PRZEMYSL, Poland — Two years into Russia’s war on Ukraine, funds are drying up for Ukrainian refugees going across Poland’s border as the only shelters available are on the verge of closing their doors.
In February 2022, Przemysl was one of the top hotspots for international media and volunteers as up to 30,000 Ukrainians arrived at the train station every day. American and other international volunteers set up tents with food, shelter, medicine and transport at the border crossing in neighboring Medyka.
However, the number of volunteers dwindled over several months. The largest shelter, which was operated out of a Tesco building, closed its doors last year.
The throng of international support has been replaced by bleak, empty fields. Transport is no longer free, and Ukrainians are only met with three booths offering free SIM cards.
Ukrainian House, one of the only remaining organizations offering shelter in the border region, has a budget that only extends until Feb. 29, director Katarzyna Komar-Macynska told The Post.
The organization is funded by several NGOs, but the funds are contracted until just days after the two-year mark of the war. After that, the only support that Ukrainians receive in one of the most important border cities for refugees may be over.
“We don’t know how long our donors and partners will continue to support us in the long run, because we know that other crises are taking place in the world right now,” Komar-Macynska said.
Ukrainian House offers two shelters in the border city and a free information center at the train station. They also offer Polish lessons and information about work, transport and housing.
Komar-Macynska, who has been with the organization since 2018, says they don’t need more bodies as the volunteer process has become more streamlined over the past two years.
But funding to support the up to 3,000 refugees who arrive daily at the central train station is dire.
“Our goal is to secure funds at least until the end of 2024,” she said.
What happens after February? She put her hands up in question.
“We hope, but …” Komar-Macynska said, indicating she doesn’t know what will happen with the refugees if they are forced to shut down.
Shelter coordinator Eva Polkovska said the short-term 48-hour shelter offered by Ukrainian House has been operating since September of 2022 and has helped up to 1,500 people during that time.
Oleksandr Tereletskiy and his wife Irina had just arrived at the Ukrainian House shelter hours before The Post spoke to them, having made the journey to Przemysl from a village near Nikopol, Ukraine.
Irina said they could hear how Nikopol was bombed “from morning till dusk every day,” how rockets flew over their village and landed near their house.
“Our windows were shaking [from the bombs.] Shrapnel was going into the gardens,” she said. “It was scary. You don’t want to hear that anymore.”
They got their international passports in order, gathered enough money to make it to Poland in hopes of. continuing on to Germany, where they say they could find work.
Stateside, American organizations and volunteers are also facing hurdles in acquiring funds.
Razom, a large pro-Ukraine organization headquartered in NYC, experienced a record boom of donations in the early months of 2022, the organization’s CEO, Dora Chomiak, said.
As 2023 draws to a close and Ukraine is slipping out of the news cycle, the non-profit is finding new ways to target donors.
The organization went from an annual expenditure of $200,000 to spending $60 million in 2022.
“We went viral,” Chomiak began, saying it took Razom eight years to get 3,900 donors — and it now has more than 220,000 donors.
“Now that kind of anomaly has tapered off. And I think now people see the quality of the work and the impact of our work. And if we invite people to participate by donating, people do respond, but not at the same. You know, levels [like] 2022.”
