Voices of refugees

I was shattered when the war began. I still am. I was silenced. It was as if all the worst nightmares suddenly came to life. Dwarfed by the events, I was watching an unstoppable wave of a disaster rolling upon me. Never before I’d felt so useless and cornered.

My mom is from St. Petersburg, Russia, and my dad was from Mariupol, Ukraine. And now my motherland is in a deadly fight with my fatherland.

I knew I needed to do something in order to stay sane. The best I could do was give a voice to those who suffer most. That’s my job, after all. In 2023 I’m celebrating my 10 years in humanitarian photography.

I collected refugee evidence stories in Ukraine in 2015, ISIS refugees stories in Jordan, and I never stop gathering WWII memories, so just two weeks into the war I found myself documenting the refugee crisis on the borders of Ukraine, in Hungary, Moldova, and Romania. There I was documenting disaster response, taking pictures and filming interviews on the assignment of the JDC.

I came back home broken and inspired at the same time. Broken by all the sufferings of Ukrainian people whose stories aren’t much different from those of the 2nd World War survivors. Inspired I was by the amount and quality of kind, strong, selfless volunteers who jumped into their cars or took the nearest flight to the Ukrainian borders to offer their help.

One day in Siret, a huge disaster relief hub next to the Romanian-Ukrainian border, an influx of refugees paused for a few hours. I had a chance to take a breath and look around. I had to admit that it felt great to be there, surrounded by hundreds of people from all corners of the world, who were there to fight the evil with kindness.

I gathered dozens of refugee testimonies whose lives were saved thanks to the JDC’s efforts. Here I’d like to share with you a tiny bit of the first-hand pieces of evidence.

Siret, Romania, right next to the Ukrainian border. The buses are allowed to make a short stop there but must leave after 5 min to avoid clogging the border crossing. JDC volunteers use this time interval to quickly provide refugees with food, hygienic products, medicines. I used this time to quickly film interviews. This one - with a family who miraculously escaped from Mariupol.

Palanca, Moldova-Ukraine border crossing. A farmer dropped off her child in Poland and returns home to take care of her farm near Mykolaiv.

Chisinau, Moldova. JDC-operated improvised transportation hub for Ukrainian refugees. The story of a family who fled Kharkiv

Chisinau, Moldova. JDC-operated refugee shelter in the Jewish community center. A family of refugees from Chernihiv.

Hungary, Záhony. Ukraine border crossing. A boy reflects on his journey from Ukraine.