Aussie boots on the ground helping Ukrainians escape through border
As the fighting in Ukraine gets more intense, the humanitarian crisis grows.
And while there’s no Australian military presence, there are Aussie boots on the ground, helping Ukrainians escape their war torn nation.
The number of Ukrainians fleeing their homeland has passed two million and many of them are being helped to safety by three Australians.
One of them is James Elder, UNICEF’s Global Spokesman on child safety.
He has been in Ukraine since the day after Russian forces first invaded just over a month ago.
He’s been in underground bunkers, converted into hospitals and birthing wards and watched as one in two Ukraine children cross the Polish border, many of them on their own, with no parents, no relatives and no adult supervision.
“One in every two Ukrainian children are refugees now,” he said from Lviv in western Ukraine.
“They are fleeing cities in eastern Ukraine, like Donetsk, Mariupol and Odessa, not knowing where they can go.”
James has worked in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones in places like Syria, Somalia and Yemen and even he is shocked by what he’s seeing in Ukraine.
“What’s striking me here of course is just the speed and the scale. When we talk about one in two children fleeing their homes, that’s what I haven’t seen,” he said.
“There’s just a lot of sorrow and a lot of sadness and a lot of stress and I can’t quite remember the suffocating sense of that.
“UNICEF’s primary goal is to keep the children safe and what we all see as a tragedy, traffickers see as an opportunity, so we have to make sure these children escape the war zones and get somewhere they can be kept safe.”
While James has the backing of the United Nations Children’s Fund, Daniel Russell and Roger Scott are doing things off their own bat.
The two mates from Melbourne have lived in Poland for several years and said they couldn’t sit by and watch the horrors play out, without trying to help.
They have made several trips across the Polish border in a bus filled with emergency supplies — warm clothes, medical equipment, food and generators.
Then on the return trips they bring back Ukrainians wanting to leave their country.
“We have transported 53 so far and I am heading back across the border tomorrow, or the next day, so I’ll grab as many as I can fit in the bus,” Mr Russell said.
The Australian Government warned all Australians to leave Ukraine in late January, even before the Russian invasion started.
But Mr Russell and Mr Scott, living less than 100 kilometres from the border, thought they could do their bit.
“It’s personal for me,” Mr Scott said.
“I lived in Moscow for 12 years. I speak fluent Russian. I have a lot of friends in Ukraine. I just thought there must be something we can do and Daniel felt the same.”
Mr Scott said the first time they crossed the border they were nervous and it took 13 hours before border guards waved them through.
“It was pretty sketchy, I’m not going to lie,” he said.
“But it has become easier and easier as we have worked out the logistics.”
None of the three Aussies feel this war is ending anytime soon and they have all pledged to keep doing what they can, while they can.
For more information about UNICEF visit here.
For more information about Mr Russell’s border mission, visit here.
Mr Russell and Mr Scott are also raising awareness for refugees trying to cross the border through the #StandWithUkraine campaign.
