Day 28
How will this all work? How Austria is and isn't coping with Ukrainian refugees who wish to say here. What to read/watch from Ukraine. Is Austria really finally dealing with its Putin problem?
I must have taken this photo years ago after a museum Sunday, back in the days when my kids still wanted to do cultural things with me on weekends. It seemed appropriate even though today is warm and sunny, and it was downright hot managing the line of Ukrainians waiting for a free meal inside the cafeteria which has been set up by a charity in Austria near Vienna’s main train station. I was asked to come in last minute to help for a few hours. Some people are travelling through, leaving luggage for the day (and even one male cat who promised to behave himself in his cage while his owners went in search of a bank where they could change their Ukrainian Hyrvnia for Euros — Erste Bank, maximum €300 per person).
Austria so far is not coping well with the huge number of refugees who have arrived from Ukraine and want to stay here. Registration in Vienna is centralized and essentially not happening. It was closed about ten days ago and then appointments were given to those who arrived first. They are now being processed. Everyone else has been told to wait for a website which has not yet materialised, on which they will book an appointment to register themselves. You cannot simply go to a local police station.
Next, Ukrainians will need to get a residence permit, which they can do if they are lucky enough to have Austrian hosts. If you live in a hostel or hotel, you cannot use this address. As one young woman explained to me just now, “I can’t get a job without an address, and I can’t get an address without a job” — meaning, the need to earn money is first and foremost and yet getting a job will only be possible once Ukrainians register, but registration isn’t open, and even then Ukrainians will have to wait to be issued special blue cards, and how anyone is supposed to survive for months without official income is the question of the hour. In short, this is an enormous crisis waiting to happen once people start running out of the little bit of money they managed to bring with them.
We are told by the charity that the cafeteria is really only for those who are en route, waiting at the train station to continue their journey from Vienna. Of course, I could not turn anyone away. Instead, we hand out flyers of other locations where there might be one day a free meal or a free assortment of groceries, but it looks like a list of churches along the lines of this church is open next Monday from 9-11. On my shift I let everyone in who was standing in line, but I can imagine this too will not be sustainable forever. A permanent solution for thousands of moms and kids who need to eat and start to build lives again it is not.
Now that Austrian hosts are learning how Kafkaesque the process has been until now for registering Ukrainians, the calls for a better, more efficient system with less red tape are growing louder. Finally. There is talk that the people living in the largest hall (Messe Wien) which sleeps I imagine 1000+ on cots are finally being registered on site, but no one knows yet what everyone else from Ukraine living in other locations should do. Wait. Except every day they spend waiting is a day their kids don’t go to school and the moms can’t earn any money. At least not legally.
The charity, Train of Hope, which runs the “welcome center”, the first point of contact for Ukrainian refugees arriving in Vienna who want to stay here, put out an SOS on social media last night. Anyone who knows Austria knows this is a rare occurrence. It illustrates just how bad the situation is. You can read the full text here in German. The alarming headline reads:
Train of hope: failure of the federal government leads to an exceptional situation, without cities and communities there is a risk of being overwhelmed in a few days time. "If we don't want tens of thousands sleeping on the streets or being housed in inhumane quarters, we have to act now!"
Austrians trying to help Ukrainians are now learning what foreigners face who come to Austria and try to build lives. If you read German, read these threads:
In short, it’s a huge mess. I had requests to help 23 people find a place to sleep tonight by 10:30 this morning. I supposedly have 3-4 rooms at a local hotel for two families travelling in two cars from Budapest to Vienna today, but as they don’t have wi-fi in the cars, I have no idea when they will arrive. I will run over to the hotel to pay for them when I get a call. I don’t know them. They had my Telegram nickname from someone in Hungary. I don’t ask questions. I just try and help.
I met today a middle aged man and woman who want to go back to Ukraine. They were abroad when the war started. They asked me if their ticket to the Ukrainian border would be free. I asked which part of Ukraine they were headed to. Dnepropetrovsk oblast, the wife replied. It’s ok, she said, they are only bombing from the Russian side. I showed them the way to the ticket counter.
From Ukraine itself, some incredible journalism from the BBC to recommend.
This radio interview with a woman who just fled Mariupol.
This Panorama broadcast from southern Ukraine.
Sarah Rainsford: a month in Ukraine.
Chilling reporting from Russia by The Moscow Times on the army funerals — the result of the war you still cannot call a war. We must also not forget the power of propaganda when it surrounds you.
This very disturbing synopsis of firsthand accounts from Mariupol:
A very good WSJ op-ed on Ukraine:
I also saw Anne Applebaum wrote a piece about Ukraine’s plan for victory, the argument being you have to imagine something before it can be a reality. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but if you are an Atlantic subscriber perhaps check it out. I do worry it’s premature for such articles but that’s just my cup is always half empty outlook. I’m always worried about jinxing things.
I also really enjoyed this podcast in Russian, an interview with Maksim Samorukov, talking about why it is not really in Russia’s nor Ukraine’s interests to negotiate for peace right now, because both sides believe for their own reasons that time is on their side.
Finally, it feels a tiny bit like Austria is having the beginning of its own public reckoning with its love affair with Putin’s Russia particularly when it came to business ties and, retrospectively, zero political risk management. I wrote a little thread about that here this morning.
Also of interest, OMV’s relatively new CEO on Russia on Austrian TV last night, who seems to be saying the right things but it was really his predecessor who was heavily influenced by Russia, and FT reporting a few days ago Austrian bank Raiffeisen is considering all scenarios for Russia, including a possible total exit.
Although most former Austrian politicians have since Russia attacked Ukraine resigned from their Russian board seats, one has not. She is the woman who infamously danced at her own wedding with Putin (she has since divorced) while she was foreign minister of Austria. She still sits on the Rosneft board and is a columnist for RT. She is reportedly now in exile in the south of France, and Austrian media reported recently on her whining about being a victim. No words for such people but I would add that my Russian friend in the south of France told me Ukrainians have found out the addresses of some Russian villas and well…perhaps south of France won’t be that safe for long. For more background on Russia and Austria, I wrote this in January.
Also of note, both Austria’s social democrats (left of center) and freedom party (far right) have said they do not want Ukraine’s president Zelensky to address Austria’s parliament supposedly because of neutrality. In short, a total disgrace. Another short thread here from last night:
Re neutrality, this in German really sums it up perfectly. Austria always thought, erroneously, one could continue to do business with all sorts of autocrats while maintaining a false illusion of military neutrality. So now Putin’s Russia launched a full-on war against Ukraine, is committing a whole range of war crimes, and a tiny, wealthy, central European nation still thinks it can sit this one out. I would be very cautious with such a false sense of security, not even mentioning that democratic societies are supposed to stand for certain values and defend human rights etc.
I saw this photo yesterday and I must have stopped for a good 5 minutes just to stare at it. One cannot comprehend. One must not comprehend. It is hard not to lose optimism, but I still try, somehow, to say if we just solve one little problem, one at a time, at the end that may be a fairly long list of little problems which wouldn’t have been solved without us, and that’s already a big step in the right direction. But this cannot be on the backs of individuals and volunteers forever. They too will burn out. Ukrainians will run out of funds. This whole situation is very precarious and the only thing I can think to do is keep drawing public attention to it. We must not look away.
Thank you for reading. To my new subscribers, welcome! And thank you.
From Train of Hope-- sadly. "The best interests of the child are far too often ignored," Ertl said." uggh...