In Warsaw, reception centers have opened their doors to Ukrainian refugees since the beginning of the Russian invasion. The Polish capital was an example of solidarity and offered accommodation in every corner of the city: municipal buildings, hotels and sports centers have become a safe place for thousands of refugees.
The private sector has also played its part, freeing up thousands of offices. The Norwegian Refugee Council and the Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy (Wosp, Great Christmas Charity Orchestra), one of the largest charities in the country, have built a state-of-the-art temporary shelter in the Warsaw East Railway Station.
Not only. The city, in agreement with the European Union, has granted Ukrainian citizens a temporary status similar to that of Polish citizens: in this way they enjoy free access to health care and education – hospitals and clinics are already providing health of many refugees, and 40 Ukrainian babies have already been born since 24 February.
“We knew the war was coming, but we didn’t expect millions of people displaced in the first month alone: we didn’t expect such a tragedy,” said Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.
In an article published in The Economist – which is an appeal to Europe, the West and the entire international community – Trzaskowski recounts the horror seen in recent weeks, and the counterpart represented by the hope that his city is offering to many Ukrainians. .
In the first month since the beginning of the conflict, the population of Warsaw increased by 17%, with peaks of 30 thousand new people per day. “We have to remember that most of what we are doing in Poland is improvised. I had to call the mayors of other Polish and European cities for help, ”writes Trzaskowski. Because no city can be prepared for such an influx of new inhabitants. Not even a European capital.
In Warsaw railway stations, signs have been posted to direct people to other centers where there is still some space to welcome and cater for new arrivals: “The big cities in Poland are already overcrowded, don’t be afraid to go to the smaller cities: they are peaceful, have food, infrastructure and are well equipped, ”it reads.
Poland suddenly became the country with the second largest refugee population in the world, welcoming nearly 3 million people. She has been extraordinarily generous with refugees despite a government, led by Mateusz Morawiecki of the populist Law and Justice party, which has always been openly hostile towards migrants.
There is a clear geographical reason that prompted, or forced Poland to welcome so many Ukrainians fleeing the war. Ukraine is close and Poland is the largest country, excluding Russia.
But not only. “An obvious answer is found in the race and religion of those fleeing the war: identity matters here,” writes Amanda Taub in The Interpreter of the New York Times. In the past, the migrants who passed through or wanted to enter Poland were mainly Middle Eastern Muslims. Polish right-wingers built their political fortunes by fomenting hostility against them, telling their constituents that Muslim immigrants would threaten Polish identity and culture.
Ukrainians, Europeans, whites, non-Muslims, do not correspond to the profile that for years has been demonized through prejudice and defense of identity.
“However, the most significant factor in Poland’s welcoming attitude towards refugees is that helping them means helping Ukraine in the fight against Putin. And for many in Poland, this is self-defense, ”reads the New York Times. It is a discourse that concerns Poland’s perception of the Russian threat: solidarity that is linked to an idea of freedom and defense from Moscow.
But this kind of aid to Ukrainian refugees could prove ephemeral, fragile. If the conflict lasts for a long time – as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg suggested last week – Polish solidarity could crumble in the face of other domestic political issues.
There has been a dynamic of this kind in Turkey with Syrian refugees: Ankara was initially very welcoming to Syrians, and then gradually realized they would stay there for the long term and mitigated its response.
The welfare system and the resources used for the new inhabitants of Polish cities is a cost to the coffers of the municipalities and the country. In Warsaw, Ukrainian citizens have had access to free education and free health care in Poland, and 15,000 Ukrainian children are already attending the city’s schools, another 80,000 are awaiting registration, and the city’s public officials are working to register more. 300,000 people in Polish social services programs. Mayor Trzaskowski called it a great financial challenge.
The other cities of the country do their part. A couple of weeks after the invasion began, the mayor of Krakow, Jacek Majchrowski, said that his city was also reaching its maximum reception capacity, at around 100,000 people. In the main train station, two large tents have been installed that serve hot food and offer sleeping mats.
Przemyśl, in the south-east of the country, less than 16 thousand kilometers from the Ukrainian border, is the city most crossed by Ukrainians. Mayor Wojciech Bukan a few weeks ago publicly accused the leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, in his presence, waving a shirt with Putin’s face in front of his eyes.
As Matteo Salvini visits the Poland-Ukraine border, the mayor of Przemysl shows him the Putin-admiring T-shirt he proudly wore in Moscow. Not so simple for a leopard to change its spots. pic.twitter.com/beehtKTS3h
– Mark Lowen (@marklowen) March 8, 2022
About 350,000 people have arrived in Przemyśl since February 24, in a city with a population of around 60,000.
Restaurants feed refugees instead of regulars. School gyms are now a dormitory. The local newspaper is raising funds for psychological support for Ukrainian and Polish children traumatized by the war.
The New York Times published a long report from the city by Monika Pronczuk and Jeffrey Gettleman: “Here all the possible needs of people fleeing Russian bombs have been considered, even taking care of their pets.”
A generosity that clashes with the complicated and violent history of Przemyśl. During the Second World War, the Nazis and the Soviets took turns invading the city. The San River that flows through the city was the boundary between the two areas of influence. Towards the end of the war, when the peoples seemed to drift apart, a conflict between Ukrainians and Poles erupted, with great bloodshed.
But since February 24 this city seems to have made a decision of great value: «Like much of Poland itself, Przemyśl sees the struggle in Ukraine almost as its own battle, and has welcomed Ukrainian refugees with a wave of support, scoring a touching reset in the long and complex conflict between peoples ”, reads the reportages.
Mayor Wojciech Bakun himself in the past co-founded a nationalist and populist party, also accused of spreading fake news anti-Ukrainian. But he has always been on the front line ever since Russian tanks started heading for Kiev.
“For centuries, Ukrainians have played an important role in shaping the city’s multicultural heritage. A sizeable ethnic Ukrainian community has lived here for decades and today numbers around 2,000 people. Relations between them and the Polish ethnicity have steadily improved. But when there are problems in Ukraine, problems can erupt here too », write Monika Pronczuk and Jeffrey Gettleman in the New York Times.
The reception of the Ukrainian cities has been extraordinary in these seven weeks, as were the circumstances and the needs. From Warsaw to Przemysl, via Krakow, mayors, public institutions, citizens and private companies are doing their best to help plug the wound.
«The Ukrainians are fighting not only for their freedom – concluded the mayor of Warsaw Trzaskowski in his appeal – they are also fighting for our freedom, our values and the stability of transatlantic institutions. During World War II, Hitler tried to wipe Warsaw off the European map and the city was reduced to rubble by the Nazis. Then she rose like a phoenix from her own ashes. Kharkiv, Mariupol, Kherson and other Ukrainian cities were sentenced to death by Vladimir Putin. More than many others in the world we understand what it means to fight, persevere and rebuild for the future. We need to help the Ukrainians fight and then rebuild their future. But we can’t do it alone ».
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