Day 30
Europe's refugee crisis shifts: long-term housing, money, food. Bureaucratic nightmare continues. Putin's anti cancel culture tirade. Medvedev vs Poland. Covid in China London oligarch pity party.
I never take pictures. Only of dogs and cats. Today was an exception. I met this couple, a grandmother and grandfather from Chernihiv, in Vienna’s main train station yesterday. They were just standing there, in the middle of the main hall, their well worn bags at their feet. I asked if they needed help. We talked a bit. They decided to continue onto Tirol today, hoping it might be better there (faster access to long term housing) than in Vienna. We got tickets to Innsbruck, I walked them to a nearby hotel for the night, explained about food, where to change money, and gave a little cash, promising to pick them up at 8am this morning for their train. They were exhausted yesterday. Hadn’t slept in 3 days. The husband (we spoke for hours but I forgot to ask his first name — that is how tired I am) talked of the horrors he saw the Russians commit before they fled: strip civilians down for clothing, rob, kill, park military equipment next to private homes for “protection” from attack.
“The bus in front of us got shot up”, he said, as we walked to a nearby motel from the station.
Galina (I remember her name because I filled out the hotel form using her passport) didn’t talk much. Yesterday she was crying. Today the tears had stopped. Today she asked about news from the war. Twice. I gave her an update as to the field positions (“Russians pushed back by several dozen kilometres east of Kyiv”) and the Kremlin gossip (“Shoigu hasn’t been seen in public in 12 days!”). She nodded and listened.
Her husband had served in the Soviet army as a military prosecutor. He told me about the four and a half years he served in Dresden, East Germany. He talked about all the jokes the westerners had about the Soviets: their backwards cars and backwards toilets. He said it was a mistake Ukraine gave up its nukes, for nothing. “We should have demanded NATO membership in return!”. He said everyone will now go hungry “Ukraine feeds all of Russia and then some!”. He spoke with huge praise for Ukraine’s army “Our boys know how to fight, we have Cossack blood!”. He tried to give me back the €20 I had given him yesterday. I asked him to keep it for a rainy day. He agreed, grudgingly.
When the big train arrived, Budapest - Zurich, I hurried to get them to the right car. Galina walks very slowly, in fluffy crocs, she uses a cane and has a titanium rod in her leg from last year. They are both eager to get their third vaccination “we would have gotten it on April 1…”. I handed them a bag with a thermos of tea and a homemade snack for the train. I made them Jause alongside my kids’ lunchboxes this morning. I boiled eggs thinking of what my Mama Olya always said — eggs are the best food for a long journey. I sliced up little cucumbers and added some baby tomatoes. I made tortilla sandwiches and felt stupid for not having real bread at home. My home food inventory is always working on a need-to-buy basis. Stocking up is not my speciality.
I sent their photo to a contact in Innsbruck, a young Ukrainian woman I only know online, who promised another volunteer would meet them this afternoon on the platform. I haven’t heard anything yet. I hope they arrived safely and will be well taken care of in Tirol. They don’t have a phone.
The rest of my morning was a blur of figuring out new bureaucracy and trying to answer questions which have no good answers. I helped book train tickets to Switzerland and France, got vouchers from the charity on site so those people travelling onwards could eat in the cafeteria today. It is now closed by the charity to any other type of Ukrainian. All others are told to seek out other charity kitchens, spread across the city and operating on different days/times.
Everything is designed to be as difficult as possible so as god forbid anyone get anything for free who might not deserve it.
I wrote a whole thread here about what is and isn’t working. I am very worried about lack of access to long-term housing, lack of perspective on getting a job (because no address), lack of money, lack of food. I am very worried about this. Most women and children did not arrive from Ukraine with savings they can live on for weeks and months at European prices.
I am now spending hours just trying to find some kind of lead to house two groups of people: one mom and 2 kids and another group with 2 moms and 2 kids. Another volunteer is trying to coordinate, too. All sorts of messages trying to mix and match. Austrians tell me they have registered with official charities that they are willing to host Ukrainians in their homes but no one is calling them. Ukrainians are growing more desperate and don’t know what to do.
And now the charity, Caritas, operating the daytime free cafeteria on the train station is only allowing Ukrainians with train tickets for that day to eat. They are turning others away. I cannot understand it.
I know there are capacity constraints, but to turn away vulnerable people and give them a flyer with a list of other addresses all across the city with variable days/times of opening is just….not ok (ditto for a list of places where you can get cheap groceries but only M-F and today is F).
Not ok when so much money has been raised in this country and so little of it is actually apparently trickling down to the Ukrainians the funds were raised to help. I am fully aware that by writing this the next step will probably be someone will tell me my volunteer services aka Russian language skills are no longer welcome but I am fed up and I think the public has a right to know.
After money and food, the next big issue is housing:
I have been texting for hours and solved nothing so far. It is all so frustrating. Other kind souls are also trying but it is an uphill battle. I am hoping this might just be the worst and now that attention has been drawn things may start to slowly improve. Maybe. Meanwhile the official Austrian job board is absolutely trolling with this post:
I met a young mom from Kyiv who looked really exhausted with two kids, aged 3 and 5. One child has a tooth infection, they wait for a dentist on Monday. I put them in a hotel until then, but I think they will end up going to the “welcome center” and entering into the giant flow of people if nothing comes up before then. She has already been a hospital, got antibiotics for the child with the infected tooth. Mom said her money ran out, she had been at a hotel. I don’t know. I gave them a motel until Monday and a little money for food, and sent all the contact info on how to see/call doctors in the meantime. It all feels really precarious.
In broader news, Putin apparently went on an anti-cancel culture rant this afternoon, but I didn’t hear it.
It is really unbelievable how everyone truly terrible rallies in support of JK Rowling. For the record I never read a single Harry Potter book. Not my cup of tea, but my older kids liked them. My youngest remains firmly allergic to reading anything in any language, but she does sometimes read this Substack, ironically.
Zelensky to Orban, spot on (English subtitles):
Very, very disturbing (I could not watch this in its entirety now) but very, very important and brave reporting from Kharkiv:
Historian Timothy Snyder on Medvedev’s personal attack on Poland:
Finally, I remain fascinated by how China will deal with zero covid’s failure to work against Omicron. A really interesting read:
Ah yes, I almost forgot! London oligarch pity party via FT. Please tell me this person has been cancelled by now?
In closing, it feels like a lull but not that this horror will be over anytime soon. I agree with these comments by another astute observer:
Thank you so much for reading. I will try to write this weekend; I may combine and do a single, longer Sunday edition. I can feel the burn out coming and I don’t want to let it get so bad I completely collapse. Thank you for all your support and encouragement from afar. It keeps me going even when things on the ground feel very frustrating at times.
In short, this does not surprise me:
"I am fully aware that by writing this the next step will probably be someone will tell me my volunteer services aka Russian language skills are no longer welcome but I am fed up and I think the public has a right to know."
I cannot see this happening; the overall situation is a PR nightmare for the Austrian government. From what I am observing, they have almost zero visibility in the U.S. media. There is going to be a shake-up of the European order post conflict; the Biden administration will be interested in shoring up the allies; if I was advising the government, I would be saying they need to do all they can for the refugees and talk as much about their successes.
"I can feel the burn out coming and I don’t want to let it get so bad I completely collapse." Take care of yourself Tanja.
--christopher