PORTLAND, Ore. — It's been more than five weeks since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the scenes of war are still developing. Innocent Ukrainians are still dying, and a great many have been forced to leave their homes in search of somewhere safer.
Portland-based humanitarian organization Mercy Corps now has teams working in Poland, Romania and western Ukraine — and they also have people assessing the needs in the conflict zones, according to Mercy Corps Senior Vice President of Programs Craig Redmond.
“My team and I crossed over from Poland into Ukraine, we were in the western part of Ukraine. We went first over into Lviv,” said Redmond, who just got back from spending a week in Ukraine.
He said there was no lineup going into the country.
“But going the other direction you just see hundreds of people and the really amazing thing is you see lots of grandmothers and mothers with children and no men, so you really get that sense of fractured families,” said Redmond.
Redmond and his team traveled to several cities in west and southwest Ukraine, before exiting the country into Romania. The violence was limited there, but western Ukraine is full of millions of people who have escaped the war raging to the east.
“And I saw the clear signs of that when I was there, because when you're in those western cities they're just packed, and you get a sense of the burden that places on the infrastructure and resources in those cities,” Redmond said.
Redmond says four million refugees have escaped to Poland and Romania, but as many as eight million are displaced within Ukraine. Others are stranded in cities under siege.
“And those people can't get out, and so Mercy Corps — along with our Ukrainian partners — are doing everything we can to get emergency assistance into those places,” Redmond said.
That assistance includes delivering food, medical and other supplies, as well as cash to help people survive their journeys out of the war zones.
Redmond said working with locals is key to Mercy Corps’ success, now and when the rebuilding can begin.
As for the Ukrainian people, Redmond described them as, “So gracious and so committed, and so strongly believing that Ukraine will make it through this and come out stronger on the other end — it really is moving and a powerful thing to experience.”