From Reuters:
“The underground networks of
Russians helping Ukrainian refugees”
(Maria Belkina and her partner
Kirill Zhivoi, co-founders of Volunteers Tbilisi, a group which helps refugees
from Ukraine, stick a sign with the Ukrainian flag onto a vehicle in Tbilisi,
Georgia April 15, 2022.)
Ukrainian refugees who
reluctantly find themselves under Moscow’s rule are receiving help from an
unlikely quarter: networks of Russian volunteers helping those displaced by the
war to leave Russia. When Bogdan Goncharov, his wife and 7-year-old daughter
fled the shelling in their hometown of Mariupol in mid-March, they ended up in
Russian-controlled territory in south eastern Ukraine. Fearful of being
transported thousands of kilometres away after hearing other refugees were sent
to Siberia, Goncharov said he contacted a Russian volunteer who arranged
transport for them across Russia to the Estonian border. "It's a miracle
we got out," said 26-year old Goncharov, who worked as a builder before
the war and is now starting a new life in Sweden. "It's thanks to the
volunteers." For uprooted Ukrainians like Goncharov who don’t want to
remain in Russia or Russian-controlled territory, the volunteers provide advice
on travel routes as well as help with money, transport and accommodation along
the way, according to nine people who are involved in the loose-knit networks
or have received help from them.
Many of the networks are run by
Russians or people of Russian origin, according to four of the people, who are
involved in the networks. Three of them said while most of the volunteers are
based abroad, there are also some Russian nationals who are still in their
homeland, and many of those work clandestinely to avoid the attention of
Russian authorities. It represents one of the ways that ordinary Russians who
are upset by the devastation caused by the war can express how they feel at a
time when domestic laws effectively restrict the ability of people in Russia to
openly criticise the military, several individuals interviewed by Reuters said.
There is no law in Russia that specifically bans people from helping Ukrainians
leave the country. There is legislation related to non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) that gives the government the power to deny registration
if it deems they are engaged in activities harmful to Russia’s interests.
Russian law also requires NGOs that receive foreign funding and are considered
to carry out political activities to submit to additional scrutiny. “We all
have this constant feeling of guilt," said 20-year old Maria Belkina, a
Russian native living in Georgia who runs a group that she says has helped
around 300 Ukrainians exit Russia. The group, called Volunteers Tbilisi, also
provides humanitarian aid for Ukrainian refugees in Georgia. “Many people from
Russia are writing and asking: ‘In what way can I help?’” she said.
Reuters spoke to two other
volunteer groups that each said they had helped a thousand or more Ukrainians
leave Russia since the conflict began; the news agency wasn’t able to
independently confirm the figures. All three groups said many of those they
have helped resettle have come from Mariupol, a strategic port city in eastern
Ukraine that has endured among the most destructive sieges of the war. The
Kremlin and Russia’s emergencies ministry, which deals with refugees, did not
respond to requests for comment on the treatment of Ukrainian refugees, the
volunteer networks helping them leave the country and how the Russian
authorities view their activities. The Ukrainian government didn’t respond to a
request for comment on the work of the volunteers.
The activities of the volunteers
carry risk. Russians who openly disagree with the war have faced fines and
prosecutions, according to interviews and an organisation that tracks police
action against political activists. One Russian woman who had helped dozens of
Ukrainians leave Russia via the border with Estonia stopped after she was
summoned by police for questioning, according to two fellow volunteers. They
said she was held for several hours without access to a lawyer, adding they did
not know what police questioned her about. The woman, Irina Gurskaya, has not
been charged according to one of the people, Svetlana Vodolazskaya, who
coordinates the network she volunteered with. That group, called “Rubikus,” has
helped about 1,500 Ukrainians leave Russia, said Vodolazskaya, a Russian native
who lives in Britain. Gurskaya didn’t respond to a request for comment, nor did
the Kremlin. The police in the Penza region where she lives couldn’t be reached
for comment.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24
in what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation" to
demilitarise its neighbour. Moscow denies targeting civilians and has said it
is offering humanitarian aid to Ukrainians. Russian President Vladimir Putin
said on April 26 his country had helped up to 140,000 people leave Mariupol.
“They can go wherever they want: some want to go to Russia, some to Ukraine,”
Putin said. “We are not detaining them. We are providing them with all possible
help and support.” Of the more than 13 million Ukrainians that have left their
country or been displaced within Ukraine since the conflict started, some
740,000 had crossed into Russia as of May 6, according to the United Nations.
RUSSIAN NETWORK The
volunteer group that helped Goncharov, called “Helping to Leave,” said it had
provided practical assistance to about 1,000 people to leave Russia. The
Volunteers Tbilisi group said it coordinates with “Helping to Leave.” “Helping
to Leave” is operated by Russians and Russian-speakers based abroad who also
have around 100 people inside Russia helping them that are not members of the
organisation, according to the group. They put Ukrainians up in their homes “so
that they can gather themselves a bit and then we evacuate them from Russia,”
said co-founder Naturiko Miminoshvili, who is based in Tbilisi. The group
arranges accommodation, information on travel routes and assistance booking
trains and buses, said Miminoshvili. She added the group also advises people on
their rights. The group has logged instances where Russian officials pressured
people to travel to locations where they don't want to go or told them that
they are not allowed to leave the officially-provided accommodation, according
to Miminoshvili and a volunteer, who asked to be identified only by her first
name, Anna, citing security concerns. They didn’t specify how many instances
the group had logged. Anna said most of the requests from Ukrainians for help
have come from people fleeing Mariupol, a once-bustling port with a pre-war
population of 400,000. It has experienced heavy bombardment since the early
days of the conflict, with civilians suffering shortages of drinking water and
food. Many of the city’s residents have ended up in Russia or
Russian-controlled territory. Several who spoke to Reuters said that was the
least dangerous way out. The Georgian government didn’t respond to questions
about whether it was aware of the activity of volunteers based within its
borders.
LONG JOURNEY
(Residents of the Ukrainian city
of Mariupol stay at a temporary accommodation centre for evacuees located in
the building of a local sports school in Taganrog in the Rostov region, Russia
March 23, 2022.)
Goncharov said he and his family
decided to leave Mariupol on March 15, after munitions landed near their
apartment building. Electricity and water supplies had already been cut off, he
said. Hitching a ride out of the city with two other families, Goncharov said
they passed through checkpoints manned by Russian soldiers. He and his family
stayed for six days in a hotel in Berdiansk, a Ukrainian city controlled by
Russian forces, then headed to the Russian-annexed peninsula of Crimea,
according to Goncharov. Goncharov said officials billeted the family in a guest
house in the Crimean resort of Yalta and offered help with their immigration
status as well as offering a grant of 10,000 roubles (about $145). He added
that officials also told him he did not have the right to travel anywhere else
without permission, unless he registered for official refugee status. The guest
house, called “Smena,” couldn’t be reached for comment. Goncharov was also
worried that he and his family could be sent to the remote Sakha region in
Siberia, as he’d heard other Ukrainians had from a fellow evacuee. He later
discovered that the day after he left Yalta, about 50 Ukrainians were taken
from there to Taimyr, a peninsula on the Arctic Ocean, according to Goncharov,
who said he heard it from people who were among those transported and that he
knew from Mariupol.
Reuters wasn’t able to verify his
accounts of Ukrainians being transported. The Moscow-backed administration in
Crimea referred questions about that and the other elements of Goncharov’s
account of his time in Yalta to the emergencies ministry in Moscow. The
ministry did not respond to requests for comment, nor did the regional
administrations covering Sakha and Taimyr.While in Yalta, Goncharov said he
contacted an acquaintance in Germany, who put him in touch with Anna, the
volunteer from the “Helping to Leave” group. She instructed him to get to
Rostov, in southern Russia, according to Goncharov. Once there, volunteers
arranged for him and his family to be picked up by a private bus that took them
to the border with Estonia, he said. There, Russian officials questioned
Goncharov about any ties to Ukrainian security forces or law enforcement before
allowing him to enter Estonia, more than three weeks after leaving Mariupol, he
said. Anna confirmed that she had helped Goncharov leave Russia. The Estonian
government didn’t respond to a request for comment about Goncharov’s account
and the activities of the volunteers. Between Feb. 24 and May 10, 19,000
Ukrainians entered Estonia from Russia, according to the Estonian police and
border guards.
‘DEAD SOULS’ In some
instances, help for Ukrainian refugees is ad hoc. Darya Kiriyenkova, a dentist
in St. Petersburg who is not linked to the networks, said she took a week off
work in April to volunteer at an official reception centre for Ukrainian
refugees in Taganrog, a city in south west Russia. She said she’d felt shock at
the war and wanted to help those affected. While at the reception
centre, she said she also helped buy tickets and make travel arrangements for
some refugees wanting to leave Russia. “There were lots of people like that,”
said Kiriyenkova, adding they headed mainly to Estonia, Poland and Germany. She
added some refugees travelled onward to stay with relatives in Russia or went
to Russian destinations allocated by officials. Belkina, who runs the
Volunteers Tbilisi group, was born and raised in Russia - a country she said
she loved but finds it “sad to see how it is now.” In the Georgian capital of
Tbilisi, she and her Ukrainian partner have been providing food and
accommodation for newly-arrived Ukrainian refugees, using the hotel owned by
her parents as a hub. They “are like dead souls,” Belkina said of the
newly-arrived refugees. “When you look at them you see that they are suffering
at the hands of your country.”
^ It’s great to see ordinary
Russians taking it upon themselves to help the Ukrainians. It shows that not
every Russian is a Putin Z Nazi. ^
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.