Ukrainian refugees have a dinner of schnitzel and potatoes with the Smith family in Konstancin, south of Warsaw. The Smiths have taken in nine Ukrainian refugees – three mothers, each with two children – since the war began last month. Pictured here, from left to right around the dinner table, Luda, Alina (22 months), Vladik (6), Lera (9), Roman (8).Handout
Wearing a grey Batman hoodie and a toothless smile, Vladik held on to one of the yellow balloons he was given for his sixth birthday, at a stranger’s home in a suburb of Warsaw.
There were supposed to be blue balloons, too, representing the two colours of the Ukrainian flag, but the shop had run out.
The stranger – a Polish-Canadian woman named Kasia Smith – had done everything she could to make things feel even a little less strange for the boy’s special day. She had bought him a Lego set and ordered a chocolate mousse cake from a local bakery.
Vladik, though, was well aware of the magnitude of his situation. He knows about the war raging back home in Ukraine, the country he fled two weeks ago with his mother, Lilia, and nine-year-old sister, Lera, after the family’s apartment in the Lutsk area shook with the force of a nearby explosion.
Some of the boy’s relatives remain in Ukraine. And when they called on March 10 to wish him a happy birthday, Vladik said he only wanted one thing: peace.
About 2.8 million Ukrainians have left their country since Russia began its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24. Nearly two-thirds of those people have crossed into Poland.
Lilia fled Ukraine with her two children, Vladik and Lera, after the family’s apartment in the Lutsk area shook with the force of a nearby explosion. Vladik turned six on March 10, celebrating with the Smiths and the other Ukrainian refugees with yellow balloons, a birthday hat, spaghetti and a chocolate mousse cake. Lera will be celebrating her 10th birthday at the Smith home on March 18.Handout
Ms. Smith, who was born and raised in Canada, moved to Poland five years ago for medical school. When the refugees began arriving, she knew she couldn’t stand idly by. Her father had been a refugee himself, years ago. He fled Poland when it was under communist rule, and was taken in by the mayor of a small Austrian town before ultimately resettling in Ontario.
Ms. Smith said she and her New Zealander-Canadian husband, Jordan, thought about leaving Poland to put more distance between themselves and the crisis. “But we realized we had to stay and help,” she said. “We couldn’t just run away.”
As soon as the attack on Ukraine began, she and Mr. Smith put a message out through social media that they were willing to take people into their home in Konstancin, just south of Warsaw.
Now, nine refugees – three women and six children ranging in age from four months to nine years – are living with the Smiths and their three children, aged six, eight and 14. They communicate through broken Polish, even-more-broken English and Google Translate.
Two of the Ukranian women – Lilia and Luda – are cousins who crossed into Poland together about two weeks ago with two children each. They’re sharing a studio space with a pull-out couch above the Smiths’ garage. The third woman, Yana, made the journey last month, with a three-year-old son and four-month-old daughter. She and her children are staying in a guest bedroom.
The Smith home in Konstancin, south of Warsaw, has become much busier since the family of five took in nine Ukrainian refugees a couple of weeks ago. Photographed here, from the back to front and left to right: Jordan Smith, Kasia Smith, Jakub (14), Olivia (6), Alex (8), Danya (3), Yana, Daryna (four months), Lera (9), Vladik (6), Lilia, Luda, Alina (22 months) and Roman (8).Handout
The Globe reached the women through online videoconference, and is using only their first names because they fear for the safety of relatives still in Ukraine, including some who are taking part in the resistance.
In Yana’s case, the Russian invasion briefly healed a family separation that predated the conflict. Her husband, Vitali, had been away from home for a year before the war broke out, working construction jobs in Poland to support the family in Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk area.
After Yana arrived with their children in Poland, Vitaly made his way to Ms. Smith’s house. That was the first time he met his baby girl, Daryna.
“He got here at midnight and he laid and watched her sleep because he had never laid his eyes on her,” Yana said through an interpreter, tearing up as she bounced chubby-cheeked Daryna on her lap.
The next day, Vitali told Yana he couldn’t stay. As a trained soldier and a proud Ukrainian, he felt he had to go home and fight.
The Smith home is at present a testament to the strength of women and to the truth of the proverb “it takes a village.” The Ukrainian mothers, all 31 years old, watch each other’s children – or, as Luda joked, keep the young kids from turning the house upside down. They cook meat patties together. They comfort one another as they watch the news.
They don’t know how long they’ll be there. Ms. Smith and her husband are preparing for the possibility that it could be a while. They have already assembled two sets of bunk beds for the kids staying in the space above the garage.
Polish-Canadian medical student Kasia Smith and her New Zealander-Canadian husband, Jordan Smith, have taken in nine Ukrainian refugees to their Konstancin home in Poland since the war broke out last month. Cousins Lilia and Luda are living with their children in the studio space above the garage, which was Mr. Smith’s home office until two weeks ago. The Smiths assembled two sets of donated bunkbeds to make the space more comfortable for the families.Handout
Ms. Smith also launched a GoFundMe campaign to support the three women. So far, the page has raised nearly $33,000.
After all, the Ukrainian women left their homes with very little – though the lightness of their burdens turned out to be a good thing. They managed to get rides in buses and vans toward the border, but, with traffic snarled, they travelled the last 10 kilometres or so into Poland on foot, pushing strollers and carrying toddlers and backpacks.
As Yana put it, she brought what was most precious. “What would I have taken other than my children?” she said. “That’s all I needed to take.”
The children have shown varying degrees of acceptance of their new circumstances. Daryna, a calm baby, has remained a calm baby. Luda’s 22-month-old daughter, Alina, has been sad and unsettled. “She just wants to go home,” Luda said, kissing the girl’s forehead.
Luda’s eight-year-old son, Roman, has adjusted well. Just last week, he started going to school with Ms. Smith’s eight-year-old son, Alex, even though he doesn’t speak Polish.
Ms. Smith and her husband are trying to make the families feel welcome. On a recent weekend morning, Mr. Smith made waffles for everyone, served with Canadian maple syrup.
Still, Vladik’s birthday came and went, his wish for peace unfulfilled. Late last week, both the Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk areas came under siege. As far as the women knew, their relatives were alive.
Asked what brings them hope, all three women said it was the thought of someday returning home. “Of course we want to go back,” Yana said. “It’s our country.”
Kathryn Blaze Baum