In Przemysl, a city on the Polish side of the border with Ukraine, the refugee crisis is bringing the people of the two nations together.

In Przemysl, a city on the Polish side of the border with Ukraine, the refugee crisis is bringing the people of the two nations together.

“You see, he saw the priest,” says Fr Marek Machala, pointing to his dog collar, as a policeman waves his car past a checkpoint. We turn into Medyka, a key border crossing point between Poland and Ukraine. We join a car park full of number plates reading like a list of EU members: Estonia, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain. The civilian response to the humanitarian crisis that has transformed Poland’s south-eastern region into a giant refugee reception centre has reached every part of Europe.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces into Ukraine on 24 February, the devastation of war rapidly boiled over its border. Millions of people are arriving in neighbouring countries to the west, such as Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Moldova and, in particular, Poland. According to the UN, Poland has received more than 1.7 million of the 2.8 million people who have fled Ukraine because of the invasion.

Women, children and the elderly have had to say goodbye to husbands, fathers, sons and brothers; all men aged between 18 and 60 have been ordered to remain in Ukraine. Travelling for days in the bitter cold by bus, train, car or foot, towing luggage and pets, they have been greeted with boundless generosity in Poland.

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