My experience of being at a Ukrainian border

The situation in Eastern Europe has taken over our TV screens and Twitter feeds but what’s it actually like on the ground? Graham Nicholls spoke to Ádám Szabados shortly after he had returned from Hungary’s border with Ukraine.

Ádám is a Hungarian theologian and the leader of the Hungarian Evangelical Forum living in Veszprém, which is a five hour drive from the Ukrainian border. He shares his harrowing experience of being at the border where hundreds of thousands of refugees are fleeing war. He also shares some reflections for the church.

Ádám also writes about his first-hand experience from the Hungarian border with Ukraine:

This week some of us from the Veszprém church went to the Ukrainian border. Since the war started, refugees are pouring into Hungary (as well as Poland and other neighbouring countries). In just a few days more than 140,000 arrived in Hungary, and the numbers are growing rapidly. Even the more conservative estimates say that the number of Ukrainian (including Ukrainian-Hungarian) refugees will be in the millions – in a worst-case scenario we’re hearing it could reach up to 7 million. These numbers are impossible to comprehend.

Here is what I saw at the Ukraine border

At the particular crossing we visited, where we were doing relief work with the Hungarian Baptist Charity, thousands of people arrive on foot every day. People standing in huge lines on the Ukrainian side and then Ukrainian officers make it hard for them to leave, most men are refused exit from the country. As soon as people get to the Hungarian side, they are put on buses that take them to the nearest school building which was transformed into a distribution centre. There they get food, clothes, and a place to sleep. Volunteers take people to their further destinations, or to the homes of friends or relatives.

The government is helping to coordinate the relief efforts but relies heavily on churches and Christian charity organisations.

There is a huge amount of compassion from Hungarians towards the needs they are witnessing. There is also a sense of unavoidable responsibility due to the fact that we are a neighbouring country to Ukraine, and to the tens of thousands of Hungarians in Ukraine who cannot stay there anymore. US who are Christians also have a sense of responsibility springing from our love of Christ that propels us. 

We left at 4:30 am to get to the distribution point at the border (a five hour drive) and got back to Veszprém around midnight (another five hour drive). Many people drove similar distances in order to help. Our particular job was to bring distributable resources from the help centre to a meeting point right at the border and welcome those from Ukraine who come through by car. We stopped cars a few metres after they had crossed the border, greeted those inside and asked them which city they came from. We then gave them drinks, food, diapers, baby food, chocolates and toys for the children. We asked them if they needed a place to stay. Then we blessed them.

They had escaped the war, but their homes were gone

The moment almost every one of these frightened people realised they were received with love, they broke into tears. It was also probably at this point when they realised that they had escaped the war zone but that their homes were gone, their lives were in tatters and they might never see their husbands, brothers or fathers again.

These people left their homes in a hurry. The majority of these cars came from Kyiv, some from Odesa, Mariupol, Donetsk or other cities from central Ukraine. Some travelled long distances, they were all frightened and grieving.

It was absolutely heartbreaking to see their tears but we stayed, and for nine long hours we were doing the same thing with the same result. We would stop the car, welcome those inside, give them food and a drink and then we blessed them. As soon as they experienced love, they would start to weep. This happened over and over again, with every car that stopped. I told them that we are praying for them. I didn’t feel the cold (though it was below freezing). I didn’t feel hunger. I just felt a profound love and a growing heartbreak.

Gradually more and more TV stations and journalists arrived at the border. They came from various European countries and were a real nuisance to us and the work. Sometimes they asked deceitful questions trying to frame the situation in a certain light. It reminded me that sin is not just seated in Russia but in the human heart. In the West, too. In us, too.

Our utter dependence on God

There is an incomprehensible depth of disturbance and grief in this part of the world right now. But this also has some potential for good. It reminds us of our utter dependence on the mercy of God to retain evil. As Chesterton said, we should ‘…be thankful to God for not dropping the whole cosmos like a vast crystal to be shattered into falling stars’.

Pray for these fleeing people. And pray for us, also, who try to help, so we can give both immediate relief and sustainable help with love, mercy, wisdom, and proper judgement. Pray also for the world to wake up from her godlessness since, to a degree, we are all responsible for what is unfolding before our eyes.