistance that Poland offered alongside the opening of the borders to a large number of refugees has significantly improved the image of today’s Poland abroad, we cannot use this image to interpret the current situation in Poland, which is both complex and changing. And it will continue to be like this in the coming months. I can see it in my own hometown, Kraków, which is the third city in Poland with the largest number of Ukrainian refugees.

The needs remain

To capture the dynamics of these changes I met with the coordinator of an aid station located in Kraków at 54 Łagiewnicka Street. Local volunteers call it “Łagiewnicka” for short.  The station is one of the places where since the beginning of the current stage of the war material assistance in the form of clothes, blankets, cosmetics and personal hygiene items have been offered to Ukrainian refugees. Operated by a foundation called “Good always returns”, it is now one of the few places in Kraków where aid is offered daily and without limits.

Agnieszka, who earlier coordinated a women and children’s shelter also here in Kraków, joined Łagiewnicka in June 2022 and started to organise and oversee assistance here and in Ukraine. She also helps one of the most well-known informal assistance initiatives in Poland, called “Soup for Ukraine”. Its volunteers encourage Kraków residents to cook and can their own soup for refugees, which is distributed among the needy. In the spring of 2022 soup from Kraków was sent to Ukraine, to the frontline and humanitarian organisations. It was even distributed in Bucha, soon after it had been liberated by the Ukrainian forces.  

What is the situation like now, as compared to how it was in February and March 2022? I asked Agnieszka this question as we met. “In the beginning of the war we had almost everything. Donations were flowing in, like mountain springs,” she responds. “People were coming to us out of the goodness of their hearts and the wealth of their closets and wallets. Now, after months, these resources have almost entirely dried up. That is why if I myself do not reach out and find things, or get in touch with people with whom I worked before, or somebody would not call me, then we would not be able to offer the help that the refugees still need.”

The biggest shortages are seen in basic hygiene products and cleaning supplies, but even warm clothes and blankets are more and more sought after as well as small household appliances. There is also a huge demand for medical equipment and supplies, especially for seniors, children and the disabled. A similar situation is reported by other aid stations, including those that back in July would refuse donations because they had no room left in the warehouses to store them. Those were indeed times when donations and volunteers were almost outnumbering the refugees; but not anymore.

New wave?

Now, when I browse through Polish Facebook, I can see that the determination to provide help has diminished, despite the ongoing difficulties in Ukraine. Thus, volunteers from time to time continue to make emotional posts about empty shelves, shortages of soup, or the need for women’s cosmetics, tampons and pads. These posts are often complemented by powerful graphics produced with their authors’ artistic imagination.

Wondering whether Poles are still responding to such calls, I ask Agnieszka why she does that. “Of course we can see that private persons help us less now than they did in the beginning of the war. We also know that their resources have dried up, but at the same time our needs have not declined. Now, with the new refugee wave they have actually increased.”  

I ask Agnieszka if there is a new refugee wave, having in mind the words of a Polish minister who not that long ago stated that the increased movement and longer lines at the Polish-Ukrainian border were the result of holiday traffic. Yet Agnieszka confirms that she has been seeing a larger number of refugees since at least October, that is from the moment when Russia started its massive attacks on critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. In her view, the number of people who have come to Poland is large, even if they are not as visible as before.  

Indeed, a visit to the train station, which back in June 2022 was still full of refugees and volunteers, does not show any great sign of a new wave. “Of course we saw the biggest number of refugees right after the invasion,” Agnieszka explains. “Then we also adequately responded to their needs. Now, many people are joining their families or friends who have already settled down here in Poland. Only very few seek accommodation in public shelters.”  

Housing woes

Housing is certainly the greatest challenge that Ukrainian refugees face in Poland. In large cities rental costs are a nightmare for a majority of tenants. The market is highly competitive and the demand exceeds the number of places offered. Government housing programmes are few and far between and have generated frustration, especially among young people. This issue is also felt by the people and institutions who hosted the refugees. The modest sum of 40 zlotys (nine euros) they received for each refugee for each day was granted only to the hosts and for a limited time. Once it had passed, many refugees lost their place to live and had to find a place in an increasingly more brutal rental market.

That is why even though – as the data presented by the earlier quote suggests – between 60 and 70 per cent of Ukrainian refugees already work in Poland, they do not stop accepting material help from places such as Łagiewnicka.

“I often see Facebook posts written by Ukrainian refugees who are looking for a new place to live, because they had to vacate the place where they had lived after the time of state help had expired,” Agnieszka says. “After speaking with those who come here, I have learnt that even if someone has a job and income, after paying rent and utilities they do not have much left to live on. Remember that in these refugee families there are many dependents: children, elderly parents, or disabled family members. Our speedy inflation does not allow them to make ends meet. That is why they will keep coming here.”

At the end of our meeting, I asked what is the future of such places and initiatives as “Łagiewnicka” and “Soup for Ukraine”. Agnieszka gives me a simple but straightforward answer: “The easy times are behind us, but we are not giving up.” That is why projects like the one she coordinates are looking for help also outside Poland and increasingly more often reaching out to European partners. Seemingly, their resources are still larger and it is in them that the Polish volunteers now put a lot of hope.

Iwona Reichardt is the deputy editor in chief of New Eastern Europe.

Poland, Polish aid, Ukraine, Ukrainian refugees, War