Russians help refugees through secret networks

Ukrainian refugees unwillingly ruled by Moscow are getting unexpected help from networks of Russian volunteers helping those displaced by the war to leave Russia.

When Bogdan Goncharov, his wife and seven-year-old daughter left their hometown of Mariupol in mid-March, they ended up in the southeast of Ukraine in the territory controlled by Russia. Fearing that they would be transported thousands of kilometers away after hearing that other refugees were being sent to Siberia, Goncharov said that he contacted a Russian volunteer who arranged for them to be transferred through Russia to the border with Estonia.

"It's a miracle that we got out," said 26-year-old Gončarov, who worked as a construction worker before the war and is now starting a new life in Sweden. "It's thanks to the volunteers".

For displaced Ukrainians like Goncharov who do not want to stay in Russia and Russian-controlled territory, volunteers provide advice on travel routes as well as help with money, transportation and accommodation along the way, nine people involved in such networks told Reuters.

Many of these networks are run by Russians or people of Russian origin, four people involved in their work told Reuters. Three said that although most of the volunteers are from abroad, there are also Russian citizens who are still in their homeland, and many of them are working in secret so as not to attract the attention of the Russian authorities.

A way for Russians to express feelings

It is one way that ordinary Russians, unhappy with the devastation caused by the war, can express their feelings at a time when domestic laws effectively prohibit Russian citizens from openly criticizing the military, several people told Reuters.

There is no law in Russia that specifically prohibits people from helping Ukrainians to leave the country. There is a law relating to non-governmental organizations that allows the authorities to prevent their registration if they judge that the NGO is involved in activities that harm Russian interests. Russian law also requires that NGOs that receive funds from abroad and are considered to be conducting political activities be subject to additional scrutiny.

"We all have a constant sense of guilt," said Maria Belkina, 20, a native of Russia who lives in Georgia and runs a group she says has helped about 300 Ukrainians leave Russia. The group, called "Volunteers of Tbilisi", also provides humanitarian aid to Ukrainian refugees in Georgia. "Many people from Russia write and ask how they can help," she told the British agency.

Reuters also contacted other volunteer groups that said they have helped more than a thousand Ukrainians leave Russia since the conflict began; and the British agency could not independently confirm those figures. All the groups said many of those they helped relocate came from Mariupol, a strategic port city in eastern Ukraine that is under a destructive siege.

The Kremlin and the Russian Emergencies Ministry, which is in charge of refugees, did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on Ukrainian refugees, the networks of volunteers helping them leave the country and how Russian authorities view it.

The Ukrainian government also did not respond to requests for comment on the work of the volunteers.

Volunteer activities are risky. Russians who openly disagreed with the war were fined and prosecuted.

A Russian woman who helped dozens of Ukrainians leave Russia across the border with Estonia stopped doing so after the police summoned her for questioning, two volunteers told Reuters. They said that she was detained for several hours without access to a lawyer, adding that they do not know what the police questioned her about.

At the end of April, Putin said that Russia helped 140 people leave Mariupol and that they were free to go wherever they wanted.

No charges have been brought against the woman, Irina Gurskaja, said Svetlana Vodolazskaja, who coordinates the network for which Irina volunteered. A group called "Rubikus" helped 1500 Ukrainians leave Russia, said Vodolazskaya, a Russian woman living in Britain.

Gurskaja did not respond to calls from Reuters.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, in what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize its neighbor. Moscow denies that it is targeting civilians and claims that it is offering humanitarian aid to Ukrainians.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on April 26 that his country helped 140 people leave Mariupol. "They can go wherever they want: some want to go to Russia, some to Ukraine," Putin said. "We don't lock them up. We provide them with all the necessary help and support".

Of the more than 13 million Ukrainians who have left the country or been displaced within Ukraine since the conflict began, about 740 had crossed into Russia by May 000, according to United Nations data.

Departure assistance

The group of volunteers who helped Goncharov, called "Help to leave", claims to have provided practical help to around 1000 people who left Russia. The group is managed by Russians and people who speak the Russian language and live abroad, and they also have about 100 people inside Russia who help them and are not members of their organization.

"They welcome Ukrainians into their homes to recover, and then we evacuate them from Russia," said one of the founders, Maturiko Miminoshvili, who is based in Tbilisi.

Goncharov also feared that he and his family would be sent to the remote Saka region of Siberia, as he had heard that this had happened to other Ukrainian refugees who had ended up in Russia.

The group organizes accommodation, information on travel routes and help in booking trains and buses, said Miminoshvili. She added that the group also advises people about their rights.

The group recorded cases in which Russian officials pressured people to travel to locations they did not want to go to or told them they were not allowed to leave officially provided accommodation, said Mimoshvili and volunteer Anna, who did not want to give her last name. for security reasons.

Ana said that most requests from Ukrainians for help came from people who fled Mariupol, a port where 400 people lived before the war. That city is the target of heavy bombardment, and the civilians did not have water or food. Many of the city's residents ended up in Russia or in Russian-controlled territory. Several of them told Reuters it was the least dangerous way out.

Fear of ending up in Siberia

Goncarov said that he and his family decided to leave Mariupol on March 15, after targets near their building were hit. There was no electricity or water even before that, he said.

They left the city with two other families, and Goncharov said that they passed by the checkpoints where there were Russian soldiers. He and his family stayed for six days in a hotel in Berdiansk, a Ukrainian city controlled by Russian forces, and then headed for Crimea.

Goncharov said officials put the family up in a guest house in the Crimean resort of Yalta and offered help with their immigration status, as well as a grant of 10.000 rubles (about $145). He added that officials also told him that he had no right to travel anywhere without a permit, unless he registered for official refugee status.

Goncharov also feared that he and his family would be sent to the remote Saka region of Siberia, as he had heard that this had happened to other Ukrainians. He later revealed that the day after he left Yalta, about 50 Ukrainians were taken to Taimyr, a peninsula in the Arctic Ocean. Goncharev told Reuters that he heard this from people who were among those transported.

Reuters could not confirm these data, and the competent Russian services did not respond to the inquiries of the British agency.

Gončarev said that he contacted an acquaintance in Germany from Yalta, who put him in touch with Ana, a volunteer from the "Help to leave" group. She gave him instructions to go to Rostov in the south of Russia, Goncharov said.

When he got there, volunteers arranged for him and his family to be picked up by a private bus that took them to the border with Estonia, he said. There, Russian officials also questioned Goncharov about ties to Ukrainian security forces or police before allowing him to enter Estonia, more than three weeks after he left Mariupol.

Ana confirmed that she helped Goncharov to leave Russia.

Between February 24 and May 10, about 19 Ukrainians entered Estonia from Russia, the Estonian police and border service said.

"Dead Souls"

In some cases, individuals provide assistance to Ukrainians. Daria Kiriyenkova, an unaffiliated St. Petersburg dentist, said she took seven days off in April to volunteer at an official reception center for Ukrainian refugees in Taganrog, a city in southwestern Russia. She told Reuters that she was in shock because of the war and that she wanted to help.

While working at the reception center, she says she helped refugees who wanted to leave Russia buy tickets and organize their journey. "There were a lot of such people," said Kirijenkova, adding that many went to Estonia, Poland or Germany. She added that some refugees went to stay with relatives in Russia or to other Russian destinations to which Russian officials would send them.

Belkina, who manages the "Volunteers of Tbilisi" group, was born and raised in Russia - a country she says she loves but the current situation saddens her.

In the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, she and her Ukrainian partner provide food and shelter to Ukrainian refugees.

"They are like dead souls," said Belkina, describing the refugees. "When you look at them, you see that they suffered a lot, and that's because of your homeland."