Offaly man's harrowing week on the border with Ukraine

In less than a fortnight, the mountain village of Vysne Nemeche in Slovakia has been transformed.

I’ve been here for the past week, and I watch as a daily procession of refugees comes pouring down into the village from the border checkpoint, a few hundred metres to the east.

They come in cars, buses, trucks and on foot, in their thousands. They’re mainly women – mothers, daughters, toddlers and babes in arms. The clack clack clack of trolley suitcases has become a soundtrack of this picturesque village.

Tatiana, aged in her early 20s drags her suitcase behind her, in her other arm she is carrying a cat that she has brought with her from her home in Ternopil. Later, I meet Rocova, an older Ukranian who has a small dog in a mobile pet carrier. She says that she has left her husband, sons and nephews behind to fight, and has travelled here with her daughter, daughter in law and a number of grandchildren.

“What is happening is insane,” she says. “What is happening is inhuman.”

Situated high in the Carpathian mountains in eastern Slovakia, more than 185,000 people have passed through Vysne Nemeche since Russia launched its war on Ukraine, in late February. The village is the main crossing along the 60 mile border that separates Slovakia from neighbouring Ukraine. It is seeing over 10,000 refugees, every day.

Local charities and government services, disburse information, provide blankets, bottles of water, soup and bread to the new arrivals.

There are also a number of Covid-19 medical centres, dispensing PCR tests.

Most of refugees to Slovakia have come through the Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod, just three miles to the east on a road congested by this exodus to safety.

Families like that of 35 year old Nina, who says that at one point on their nine hour journey to the border they were fired on, from a nearby hilltop. “I don’t know who was shooting, but one bullet hit the roof of our car,” she said.

Thousands of Ukrainians who have fled to Uzhhorod arrived on cramped rail carriages following a 12 hour train journey from the capital, Kiev. Thousands more make their way in cars, often driven my male relatives, who dropped them close to safety, before returning to join the national fight against the Russian invaders.

The women and children that I saw in Vysne Nemeche were arriving exhausted, emotionally drained, and had that look of bewilderment at the strange and awful turn that life had taken.

When a car pulls up to the kerb, Nina and her 11 year old daughter Olga were smothered in the embrace of two women who climbed from the back seats, to greet them on the roadside.

Like close to 186,000 Ukrainians, Nina says that they have family and in-laws living in the Czech Republic.

Indeed, such are the ties between Ukraine and the Czech Republic that a bus service set up a rank in Vysne Nemeche last week, and has been offering refugees a free coach ride for the 600 mile trip to Prague.

Although this village has a permanent population of just 250 people, there are now several thousand staying in temporary tents and accommodation shelters.  There’s the constant hum of activity, with scores of marquees, reception centres and hundreds of bright green and white porta-loo toilets giving the place the appearance more of a rock concert or major outdoor festival gathering.

Local officials say that people aren’t staying here long however. Most jump straight into waiting cars, while others stop for food, a toilet break to gather information before making their onward journeys to Europe.

It’s the government officials, volunteers, aid workers and media who are here more permanently, seeking to support incoming refugees, and reporting on a conflict that has created the worst refugee crisis that Europe has seen since World War II.

I am here, organising the procurement and safe transit of medical supplies to a hospital in Ukraine for my organisation, Self Help Africa, who are a part of the Irish Emergency Alliance response to the crisis in Eastern Europe.

  The Alliance is up of seven Irish charities who have come together to respond to major emergencies such as the one that is now unfolding in Ukraine and eastern Europe.

Between us we are responding on the borders of Poland, Hungary, Romania and Moldova as well Slovakia and inside Ukraine itself, while conditions still allow it.

Donations from the Irish public are helping us provide food, blankets shelter, and emotional support to those fleeing the conflict.

The village of Vysne Nemeche witnessed a sudden flurry of major media attention last Wednesday, when word seeped out of the safe arrival of an 11-year-old Ukrainian refugee who had travelled 600 miles across Ukraine to Slovakia, to be reunited with his relatives. His mother had written their phone number on his hand, but he didn’t need it as they were there on his arrival.

A day later, the media attention had turned to 70-year-old French man, Yves Gineste, who travelled more than 800 miles to hand over the keys to his Perpignon house to Ukrainian refugees displaced by the war.

Even in the midst of so much unnecessary heartache and tragedy, the kindness of individuals reveals our capacity to make this world a far better place.

To support the life-saving work of the Irish Emergency Alliance, visit www.irishemergencyalliance.org  or call  1800 939 979  or by texting IEA to 50300 to give €4.