West Warsaw. “In a moment I will go by bus to”
The Warszawa Zachodnia bus station, located right next to the station under that name, is now a transport warehouse in the capital for people from Ukraine fleeing the war or returning to their country. We were there and voted, with refugees, bus drivers and volunteers.
Transport is carried out by several dozen systems, including large companies, such as Ecolines or Flixbus, medium-sized ones, such as Kazna Trans or Orion Bus, and completely small ones, which employ several drivers. Some of the buses run only a hundred in Warsaw, for others the station is a stop on the route. Some bus lines have routes that are up to 2,000 kilometers. There are such exotic relations as Szczecin – Kherson, Tiaczów – Szczecin, Gdańsk – Ivano-Frankivsk, Warsaw – Mariupol. Listing them one by one does not make sense, a glance at the timetable in the street plans to orientate yourself in the scale of transport to the east – buses depart for up to 15 minutes after traffic management. At the same time, the offer looks pale, the train from Warsaw runs only one train to the east, in addition, currently shortened to Warsaw Eastern.
48 hour journey from Kiev
Unfortunately, thanks to the war in Ukraine, the bus no longer arrives according to the timetable. A course from Mariupol arrives at the station, and the specter of the Russian siege grips over his heart.
– It is too dangerous in Kiev, we are woken up by bombs, it is impossible to sleep. I traveled from Kiev for 48 hours (by bus through Kiev and the journey from the capital to the capital is usually shorter in the halls – editor’s note). The worst situation is at the border on the Ukrainian side, we stood in the queue to the border of hours, everything takes a very long time – says Olena. – In Korczowa, Poles offered us sandwiches, we got the tea, you are really wonderful – she said to us. In 5 hours he has a bus to Berlin and from there he will fly to Istanbul, to his family.
The group of women women are women older women with children. After such a fast journey, their faces show fatigue, but also great happiness with the fact that they have just escaped the cataclysm of war. Such persons are present by the family.
I will take the bus on the lines
– Waiting for my wife and traffic jam, they will come by bus in a moment. You will get to live in my Warsaw apartment, and I am coming back to Ukraine soon, I am going to visit my country, the Ukrainac told me. – for what you do, Thanks for not being alone, we don’t know ourselves. We will not give up and we will destroy this son of a bitch, he said to the volunteers about Putin. At an hour the family was together. The daughter was the first to run out of the bus from Kalusha. She threw herself at her father with a shout of “Daddy!”.
There is a lot of man for the return buses. In Poland, they buy first aid materials and military clothing. There is no doubt that they want to return to their country to defend their homeland.
– Give me some tea, to cheer me up, because I will go on the next bus – said Paweł with a smile. “Nobody is afraid, there are a lot of us and we haven’t given up,” he added.
The space in the lockers of buses is filled with dressing boxes and medicines. Before my eyes, the Ukrainians were given medications by a Polish nun. – After my mom defining me a lot of insulin, anticoagulant injections, painkillers. I want to hand them over to the Ukrainians – she said.
Bus drivers – silent heroes
Much about the situation in Ukraine may be possible by drivers of coaches entering Poland. For Ukrainians, they are intercourse recognition. Pictures where they master profusely thank their people (most often they run in pairs) are common.
– The road is still running, although traffic jams at the border are available. We are going back to Kiev today and we will be driving as long as possible – one of them tells me. In the future presence on the way between Kiev took place, which took the next steps (in the order of the future branch of the sabotage groups that will take place in the next, they are systematically liquidated). – We traveled users more than to, about an emergency – he added.
How to help?
There are several aid teams operating at the station itself. Yesterday there was a Warsaw anti-war collective called Food, no bombs, the day before evangelicals with hot tea and snacks (foodstuffs, such as tea, coffee, drinks, fruit to eat – e.g. bananas, pears or apples). Ukrainian associations are also programming, there are information points where Ukrainians are in a crisis situation. It can be replaced when installing a Polish SIM card. There are 24/7 shared cash desks, there are informers of Warsaw public transport.
The sales attitude of the issue deserves a unique display. They make it easier for volunteers to get to the building with help, they are helpful and nice.
Unfortunately, many people have already suffered from the trauma of the war. They saw fires, bombs falling. Here is an appeal to journalists – a request not to force people to do this exercise. You will not learn more than in movies than in the movies of a bombed country, then a bombed country, and then traumatizing people in the safe haven that Poland now needs.
How railroad, road and air transport in Ukraine and Poland in war you read here.