Queues of people are waiting for checkouts as people gather in front of the stands with meals and hot drinks. All the benches are occupied, and on the floor, both downstairs and upstairs, where there is a waiting room with dozens of mattresses, sleeping bags, and quilts on which people can have a rest. 

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There is also an important number of spontaneous volunteers among the crowd that can be observed in the Warsaw central station. Locals try their best to help the newcomers. They do so in various ways. 

Some people provide the freshly arrived refugees with shelter while others, due for example to a lack of possibility to provide such help, take some refugees home so that they can at least have a shower or a bath after their long and stressful journey. 

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Several Polish mothers had a good idea to leave their strollers in the halls of the central station, in case a Ukrainian woman would need it for her own toddler. Children give some of their toys away to their little peers, who travelled all along from across the border. 

These are just a few examples of the ways Poles organise themselves in support of their endangered neighbours.

Ukrainians arriving in Poland are met with heart-warming hospitality. They are welcomed with open arms by the local population and can observe their national blue and yellow colours on many buildings as a sign of solidarity.  

Image: Twitter @joanna_skladanek

Author: Sbastien Meuwissen