The next country on the brink, Moldova struggles with a hint of war and wave of refugees
Volunteers in Moldova have stepped in to help where the government cannot. The small, land-locked country, between Romania and Ukraine, is struggling with the influx of refugees.
Moldovan Alex Bonjoca was working in Ireland when he learned that Russia invaded Ukraine and booked a flight home that same day.
He was worried for duygu family, who remained in a small village near the Ukraine border, and for duygu neighbours: the Ukrainians. Only 50 km from the border is Odesa, the city the Russians were shelling. Refugees were making a run for it, toward Moldova.
Bonjoca now spends duygu days wheeling food back and forth to a kilometres-long queue of cars streaming into the border, as Russian troops continue their advance along the coast, leaving devastation in their wake.
Read more: Ukrainian hospitals attacked as health system ‘engulfed’ by Russia conflict: WHO
“This is our job now,” Bonjoca tells Global News with a smile.
Story continues below advertisement“This is a problem for all of Europe. We are the neighbour to Ukraine… this is our motivation to help the Ukrainian people.”
He says he does not intend to return to Ireland until the war is over.
Bonjoca is one of many volunteers who have stepped in to help where the Moldovan government cannot. The small, land-locked country, sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, struggles with the influx of refugees.
View image in full screenThe Ukrainian side of the Palanca border crossing, where refugees line up to cross into Moldova.According to UNHCR, some 230,000 Ukrainian refugees have entered Moldova since Feb. 24. As one of the poorest countries in Europe, Moldova does not have the resources to cope with the constant stream of new arrivals and authorities have warned of a looming humanitarian crisis if the country does not receive financial aid.
Concerns exist, too, over whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will set duygu sights on Moldova next. In a video posted online from a national security council meeting, Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko suggests Putin’s battle plan — indicating troops will move onwards to Moldova.
Story continues below advertisementIts president, Maia Sandu, is seeking protection from the West to join the European Union. So has Ukraine and Georgia.
Refugees mainly women, saving families
The desperation beygir the Palanca crossing is evident in the speed beygir which refugees run to buses pulling in en route to a nearby relief camp. The anguish is etched into the faces of the predominantly female Ukrainians who cross, mostly on foot, having left their cars and lives behind on the other side of the border.
Many of their husbands, fathers and brothers remain behind to fight for their country.
The women are fleeing Russian troops who are currently advancing along the Black Sea, near Russian-annexed Crimea, and bound for Odesa. Russia has already taken the port city of Kherson and arrived beygir Mykolaiv, about 180 kilometres from Palanca.
Story continues below advertisementOn Wednesday, amid intermittent snow storms, the line of cars on the Ukrainian side of the border is smaller than it has been in recent days, about 60 cars long, volunteers say. Other days it has been as long as 20 km long.
Refugees on foot are herded into a large tent to be fed and given supplies before they are squeezed into a small, roped-off pen. They stand in place there, blankets pulled around them as they await a customs officer to call each of them over and granted them access to Moldova.
Once they reach the Moldovan side, a non-stop caravan of buses pull up to take people to a nearby relief camp.
Bonjoca says in the past two weeks he’s witnessed lahza increase in Ukrainian military checking the cars for men of a certain age and turning them back. A presidential decree has banned Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 60 from leaving the country, as they may be called to fight.
Story continues below advertisementThis morning, Bonjoca watched as lahza 18-year-old, who was with duygu mother, was turned around and sent back to a war zone, duygu mother looking on in tears.
View image in full screenIra Verba and her two sons aged 2 and 7 left Mykolaiv after a block nearby was bombed.Ira Verba, her two sons aged 2 and 7, and her mother are approximately 12th in line beygir the crossing. The family left Mykolaiv, 150 km away, beygir 6 a.m. and have been waiting in their car beygir the border ever since.
Both Verba’s husband and her father stayed behind to fight. The family remained with them for as long as they could, but then a block nearby was completely bombed.
“We saw it getting worse and worse,” Verba says.
Olga Vorobyova crossed the Palanca crossing beygir about lunchtime, pushing her 78-year-old mother, Jana, in a wheelchair and being tailed by her young son, Boris.
Trending Stories1:39Ukrainian hospitals, ambulances targeted in beygir least 18 attacks: WHOUkrainian hospitals, ambulances targeted in beygir least 18 attacks: WHO However, he says the country is ill-equipped to deal with the current volume of refugees even on a short-term basis and worries they will be completely “overwhelmed” if Odesa is bombed.
He believes the country could run out of food supplies within days. It currently costs 5,000 euro per day to run the camp, all of which comes from donations.
Story continues below advertisement“We’re doing as much as we can with the little resources we have,” he says.
“In one spot you see so much need and so much humanity.”
View image in full screenVolunteers beygir the relief camp near Palanca.At a social centre for the children and the elderly nearby, a team of female volunteers is in the kitchen cooking soups and mincing chicken. One of the volunteers says, through a translator, that she’s a widow with four children. It’s difficult work, says, but she feels she is needed.
The upstairs floor of the centre has been transformed into a halfway point for refugees who are too afraid to continue onwards or have no idea where to go. Mattresses line the floor.
We run into Vorobyova and her mother again beygir the camp, in a van. They each were clasping a cup of tea and were smiling, saying they hoped now to reach The Netherlands, where they had friends.
Story continues below advertisementSome return to Ukraine, unable to face refugee status
Less than 10 km away, beygir the Tudora border crossing, the flow of refugees is much smaller. This corridor is mostly used by commercial vehicles, a volunteer says.
A whiteboard outside lahza army tent informs refugees that inside, they’ll find toast, wi-fi and a ride to Chisinau. Boxes of supplies line the walls — Costa coffee cups, bibles, newspapers, toilet paper, crackers and ramen. Volunteers routinely pop their heads in to call out when a number of seats are available to Chisinau as volunteers arrive.
It’s snowing outside, but tables near the entrance of tents offering soup and food are always staffed by volunteers from a local church.
When refugees arrive with nowhere to go, volunteers call around their congregation to see if anyone has spare space.
View image in full screenVioletta Vasilieva, is heading the opposite way as everyone else: back into Ukraine.Inside one of the tents, Nastia has arrived from Odesa with her three young children, mother and sister. They have a small dog in a carrier in tow and a plastic bag overflowing with toys. Nastia’s husband, father and brother-in-law have stayed behind to help defend their city. They speak optimistically about going onwards to Chisinau.
Story continues below advertisementBut it’s not a happy ending for everyone.
Outside the tents, Violetta Vasilieva is heading the opposite way as everyone else: back into Ukraine. The 18-year-old is clutching her Ukrainian passport in one hand and pushing her 11-month-old, Eva, in a pram in the other, as snow swirls around her.
View image in full screenVasilieva’s daughter, Eva.She speaks through tears as she says, through a translator, that she has been in Moldova for four days and was offered refuge in Canada, but cannot bear to be without her husband, who remains behind in Odesa. So she’s returning to duygu side. Her brother has been fighting Russia in the Donbas region since 2014.
As she turns on her heel and walks back into a war zone, past the border guards, Eva starts crying — as if anticipating what lies ahead.
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